The more that some working in the service of our free and fearless press continue to make claims about anti-Semitism in the Labour Party which they cannot stand up, the more they get called out and exposed for their sham. This is as true for the Mail on Sunday’s not at all celebrated blues artiste Whinging Dan Hodges as for anyone.
He's desperate, Dan
Dan said WHAT?
Author Michael Rosen was discussing an attack on him, where he had been characterised, more or less, as “self-hating”. He mused “It’s like Dan Hodges, who’s not Jewish, saying (in effect) ‘Hey Jews, I’m going to fight against anyone who hates Jews because they’re Jews. That’s racism. Oh by the way I hate “useful Jewish idiots”.’(His phrase)”.
Hodges, who just happened to be searching for his name on Twitter (he was not tagged by Rosen) began to wriggle. “‘Saying in effect’. Or, in other words, ‘he did't actually say this. So I'll have to make it up’”. He called a supporter of the Labour leadership a “Useful Jewish Idiot”. So he did say it. This Rosen confirmed: “You used the phrase ‘useful Jewish idiots’ I’m translating it”. But Hodges could not leave it there.
“I don't hate him [Rosen] at all. I've never met him. I don't really understand his obsession with attacking anyone who attacks Labour anti-Semitism though”. Obsession. The casual abuse of the pundit class. Rosen reminded him “Dan fights antisemitism with antisemitism with his phrase ‘useful Jewish idiots’”. He said it, and has not recanted.
There followed more Hodges wriggling. “So you can't point me to where I actually, literally said ‘oh by the way I hate useful Jewish idiots’”. And once again, Rosen had to put him straight. “Calling people ‘useful Jewish idiots’ is an insult. A slur. An offensive epithet. A nasty dig. Slurs are expressions of hate. They are the rhetoric of prejudice. They are part of racialised hierarchies”. And he had more to say on the subject.
“You remember how people interpreted Corbyn’s words re ‘irony’? I did just the very same thing with your ‘useful Jewish idiots’. I interpreted it . That’s part of how we communicate with each other. But you know that.” Would Sir care to wriggle some more? He certainly would. “But that's not what I said, is it. It's very odd that for some reason you always feel the need to amend or truncate or, in @MichaelRosenYes case, ‘translate’ the quote”.
And once more Rosen called him out. “We’ve put the exact quote up and the conversation many times and you’ve not withdrawn it or apologised for it. You used an anti-Jewish racialised slur. You present yourself as a smeller-out of antisemitism. The more you do so, the more dodgy it looks. Physician, heal thyself”. He then added “You write for the paper @DPJHodges which depicted [Ed] Miliband ‘s father as a Jewish traitor. This racialised slur reached millions. Where was the outrage?” Where indeed.
Hodges countered with the disingenuous “the Mail on Sunday is a different operation” line. But (a) the MoS was caught harassing Ed Miliband in the aftermath of the Daily Mail attack, and (b) the editor-in-chief of both titles was the same person (Paul Dacre).
After one last wriggle from Desperate Dan - “I'm saying like many Corbyn supporters @MichaelRosenYes refuses to acknowledge anti-Semitism in areas where he finds it politcally inconvenient” - Rosen administered the coup de grace: “You can’t even find the antisemitism in yourself”. Busted. Anyone else would have got the message by now.
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If anyone's a useful idiot here it's Hodges.
ReplyDeleteLike all of his far right type he gives the game away with "Labour anti-semitism". That's LABOUR anti-semitism, not just anti-semitism. I'm willing to bet you'll be hard pushed to find him using TORY anti-semitism in the same context. Or even placing the evil of anti-semitism in any universally acceptable context.
Interesting how corporate print and broadcast media has by and large gone along with the same cowardly propaganda line as Hodges. Not one of them has had the courage to investigate the roots of this part of the anti-Labour campaign. Whereas it is perfectly obvious to anybody with functioning common sense that it is propaganda hiding behind the eternal horror of the Holocaust - a horror perpetrated by the same kind of twisted corrupt far right mentalities as Hodges.
If, for instance, the Vicar of Wibbly had any sense of decency she would condemn ALL anti-semitism, as has Jeremy Corbyn. But of course she hasn't. Instead, she hides behind ludicrous church rituals. All of which marks her as a classic politicised god bothering hypocrite to match any of the loony US variety. That's in addition to her appalling talent-free tenancy of Downing Street.
Hodges can be dismissed for the moron he is. Of much greater importance is who originated this disgusting line of propaganda and what is the network that spreads it. But don't expect corporate media to investigate it - they're too busy PROMOTING it, cowards to a man and woman.