Texas Border Convoy Descends into Antisemitism

The video shows Michael Yon making false claims regarding so-called “terrorists coming across the border being funded by Jewish money.” Yon was speaking at a “Take Back Our Border” convoy in Texas.

In the video posted on X, formerly Twitter, the man can be heard claiming that HIAS, a global Jewish nonprofit that works to protect refugees, is responsible for funding terrorists coming to America.

FartsWithAnAccent,
@FartsWithAnAccent@lemmy.world avatar

Descends into?

Are you sure they weren’t there all along?

billiam0202,

Indeed. We need a new version of Godwin’s law. Something like

The odds of xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, or antisemitism appearing in a conversation is directly proportional to the number of conservatives participating in that conversation.

CIA_chatbot,

Hence forth this will be known as “Billiams law”

nxdefiant,

So say we all

FartsWithAnAccent,
@FartsWithAnAccent@lemmy.world avatar

So say we all!

irreticent,

With an accent!

monotremata,

So say we, y'all!

CIA_chatbot,

Not that accent

TengoDosVacas,

So say we all!

Eldritch,

Godwin’s law was always more harm than good. Basically stating that despite a long history with fascism, it was inappropriate to compare Republicans to fascists/Nazis. Sure not everyone who votes Republican is a fascist. They’re just okay with fascists. But if you are a fascist or modern Nazi, if you vote you vote Republican and always have.

What you’re putting forward is much more like a razor anyway. See Occam’s or Hanlon’s.

billiam0202,

…my dude, the only people who are okay with fascists are other fascists. Like, that’s not even a debatable question.

Godwin didn’t say it wasn’t okay to call Republicans Nazis, he warned that one shouldn’t make such comparisons lightly because it risks desensitizing everyone to the atrocities the Nazis committed and numbs the impact being called a Nazi should have. And to an extent he’s still correct, as much of the Republican party thinks the issue with Nazism is branding (The Boys summed it up perfectly when Stormfront said "People love what I have to say, they just don’t like the word ‘Nazi’ ".)

He also said it’s perfectly fine comparing Trump to Hitler.

Eldritch,

I agree with you. Though perhaps I was being too subtle. Yes, if you are okay with fascists and fascism then you are one of them. The whole point was that it isn’t better to support it than it is to outright claim to be it.

As the proverb says, the road to hell is often paved with good intentions. That may have been what Godwin intended. But that wasn’t the result. The result was we were loathe to even discuss the Republican party’s enduring fascism problems In general. Especially in recent times. Because someone would shout out “Godwin’s law!” as a discussion-ending cliche. Simply because Republicans hadn’t slaughtered millions recently.

We lost all focus on how it starts, over defference with how it ended. Leaving many many people to wonder where the fascism that has existed for most of the last 100 years suddenly came from.

billiam0202,

Look man, I’m gonna need you to stop being so reasonable and polite when debating on the Internet, or I’m gonna have to call your ISP and get your internet privileges revoked.

foggy,

“descends into,” “reveals undertone of,” tomatoes, tomahtoes

superduperenigma,

“Texas border convoy removes mask”

ours,

And it would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for you kids and your dog.

vanquesse,

I mean yes, but also no: most of them are probably antivaxx and antimask

Erasmus,
@Erasmus@lemmy.world avatar

In a separate video of the same event posted by Ryan Matta, he also claims that Hamas and Hezbollah “are coming across” the U.S. border. “Venezuela is filled with Hezbollah,” he said. “Our borders are wide open, it’s our government that’s doing it.” Yon reposted the video with the caption “Allahu Akbar!”

So is it Jews or Hamas/Hezbollah?

They can’t even keep their shit straight that they are telling people. 🤦🏻‍♂️

S_204,

They probably don’t know the difference. They’re from the same place after all LoL. These people aren’t smart.

maness300,

Oh this is good.

Maybe we’ll see some of that censorship put to good use, now.

Burn_The_Right,

How does a group “descend” to a position they never left. That’s like saying these conservative shitstains “descended” into racism and xenophobia. They are conservatives FFS!

ghostdoggtv,

I think it’s funny how the starting point was they’re christian nationalist secessionist traitors but OP’s red line is anti-semitism.

MataVatnik,
@MataVatnik@lemmy.world avatar

It’s pretty common to see in the Jewish culture. They generally really don’t give a shit about anything outside their bubble but when something happens to them they demand they world drops everything to help them or otherwise you’re a piece of shit.

dangblingus,

I see where you’re coming from, but in the case of right wing conspiracy theories, “the Joos are secretly controlling the world!” is a common topic of conversation.

MataVatnik, (edited )
@MataVatnik@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah, not saying that isn’t true. These conspiracy kooks are wild. I just grew up in a Jewish community, so being force fed propaganda from the time I was a child got kind of exhausting. Especially when I got older and started to see through it so I think I have more of an averse reaction to it than most people would.

UmeU,

I’m shocked

Minotaur,

I was told that 21 year old college students advocating that less children get blown up were the antisemitic ones?

Daxtron2,

You’re telling me they’re not defending Jews they just like the cruelty‽

JasonDJ,

I’m getting worried.

I planned a vacation to TX for my birthday in early April, because it happens to coincide with the eclipse, and Dallas will be one of the best places to view it from.

So, since I had a lot of points to splurge on, I extended the vacation a bit and we’re going to fly into Houston, hang there for a bit, then spend my birthday weekend in Austin, then Dallas for the eclipse, and back down to Houston to fly home.

Lots of stuff I want to do in each city, and I know the cities are generally lean a bit more liberal, but I’m getting more concerned each day about actually spending my birthday and a monumental celestial event inside an actual civil war.

bradorsomething,

I cancelled my trip for the eclipse. Why mess with texas?

gedaliyah,
@gedaliyah@lemmy.world avatar

I live on the border, and you really don’t need to worry unless you’re pregnant.

Soulg,

Unless some kind of armed violence and wide scale conflict actually breaks out, you’ll be perfectly fine. Especially in the cities, most of those people are just as aghast as you.

Sweetpeaches69,

Your first mistake was planning to go to Texas.

RBWells,

I’m sure it’s like Florida and the cities are fine. Inside the cities here it’s tolerant and more progressive, in the country and even now the suburbs it’s different.

Dallas, Houston, Austin, even San Antonio, Galveston I wouldn’t worry about visiting.

WelcomeBear, (edited )

You’ll be fine. The average Texan isn’t even aware of this stupid shit and the cities you listed are way more left-leaning than a small town in whatever state you’re from.

This is a few hundred idiots in a state with a population of 30 million people. I saw more people at Costco yesterday.

Some articles have misrepresented it as 1,000 people, but that was a concert in Dripping Springs, a small town outside of Austin (not the border) with Ted Nugent and Sarah Palin. 1,000 people turning out for a musician with Top 40 hits is actually a very poor turnout for being near a city with 1,000,000 people.

This is all just media hype. Edit to add: And politician hype. I’m not sure which one I’m angrier at. They both suck for trying to “make fetch happen.”

taanegl,

Uh oh, quiet part aloud.

deft,

Been hearing about terrorism in the US for years. Why are they all homegrown?

Default_Defect,
@Default_Defect@midwest.social avatar

The only part that surprises me about this is that the convoy isn’t called “Take Back Are Country.”

Bluefalcon,
nvvp,

Anti-immigration hysteria? Check. Anti-semitic conspiracies? Check. Now all they is some anti-black dog whistles to hit the trifecta. The odds are looking pretty good.

profdc9,
RGB3x3,

It’s like a horrible game of Bigot Bingo

dangblingus,

There must have been at least one confederate flag at this shindig.

cmbabul,

I will be fucking shocked if there is only one, hell I’d be shocked if it was under 10

Mouselemming,

I disagree with the word “descends.” Aren’t their previous racist and otherwise positions equally low? This is a lateral move not a descent.

raynethackery,

When does free speech descend into incitement?

irreticent,

When black people do it.

See: BLM protests

Drivebyhaiku,

Technically there is a legal answer but unfortunately in the States it has different possible definitions at the State and Federal level.

In a very general sense one in part looks at intention and also all the factors around in the environment. If I were to go “we should kill the !” in a forum such as this where generally speaking we are all just people talking and hyperbole is more or less the norm it’s probably not going to meet the criteria of a chargeable incitement. If I as a speaker at a podium where I have been marketed as some kind of authority - even if that is just implied by the fact I am on the podium - start winding up a crowd with the intention of setting them loose to a criminal purpose or start yelling at someone who is already weilding a gun to shoot then that’s a pretty strong case for incitement. Your intention is made fairly clear and you are in a place to directly influence in an outsized fashion how events might play out.

A lot of the harmful rhetoric that goes on, while priming the stage for individual people to become aggressive and more predisposed to take out their aggressions on the target (stochastic terrorism) has been leaned on quite heavily in modern times it does so basically cheating the system. If you start low and slow and let the water appear to boil itself then it generally protects you from a incitement charge.

corsicanguppy,

… and in record time, too!

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