Trump’s subpoena got the Holocaust analogies. The mob actually mapping Jews in Italy got a shrug. That reflex isn’t protecting us—it’s spending us.

Yesterday I published a piece about a Google Form in Italy—an anonymous questionnaire asking ordinary Italians to report which hotels and businesses Jews could be found in, for “future actions.” Which is not ominous at all. Nothing nefarious about a mystery account collecting Jewish locations for purposes it declines to name. I compared it to the 1938 census that preceded Italy’s racial laws, because that’s what it was: a list of where the Jews are, built by people who don’t wish the Jews well, answerable to no one.

Within hours, the comments had found a way to make it about Trump.

Not the form. Not Italy. Not the anonymous accounts still sitting on whatever data they collected. The urgent analogy, I was informed, was the EEOC subpoena seeking information about Jewish employees at the University of Pennsylvania—which the administration dropped, as it happens, the very day we were arguing about it. See? A list of Jews. Just like your Google Form. Just like the 1930s.

I spent the evening writing what was, let’s be honest, a fully formed rant in my own comments section, one reply at a time. So I’m bringing it up here, where the light is better—because clearly some of us need to hear it.

What Actually Happened at Penn

Walk the timeline, because almost everyone invoking it has it garbled. In July 2025, the EEOC—investigating workplace antisemitism at Penn after October 7—subpoenaed records including antisemitism complaints, names of members of Jewish campus groups, and Jewish Studies employees. Penn refused. The EEOC sued to enforce. A federal judge ordered Penn to comply. Penn got the order paused and appealed. And this week, before the appeals court ever ruled, the EEOC withdrew the subpoena entirely. Penn says not one name was........

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