Who has the worse take on antisemitism, Roxane Gay or M Gessen?
Of all the ways to think about antisemitism—as a bigotry, as a conspiracy theory, as “the oldest hatred”—one of the most useful is as a kind of brain rot. Something about Jew hatred (sort of like Trump hatred, come to think of it) is that it infects not only the holder of the opinion but the people around her; it is also a form of stupidity that makes people stupid in other ways. It’s like the odor of skunkweed: you don’t have to be the one who smoked it, it’s enough just to have been in the room—Snoop Dogg on the radio, burrito wrappers balled up on the floor—while your besties smoked the weed, and the stench will cling to you. And so you find much-laureled opinionators M Gessen and Roxane Gay both driven to their worst takes by the topic of antisemitism. Antisemitism not only makes the antisemite stupid,…