Zinnia Jones/bigotry
About
There have been repeated claims that ZJ engages in bigotry, especially anti-Semitism, and primarily on Twitter. We are collecting evidence in order to be able to investigate these claims.
Tweets
- 2010-12-22 21:33 Holiday stupid: Someone commenting to tell me people are born Jewish and have no choice of whether to be Jewish. (archive.is)
- 2016-10-08 10:08 Donald Trump is best understood as an entity sent by Yahweh of the Bible/Yeshu of Nazareth. (archive.is)
- 10-17:
- 10:58 (AKA m33n4h) do you realise how offensive it is to compare a dude who does constant anti-semitic dog whistles to Yahweh?
- Another Tweeter tries to explain why the comparison is apt, but AKA m33n4h sarcastically dismisses their argument.
- 10:58 (AKA m33n4h) do you realise how offensive it is to compare a dude who does constant anti-semitic dog whistles to Yahweh?
- 10-18:
- 20:12 (reply) you aren't Jewish this isn't your place. This is reading as antisemitic
- 20:13 (ZJ) I would've chosen a different word given people interpreted it as just about Judaism. It's not, though.
- 20:14 (ZJ) It was meant to refer to Christianity's deity, Islam's, LDS Church's, etc.
- 20:15 (ZJ) Sorry I phrased it that way. But a faith I don't believe doesn't have to first permit me my "place" before I can criticize it.
- 20:16 (ZJ) If anything it's not your place to tell me I'm somehow not allowed to critically analyze the character God in religious texts.
- 20:12 (reply) you aren't Jewish this isn't your place. This is reading as antisemitic
- 10-17:
- 2016-10-17 11:01 Also the Old Testament is one long record of God straight-up fucking over the Israelites in every imaginable way (archive.is)
- 2016-10-17 11:04 No? Nothing in anything I said was speaking of actual practices of Jewish people. The Bible is fiction.
Many of these were found by "Joke Space Kabbalist":
- 2017-08-24 20:12 I got curious and dug deeper and...I had forgotten this all started with her trying to connect trump to our religious history
Preliminary Conclusions from Woozle
The 2010 comment about people not being born Jewish was kind of stupid (in that when Jewish people are persecuted, it is generally through racial accusations rather than belief; persecutors do not give their targets the choice to opt out), though I don't think it was intentionally offensive or a dog-whistle. I would have liked to see the follow-up on that -- but apparently this wasn't the comment people were most incensed about.
What people got upset about, apparently, was comparing Trump to God using the Old Testament word "Yahweh" to refer to God. A few people took this as anti-Semitic (for reasons that remain unclear); ZJ clarified that she hadn't intended to target the Jewish faith, but rather all monotheism ("Christianity's deity, Islam's, LDS Church's, etc.") and then apologized for her poor choice of phrasing.
Meanwhile the same people are trying to tell ZJ that criticizing Yahweh "isn't your place" (implicit argument: you may not criticize a religion unless you are a member of that religion – although this is never explained straight out). ZJ rightly declines to be bound by the unspoken rules of a religion she does not follow.
All in all, this reads like fundamentalists taking umbrage at seeing their faith in any way impugned, and using accusations of anti-semitism as a soldier argument to attempt to shut that criticism down.