Tuesday, November 07, 2023

Euphemism

I read decades ago that the use of the term "anti-semitism" spread as a euphemism for "hatred of Jews." It was a less "in your face" term; abstract and verging on respectable. I haven't tracked down a source for that claim yet, but it seems plausible. Hatred is personal, while being "anti-"X could mean you've a scholar's thorough understanding of why X is bad.

NJOP says the term was coined by Moritz Steinschneider, writing against Ernest Renan's "jews are an inferior race" claims. (Renan seems to have changed his mind, or nuanced things considerably. The NJOP article's claim about Wilhelm Marr's repentence is disputed.)

At any rate, when you read a news story about demonstrations on campus or the state house, mentally replace the euphemism with the phrase it replaced, and see if the result describes the actions and attitudes more clearly.

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1 comment:

  1. Assistant Village Idiot7:08 PM

    I was surprised that because he believed in the Khazar Theory, he did not believe the Ashkenazi Jews were a Semitic race. Anti-semitism is now a "polite" euphemism for anti-Jewishness, but as this is primarily in places where the Ashkenazim predominate, it is an irony that he thought that it was all the other Semitic peoples which were inferior, not the Jews of Europe. He really was Anti-Semitic in the literal sense, not the bent definition we use now.

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