When Hatred Is Tolerated, It Spreads

I regularly post on a large pro Israel Facebook page. What I see there shocks me to the core. Under posts defending Israel, explaining Israeli democracy, or simply expressing support for the Jewish state, the comment sections often turn into a sewer of hatred. Not criticism. Not debate. Hatred.

Vile comments about Jews. Conspiracy theories about Jewish power. Comparisons between Israel and the worst regimes in history. Language that would have made the propagandists of Adolf Hitler proud.

The question is simple. Why is this tolerated?

Why do people who claim to support Israel allow antisemitism to flourish under their own posts? Why give Jew haters a stage? Why allow lies to be repeated again and again until they start to sound like truth?

History already showed us how dangerous that can be.

One of the central principles of propaganda is simple repetition. When a lie is repeated often enough, it begins to feel familiar. And when something feels familiar, many people start believing it. The propaganda machine of Nazi Germany used this method relentlessly. Newspapers, radio broadcasts, posters, schoolbooks and films all repeated the same poisonous messages about Jews until millions of people began to accept them as normal.

Propaganda rarely begins with extreme statements. It starts slowly. First with suspicion. Then with stereotypes. Then with accusations. Eventually........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)