It is surprising how many people think the Jews control the world/US etc.

[Staggerlee]

One of my flatmates harbours these sorts of views. He is a very bitter person generally, railing against womankind often and violently. And I’m quite sure he has never knowingly met a Jewish person, but still believes they are a sinister controlling force - the very existence of ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ is evidence for this apparently.

I am moving out.

[Jackmannii]

@astro

This is in addition to a “take no prisoners” attitude where anyone (especially Jews) straying from the reservation are punished mercilessly.

Aha, so that’s why I’m not getting my Worldwide Jewish Conspiracy dividend checks.

@Shirley_Ujest

So if I study reaaaaally hard and stuff and became a Full Fledged JEW, will I get to control a newspaper or cable station immediately?

There’s a probationary period, during which you only get to control a section of a freebie community newspaper (for instance, arranging for banner headlines like “Goldberg Leads JV Lacrosse Team To Victory” and “New Deli Scores Big With Pastrami Special”).

[cards]

Saaaayyyyyyy, there sure are a lot of Jews in this thread. Do they control the SDMB too?

[Quimby]

@Shirley_Ujest

So if I study reaaaaally hard and stuff and became a Full Fledged JEW, will I get to control a newspaper or cable station immediately? I’m interested in knowing what born-into vs. Joiners get.
Verklemptly Yours,

Shirley

We may be able to fit you in on one of the smaller networks, CW or FX or something like that.

[mrklutz]

Waaaaaait a minute… so if the Jews control the media, that means…

The Jews killed Firefly!

[Noone_Special]

@Kyla

Yes, this. In this environment, American Jewry has developed an ideology toward Israel that, on the Israeli political spectrum, would be considered quite right-wing. It’s weird because plenty of actual Israelis are much, much more open to, for example, consider the possibility of an independent Palestinian state than plenty of American Jews.

…

It’s frustrating because if I actually lived in Israel, there would be plenty of platforms for my opinions. There are lots of lefty groups. But saying anything that is critical of Israel in the US is a good way to get yourself branded as anti-Israel, a traitor to your people, and a self-hating Jew.

While very true, I think this is probably the case for many other issues as well – people well-versed in complicated issues (by virtue of being embroiled in them) tend to see them in the shades of grey which actually exist on the ground. People far away tend to see the issues in black and white.

To the OP – You’ve got it wrong. It’s actually surprising how many people we have convinced that we don’t really control the world!

Noone Special,
Israeli Jew,
Secret Minister of Disinformation and Befuddlement,
Jewish World Government

[chappachula]

gee, I hate to rain on a fun thread…but I’m gonna propose a semi-serious analysis…

For lots of conspiracy-believing people, it doesnt really bother them who controls the world (it may be Jews, freemasons, or big government- for right-wing weirdos. Or, for lefty weirdos, it may be big oil, big pharma, the CIA)
But what bothers this kind of person is that he himself does not control anything. Usually these people are low-level employees, and have spent their entire lives being told what to do by somebody else. Their lifestyle is such that they live in perpetual fear of going broke, being fired, or evicted, or even arrested …and the result is that they have no sense that they can control their own personal lives. So they naturally figure that the whole world is like that—controlled by somebody else.

And Jews are an ethnic group that you can find almost everywhere, so it’s easy to blame them.

(and, for veteran Dopers-----is this thread a good reason to bring back that smiley icon of the hassidic jew ? )

[pudytat72]

Interesting search- In the last 49 years (1960-2009), The Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine has been given to 119 people. 33 of them are Jewish.

In my part of the US, the “Asians” are taking over.

I think the main cause is the strong focus on education.

[Zsofia]

@LSLGuy

In a country where most people believe in creationism and most don’t believe the Moon landings are real you find this surprising?

On present trends we’re going to have to start unilateral disarmament soon before we become too much of a danger to ourselves and the rest of the planet.

A nuclear-armed country full of people who really beleive all this stuff is about like a schizophrenic with a drinking habit and a large firearms collection.

Not that the BS believed by the Iranian or North Korean high command is any more rational.

Since when do most Americans not believe in the moon landings? Every time I go to the Air and Space Museum in Washington it’s pretty busy, you know.

[Shmendrik]

@astro

Jews do not control the world by any means, but in the US they do exert a massively disportionate influence on things of interest or importance to them relative to their absolute population. This had occurred and maintained itself through very adept use of the centers of influence and access to the levers of power suffusing through the political infrastructure of the United States. This is in addition to a “take no prisoners” attitude where anyone (especially Jews) straying from the reservation are punished mercilessly. The “reservation” in this case is the absolute primacy of the unquestioning support and defense of the state of Israel, and not questioning Israeli policies in any form or fashion.

See here Alan Dershowitz endorses a Republican

So control world = crazy. Extremely influential relative to their numbers = not crazy.

That’s BS. Most American Jews are liberal Democrats who support the two state solution and constantly question Israel’s actions when they look bad in the media. What does “punished mercilessly” mean anyways, and what evidence do you have of it?

[Shmendrik]

@An_Gadai

I’m curious what you think is really weird about that POV.

I don’t think Irish people have really weird feelings about the whole Middle East thing but I think they have a simplistic view of a realistic way forward for Palestinians and Jews (and other groups) in that part of the world. The Israeli treatment of Palestinians resonates with a lot of Irish people (especially in Northern Ireland) but in reality Israeli treatment of Palestinians has been* far worse* in living memory than British treatment of the Irish and also Palestinian hostility and actions against the Israelis have been of an order of magnitude higher than anything seen Northern Ireland or Britain. In some ways I think Irish Republicans use solidarity with Palestine to legitimise themselves.

The Northern Ireland situation perhaps offers something of a lesson for Israel/Palestine, without coming to an equitable status quo amongst the communities there may never be lasting peace. And indeed it isn’t uncommon to see a Palestine flag in Republican areas or an Israeli flag flying in Loyalist/Unionist areas.

I believe that back in the 1970’s heyday of Marxist terrorism there were more concrete ties between certain Palestinian and Irish terrorist groups as well.

[Chessic_Sense]

People hate the Jews because they think that Jews think they’re better than everyone else. “The Jews think they’re elite,” they say, “The Jews think they’re the smartest, most blessed people on earth.” That’s not true. Jews don’t think that.

God does.

[armedmonkey]

People hate the Jews because they are the “chosen”. God chose the Jews thousands of years ago as his favorites, and nothing bad happened to them ever again.

[Icerigger]

I was really taken back on just how widespread this belief is in the USA. I have become fascinated with far far rightwing radio recently and it’s all over the place. Just go to David Duke’s site and download some of his radio programs or book excerpts it’s a real eye opener. It’s funny how an entire world view becomes so plausible to these morons, every evil in the world from the fall of Rome to 911 is the fault of Jews, literally everything . Do you know the civil rights movement for blacks was orchestrated by Jews to destroy the white Christian majority in the USA?

[Anne_Neville]

@Jackmannii

There’s a probationary period, during which you only get to control a section of a freebie community newspaper (for instance, arranging for banner headlines like “Goldberg Leads JV Lacrosse Team To Victory” and “New Deli Scores Big With Pastrami Special”).

I converted in 2003. I haven’t even gotten this yet. They must be running a few years behind.

[astro]

@Shmendrik

That’s BS. Most American Jews are liberal Democrats who support the two state solution and constantly question Israel’s actions when they look bad in the media. What does “punished mercilessly” mean anyways, and what evidence do you have of it?

I have no doubt many US Jews privately believe in a two state solution. My point is that these Jewish voices are not well represented or particularly influential in the corridors of power relative to the more hawkish views supported by AIPAC and related groups who have huge leverage and influence within this sphere. Your point is well taken however, I should have made the distinction between the power of the more hawkish US Jewish elements in directing and influencing US foreign policy WRT to absolute population numbers (which is what I was addressing), and the opinions of the overall population US Jews in general which are considerably more moderated.

RE “punished” see the link provided directly below my statement. As a side note the political attacks by Jewish hawks on those (especially Jews) whom they deem not to be sufficient “friends of Israel” are legendary. Are you seriously claiming this is not the case?

Her actual crime is supporting the upstart liberal Jewish lobbying group J Street. The group aims to make it politically acceptable to actually criticize the actions of the Israeli government by demonstrating that plenty of American Jews don’t agree with AIPAC and people like Dershowitz. You know, people who think “automatic” complete destruction of entire villages is a legitimate state response to terrorism, as long as you warn them first, thus making the loss of lives their fault. (This is the “why are you hitting yourself” school of counterterrorism.)

And now Dershowitz is demonstrating that Democrats cannot count on his support, just because he’s always been a Democrat.

People like Dershowitz (and, say, megafundraiser Haim Saban, and other very hawkish longtime Democrats) will broker no dissent on Israel, and should the Democrats adopt any sort of rational policy toward our support for that nation’s government and their policies, there’s no reason for these lifelong Democrats to remain Democrats. If they care more about Israel’s right to expand settlements than they do about climate legislation or financial regulation reform, they’ll support Republicans

[Jackmannii]

And now Dershowitz is demonstrating that Democrats cannot count on his support, just because he’s always been a Democrat.

My god, now that’s merciless punishment.

Should Alan Dershowitz change his first name to “Genghis”, or “Ming”?

[Kyla]

@Shmendrik

That’s BS. Most American Jews are liberal Democrats who support the two state solution and constantly question Israel’s actions when they look bad in the media. What does “punished mercilessly” mean anyways, and what evidence do you have of it?

I recommend you read the article The Israel Lobby, by Mearsheimer and Walt. I’ve gone ahead and uploaded it to the web since I don’t have a url for it. PDF. I also uploaded a short analysis of the article, Does the Israel Lobby Have Too Much Power?, which was originally published in Foreign Policy. Also PDF.

Lest I sound like too much of a crackpot, I read both of these articles originally in my Foreign Policy class.

[ivan_astikov]

@Shmendrik

I believe that back in the 1970’s heyday of Marxist terrorism there were more concrete ties between certain Palestinian and Irish terrorist groups as well.

And don’t forget their American financiers. Which makes me wonder, who was supplying the UDA with their money and weapons to fight against the IRA?