Chris Doss wrote:
> The claim as I understand it is that the ethnic
> hostility is for some reason in all cases directed
> specifically toward Jews.
No.
1. I never made a ridiculous claim that all "ethnic hostility" is directed towards Jews. If you are capable of reading that out of what I wrote, then you might have reading comprehension problems that would seriously inhibit any further meaningful discussion on the matter.
2. I do not understand "anti-semitism" as as a sort of "ethnic hostility".
Moishe Postone says:
"Modern anti‑Semitism, which should not be confused with everyday anti‑Jewish prejudice, is an ideology, a form of thought, that emerged in Europe in the late nineteenth century".
[...]
"the Jews were identified not merely with money, with the sphere of circulation, but with capitalism itself. However, because of its fetishized form, capitalism did not appear to include industry and technology. Capitalism appeared to be only its manifest abstract dimension which, in turn, was responsible for the whole range of concrete social and cultural changes associated with the rapid development of modern industrial capitalism. The Jews were not seen merely as representatives of capital (in which case anti‑Semitic attacks would have been much more class‑specific). They became the personifications of the intangible, destructive, immensely powerful, and international domination of capital as an alienated social form. Certain forms of anticapitalist discontent became directed against the manifest abstract dimension of capital personified in the form of the Jews, not because the Jews were consciously identified with the value dimension, but because, given the antinomy of the abstract and concrete dimensions, capitalism appeared that way. The "anticapitalist" revolt was, consequently, also the revolt against the Jews. The overcoming of capitalism and its negative social effects became associated with the overcoming of the Jews."
http://www.autodidactproject.org/other/postone1.html
Chris also writes:
> What is the evidence that capitalism necessarily
> generates hostility/suspicion against ethnic groups
> anyway? Interethnic hatreds go back to the dawn of
> time.
Racism is not to be confused with pre-capitalist forms of inter-group hostility. Racism and national chauvinism are co-emergent with the nation-state and generalized commmodity production. To confuse them with pre-capitalist forms of "ethnic" hatred is to contribute to the further reification of social relationships.
Carrol wrote:
> P.S. to Angelus Novus: Why don't you dream up some
> addtional and simpler pseudonym for a signature to
> make references to your posts more convenient.
I will look to see if I can do this through the Yahoo email program.
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