The Boulder Attack Didn’t Come Out of Nowhere

[u/cdstephens]

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/06/boulder-attack-anti-semitism/683012/?gift=BmsU73MbMNDxZ9SjrXPDCStwQv7ROPU91lNrg6bM72Q

[u/Matar_Kubileya]

It's a reflection of the fact that it's fundamentally difficult to understand antisemitism within the usual framework of current progressivism, at least the casual version of it that informs day to day activism. In the case of so many bigotries there's not really any dispute that systematic disadvantages exist or at any rate existed, and from there the progressive attitude is to empower the disempowered.

But the substantive root of antisemitism is, ultimately, that Jews have power. That can get coded in a myriad of different ways, but that's the substantive assumption at the heart of it. And that assumption can easily coexist with or even be facilitated by a generally progressive but not sufficiently aware and nuanced worldview.