Mel Gibson and Anti-Semitism (2)

This kind of fake-coy manner of expression is typical of far-right types. It may partially relate to conventions of expressing ideas that are outside the mainstream. But I suspect it can reflect a certain kind of narcissistic arrogance, a way of baiting people into criticizing the speaker and then playing the victim, all the while feeling superior.

But I don't know whether that applies to the Gibsons or not. But this observation from David Neiwert is a good one, again reacting to Hutton Gibson's Holocaust-denial propagandizing:

There's one thing to keep in mind when talking about racists, anti-Semites and white supremacists: They nearly all deny those characterizations of themselves. The denials typically run like this:

-- "I'm not a racist. I don't hate other races. I just don't like to be around them."

-- "I'm not an anti-Semite. I don't hate Jews. I have many Jewish friends. I just think there are some rich Jews who secretly conspire to rule all of society."

-- "I'm not a white supremacist. I think other races are fine. I just think they should be separate."

For those interested in this weird and ugly phenomenon of Holocaust denial, one of the best analyses of the whole thing came in a British court's 2000 judgment in the case of David Irving v. Penguin Books and Deborah Lipstadt. Irving, a talented researcher who wandered into the swamp of far-right extremism, sued Penguin and Lipstadt over a book in which he was described as a Holocaust denier.

In deciding against Irving, the court laid out a detailed description of his arguments. Since Irving is as highbrow as it gets on the Radical Right - I don't say that sarcastically, the guy really is talented - the decision is a great analysis of this brand of pseudohistory. It's available online.