Snyder, Schumer, and Obama March 16, 2025March 16, 2025 Of “Antisemitism” and Antisemitism, Timothy Snyder writes: Fascism places emotion over reason. Words are to become just tools to achieve the vision of the Leader. In our post-truth world, this takes the very special form of the inversion of meaning: fascists call other people “fascists” and antisemites call other people “antisemites.” This is taking place right now, in the United States, before our eyes, at the highest levels of our government. An example from abroad might help us to see what is happening. The notion that all of Russia’s enemies are the “fascists” has become more entrenched as the Russian state has become fascist. Russian authorities ludicrously justified their full-scale invasion of Ukraine as a struggle against antisemitism. They claimed, absurdly, that it would amount to “denazification” if they overthrew the democratically-elected president of Ukraine, who is of Jewish origin. This is fascism in the name of “fighting fascism.” Antisemitism in the name of “fighting antisemitism.” . . . The Trump team recently engaged in an action of highly public Jew-baiting inside the Oval Office. Elon Musk performs the Hitler salute and claims that people whom he does not like are “Soros puppets”; in other words, Musk endorses the theory of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy. Musk has enabled antisemitism by the way he has chosen to run Twitter. He trivializes the Holocaust by making jokes about Himmler and Goebbels or by blaming public sector workers for the Holocaust. JD Vance visited Europe in February to endorse the German far right. The secretary of defense is a Christian reconstructionist who associates with a very well-known promoter of antisemitic ideas. Under the new leadership of the FBI, the American far right, the center of American violent terrorism, will receive much less attention. Antisemitic incidents increased during Trump’s previous term, during which Trump characterized participants at a neo-Nazi gathering (“Jews will not replace us,” Charlottesville) as “very fine people.” Trump says that Jews who do not vote for him are not loyal Americans. He refers to people and institutions with whom he disagrees as “globalist,” which is a code for “Jewish” that every antisemite understands. His supporters antisemitically attack Jewish judges who rule in ways that Trump does not like, including in the case of Mahmoud Khalil. Worth reading in full. Chuck Schumer, meanwhile, has written Antisemitism in America: A Warning, out tomorrow. He discusses it in this New York Times interview. The last 8 or 9 minutes explain his choice not to give Trump/Musk the legally unchallengeable power they hoped for by shutting down the government. Fareed Zakaria — a Sunday morning must — argues that Trump’s war on colleges undermines a crucial competitive edge. We’re handing technological leadership to China. Why are we doing this to ourselves? Timothy Snyder’s piece explains why Columbia was the first to be hit. To our Irish friends, including the Obamas . . . Happy St. Patrick’s Day!