Thursday, September 08, 2011

A Stupid and Violent Antisemite

While playing chess at FICS, I received the following message:

HUNriderrr tells you: if u r a jew--so i guess-- then tell your disgusting israel government NOT TO DEAL with turkey..ok???...othherwise we w will #$%& all jews in world       (punctuation marks in original)

Well, I'm not Jewish. But even if I were, why would the the Israeli government necessarily be "mine"? And even if I were Israeli, why would the proper response to the Turkish flotilla raid be a threat to "#$%& all jews in world"?

The confused mind of the antisemite is sometimes hard to fathom.

P. S. He lost the game.

11 comments:

Eamon Knight said...

Odd thing: for some reason I'm not clear on, I did actually think you were Jewish until quite recently. Of course, I don't think there's anything wrong with being Jewish ;-).

Adrian Petrescu said...

I had no idea you played chess, Professor Shallit, much less on FICS. If you're ever interested in a game with a former student, I'm apetrescu on FICS (or just post your handle as a comment?)

I must admit, though, I've never encountered that sort of behaviour on FICS before.

Jeffrey Shallit said...

My father was Jewish. But according to Jewish tradition, "Jewishness" is passed down through the maternal line, not the paternal line.

Stephen said...

These people always seem mentally ill to me. I can't fathom how any sane person could be like that. I'm South African and I've done courses on the psychology of racism, so I'm not ignorant of this kind of stuff, I've seen it on many occasions and in greatly varying degrees. But there just seems to be something more pathological about antisemitism, when you read the things these people write, they really do read like a conspiracy theories written by a scizophrenic.

P.S You made me lose "the game".

Valhar2000 said...

My father was Jewish. But according to Jewish tradition, "Jewishness" is passed down through the maternal line, not the paternal line.

Yes, but you have to see it from his point of view.

You see, according to fuckwit tradition, whiteness is recessive, and everything else is dominant.

Eamon Knight said...

My father was Jewish. But according to Jewish tradition, "Jewishness" is passed down through the maternal line, not the paternal line.

Ah, then you probably said something at some point that made me draw the (slightly over-inferred) connection.

I knew the thing about matrilineal Jewishness (my wife is Jewish). I doubt it matters to the bigots though (AFAIK, the Nazis didn't care).

Anonymous said...

Are you any good at chess? What's your ranking? I'll bet you play in your office when you should be doing research!

Miranda said...

Was this guy's teacher Bobby Fischer?

Anonymous said...

Racist, misogynistic, homophobic and otherwise bigoted comments are pretty much the norm in online gaming communities. I used to play a ton of online games a decade ago. While I don't play as much today, I sometimes enjoy a good game of Starcraft 2 now and again, and yeah, in a decade, nothing's changed. Beat somebody in the game, and they immediately call you a "faggot" or a "little bitch." And I don't know how many times I've been called "nigger" even though I'm not even black.

I try not to let it get to me and just focus on beating the guy, but I have to admit, it's infuriating when they make these bigoted comments AND they beat you in the game. Lucky you that you beat this clown and probably feel good about yourself. =)

Bayesian Bouffant, FCD said...

Speaking of stupid and violent antisemites, Mel Gibson wants to make a movie - in which he stars as Judah Maccabee.

John Stockwell said...

A more pertinent issue is that people may conflate you with film and book critic Gene Shalit. I would guess that people ask you "what happened to your mustache?"
or "when did you stop wearing the wig and fake mustache?"

And "Is Gene Shalit your father? You don't look it".