‘Counter-Semite’: the Latest in White Nationalist Rebranding
By Sam Kestenbaum December 14, 2016
As any social media guru will tell you, it’s all about brand. And in 2016, white nationalists have clearly got the memo. Prominent Neo-Nazis are dropping the swastika for a more palatable symbol in an effort to mainstream. “Alt-right” leaders like Richard Spencer are popularizing a haircut once worn by a Hitler youth group — and calling it the “fashy,” short for fascist.
Now, some are trying to recast the very idea of anti-Semitism as “counter-Semitism.”
Rightpedia, a new Wikipedia-style online encyclopedia for “alt-right” views, describes “counter-Semitism” as a sort of evolution of the term “anti-Semitism” which has been “distorted” by media and a “neutral” term to describe a “self-defensive opposition and criticism of Jewish supremacism.” On the blog “Views from the Right,” a writer offered: “Counter-semitism implies not just an ill-defined hate, but a complete political program, that elevates Jews to the status of the Great Enemy.”
The term dates back at least to the 1990s, and may have originated in a piece by the writer Joseph Sobran, who wrote that the term anti-Semitism had become overused and that “counter-Semitism” was an attempt “to bring Jews down to the level of ordinary civil society.”
A commenter on the site Occidental Observer wrote: “The ‘counter-Semite’ meme redirects the scrutiny back on them, to their malfeasance. After all, Jews are now the foremost power-holders and the dominators in American life. They are not a powerless group of innocent bystanders. They are punching down. We are punching up.”
The preference among white nationalists for the term makes sense, says Brian Tashman, a researcher for Right Wing Watch. Members of the “alt-right” see themselves as a persecuted minority, oppressed from above (by “nefarious groups” like “globalist” Jews) and below (by immigrants and minorities).
“It’s part of this rebranding to make anti-Semitism more palatable,” said Tashman.
Email Sam Kestenbaum at kestenbaum@forward.com and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum
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