No, Sarah. Blood Libel does not mean what you think it means

[FourScore]

UPDATED: No, Sarah. Blood Libel does not mean what you think it means.
by HeidiEight
Wed Jan 12, 2011 at 06:05:02 AM PST

If we hadn't seen her act so ridiculously before, I'd say this latest video was inconcievable.

I don't know who wrote the speech she read off a teleprompter (it's reflected in her glasses) in the video she released this morning; I don't even want to link to it.

But I'll quote the salient-to-this-diary point:

But, especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn.

Sarah, "blood libel" does not mean what you seem to think it means.

Blood libel describes a horrible lie: the belief that Jews kill Christian children in order to make ritual use of their blood. The libel is nearly a thousand years old, and has been used by anti-Semites through the centuries to justify pogroms, massacres and the destruction of Jews.

For Ms Palin to use that phrase in a complaint about the media, in the aftermath of a mass murder where the primary target was a Jewish woman, is, to put it mildly, weird.

She can't possibly be this ignorant. Can she?...

MORE AT: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/1/12/935619/-UPDATED:-No,-Sarah.-Blood-Libel-does-not-mean-what-you-think-it-means.

[eleny]

1. Thank you, I have a lot to learn and this is illuminating

[rfranklin]

2. Well, Republicans don't think that words have any meaning...

Like "Reload" and "Second Amendment remedies" and "kill all the liberals." So why should a little historical context give them pause?

[eleny]

12. Looks like Jonah has his concerns with her choice of words this time

[fascisthunter]

3. again, another ridiculous claim made by her

[frazzled]

4. That statement of hers was so offensive I am ...

throwing up in my mouth right now.

This is pure pandemonium: ignorant accusations of "blood libel" (how's that for some code), guns with "you lie" being offered to the public, Glock sales up in Arizona, the rhetoric ratcheting up rather than down. I just feel like dropping out of our society, such as it is, for a while.

[FBaggins]

5. Glenn Reynolds appears to have started it...

...and even some other conservatives have expressed concern at the misuse of the term. Most recently Jonah Goldberg.

[eleny]

8. Maybe Jonah Goldberg will wake up

I didn't know who Reynolds is so I read the wiki page about him. Did you mean that he has also spoken up today against Palin's use of the term?

[FBaggins]

10. No... I mean that he used it first.

A few days ago IIRC, but he's not as noticed as Palin is.

[fishwax]

22. here's a post of his from Sunday on the Wall Street Journal that uses the term

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703667904576071913818696964.html

[bullwinkle428]

6. Time to roll out the Inigo Montoya "Princess Bride" quote!

Vizzini: Inconceivable.

Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means, what you think it means.

[DenverDad]

9. LOL!

:rofl:

[closeupready]

7. I think she's trying to self-importantly suggest that she's not becoming obscure without a fight.

And yes, she is that ignorant.

[tinrobot]

11. Gabrielle Giffords is also Jewish, which makes Sarah doubly ignorant.

[Zoeisright]

13. Oh, she sure as hell CAN be that ignorant.

And she proves it every stinking day she's allowed a mic.

[cbdo2007]

14. They like to try to turn things around to how Christians are the victims....

so I think she's using the term "blood libel" on purpose as a way to say that Christians are being attacked for their beliefs in all of this.

Really, I'm not making this up. People like her are always playing victim and especially Christians recently seem to be obsessed with the thought that other people are out to destroy them because of their Christianity.

[Chorophyll]

15. Thanks for posting.

I think she *is* that ignorant, but whoever wrote her speech isn't. Disgusting.

[Supersedeas]

16. Bizarro-world of RW logic: the spilling of Jewish blood makes Palin the victim of blood libel

The verbally abusive spouse is claiming to be the victim again, because someone had the audacity to identify the abusive behavior. Just weird...but the Corp Media just eats it up.

[chat_noir]

17. They’re Predictable, At Least by John Cole of Balloon Juice

Saw this one coming, too:



As soon as I saw the phrase uttered in the WSJ by the Instapundit and then immediately tweeted by Republican operative Jon Henke, I knew this was the new “beclowned” or “liberal fascism.” Remember, words mean what ever wingnuts want them to mean- that is how it works when you are creating your own reality.

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/01/12/theyre-predictable-at-least/#comments

[Whisp]

18. Yes She Can! be that ignorant.

[RamboLiberal]

19. Or dog whistling to her supporters again

[Kurovski]

25. Could very well be Dog Whistle.

A call to more extremists. The white Power groups.

This is getting pretty damn real.

[RamboLiberal]

20. Sarah Palin just made her horrendous week worse

Sarah Palin just made her horrendous week worse with her new video in which she accuses her political critics of "blood libel."

This gaffe -- demonstrating both an ignorance of religious history and language -- tops a disastrous week: her crosshairs map has been Exhibit A in the discussion of the use of gun-related imagery in political rhetoric. But her PR has been woefully inadequate in explaining the map away as "surveyors symbols." Her TLC show will not be renewed by TLC, her chances for a successful run at the presidency have been downgraded, and even Barbara Walters expressed "feeling a bit sorry for her." Palin, however, has remained aloof and cocooned in Wasilla, while hired minions wipe her Facebook page constantly so that negative comments do not show up. So how is Barracuda Barbie a.k.a. Queen Esther shaping her response? The persecution meme.

Palin's typical pattern is that she takes a phrase from somebody (in this case, possibly Glenn Reynolds, writing in the Wall Street Journal), picks it up, and uses it for her own. In today's debacle, referring to criticism of her "crosshairs" map as a "blood libel," Palin shows that even if six people are killed, it's still all about her. The strategic release of this video, before President Obama travels to Arizona today for a memorial service, shows her self-serving political ends. In addition to misuing the term blood libel -- which historically refers to the accusation that Jews murder Christian babies -- her additional reference to dueling shows that she will not retreat from any violence-laden speech.

Blood libel, a term rooted in medieval Christianity, started as a rumor that Jews were killing Christian babies, and using their blood to mix into matzoh. The blood libel, refuted first by Pope Innocent IV through a series of papal bulls, has nonetheless persisted throughout history as a way for Christians at times to scapegoat Jews. Palin, by calling the media's alleged persecution of her a "blood libel" plays into this evil history by inference. But does she understand how this comment of blood libel appears anti-Semitic? Not only is Rep. Giffords Jewish, but accusing the media of "blood libel" could be seen as playing into anti-Semitic memes that Jews control the media.

http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/antheabutler/4028/palin's_persecution_complex_culminates_with_%22blood_libel%22_accusation/

[Javaman]

21. And it's only Wednesday!

who knows what other "brilliant" insites she has up her sleeve.

Like I posted before, the best tactic she could employee would be to keep her mouth shut. But since she's a media whore, I fully expect her to keep digging her hole of stupidity.

[fishwax]

23. not surprising that her first major statement would make her out to be a victim

:eyes:

And also not surprising that her statement would include the misuse of such a phrase.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. She used that term, REALLY? In that way?

WOW! How ignorant can you be?

[FourScore]

26. She has definitely reset the bar on ignorance. n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

29. After thinking about it

no, not ignorant, that was my foot in mouth reaction. It is a dog whistle.

[xiamiam]

27. unfamiliar with that term until today..still difficult to understand how it applies to her..nt

[Kablooie]

28. How can she hold so many feet in her mouth at one time?