Thepeoplesrecord is a leftist blog on Tumblr. Their blog description can give you a good idea of where they stand:
A curated documentation of social justice media: racial justice / LGBTQ liberation / Viva Palestina / student power/ womanist storytelling / labor struggles / ACAB / anti-imperialist / Zapatism@ / First Nations resistance / more
Last month, they posted the following cartoon along with two others condemning Zionism and Islamaphobia.
For now, let’s ignore the whole “Israel controls the U.S. instead of the other way around” thing. Does anyone see anything kinda wrong with this critique of Israel? Notice anything in particular about it? What type of politics stands to benefit from the narrative of a fat, hairy, unattractive, big-nosed Jew ordering around a tall, handsome, masculine white soldier?
People who have spent enough time on the less pleasant parts of the internet might recognize this art style. After all, the artist is none other than A. Wyatt Mann (pronounced “a white man”), the pseudonymous white supremacist cartoonist who is dearly loved on /pol/. [Warning: some nasty shit in that link.] You might recognize him from his most famous work:
The reasons that a leftist opposes Israel is that it’s a militaristic, settler colonialist, apartheid state. The reason that someone like A. Wyatt Mann opposes Israel is that it’s Jewish. However, in the first cartoon, Mann presents his views in a way that is less explicitly anti-Semitic and instead focuses on the more socially acceptable critique of Israel: the leftist one.
Reactionaries can sometimes find solace hiding behind leftist rhetoric. That’s why it is always important to critically analyze the narratives you propagate, and to point out even minor, subtle flaws in complex arguments. Paying attention to the nuances of an argument is how good analysis is formed. Ignoring nuance is what gets someone dedicated to “racial justice” posting a cartoon drawn by a white supremacist.
Edit: It has been pointed out that there are anti-Semitic and racist leftists, which is certainly true. I speak broadly in this post, and when I speak of a leftist, I mean to speak of one who is neither of those things.
