If Julia Ioffe didn’t provoke the anti-Semitic abuse, how did it end up coming her way? Pure chance?
If people hate you, there is probably a reason for it. You have probably done or said something that provoked the hatred. It’s not complicated. Hating takes energy. Large numbers of people don’t expend that sort of energy for no reason.
I’m not arguing right or wrong here. I’m arguing that it is useful to look at these disputes in terms of who – whom? Who did what to whom? What are the group and personal interests that conflict?
The slur “anti-Semitic” has become so over-used that it has lost all meaning.
Melania Trump, the wife of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, on Tuesday suggested that journalist Julia Ioffe “provoked” the anti-Semitic abuse she faced from Trump fans after publishing negative profile about her.
“I don’t control my fans,” Melania said in an interview with DuJour. “But I don’t agree with what they’re doing. I understand what you mean, but there are people out there who maybe went too far. She provoked them.”
Ioffe, who is Jewish, received calls from people playing Hitler speeches, told that she “should be burned in an oven”, “be shot in the head,” and was sent photoshopped images of her in a concentration camp uniform.
