Reply #7: Tikkun [View All]

I've read Tikkun before and it's a good magazine and I think I read this article a little while ago in the printed version. Tikkun gives a lot of insight into the other side of what many Jews think about what's happening in the Middle East, yet mainstream media seems to try (deliberately?) to cover up.

Frankly, I'm disgusted with the way mainstream media has portrayed Jews...that all Jews are Zionists and there is no difference in the ideologies.

And somehow, mainstream media has made it politically incorrect to criticize the actions of the Israeli government, saying that any dissent is an anti-semitic voice. No, no, no. I know many Jews that think that what the Israeli government is doing is wrong...that this whole war is wrong. There must be a more intelligent and civil solution than the one that is unfolding before our very eyes.

I've noticed a lot of racism, too. Any means to make the ruling group smaller and smaller. I'm a person of Chinese descent and I'm facing it like I've never seen it before. I imagine the holocaust, too, and I can imagine it happening to me. During the SARS outbreak, I was looked at suspiciously and I heard some of the most ignorant comments I've heard in my life. It even began coming out of my boyfriend (of 5 years) at the time (who is now my ex) in a fit of road rage. Then, the comments began coming from his family. It surprised the hell out of me that it came from people close to me. I have no doubt that it's the mainstream media but I will never forget that day when the racist words fell from his lips. I am hurt like I've never been before but I will never forget the single most important lesson I learned that day. It has taught me the lies of imagery, the lies of grouping people and ideas together and the easy adoption of other lies created by the first set of assumptions about a group of people. I understand the concerns that Jewish people face because of the magnitude of crimes committed against such a large group of people. Yes, Jewish people ought to be paranoid of anti-semitism. Very much so. If such a short media campaign of an epidemic that was out of the control of anyone had such an impact on my life, I can imagine the impact of very calculated propaganda and the lasting effects that it had since WWII. At the trigger of the media, the population around you suddenly becomes like a pack of wolves that has, in the blink of an eye, turned against you, not because of anything that you have done, but because the people, in general, are really weak-minded and believe everything they read in print and do not think about the calculated assumptions that they were made to draw.