Sunday, March 6, 2022

Henry Ford and Anti-Semitism: A Complex Story

 https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-resources/popular-topics/henry-ford-and-anti-semitism-a-complex-story

As with most famous people, Henry Ford was complex and had traits and took actions that were laudatory as well as troublesome. The most controversial and least admirable aspect of Ford’s career was his descent into anti-Semitism. Convinced that “bankers” and “the Jews” were responsible for a whole range of things he didn’t like, from the world war to short skirts to jazz music, Ford used his newspaper, the Dearborn Independent, to carry on an active anti-Semitic campaign. Between 1920 and 1922 a series of articles denounced all things Jewish. While officially apologizing for the articles in 1927, Ford’s anti-Jewish sentiments ran deep. Seen within the context of the times, they demonstrate the sharp realities and tensions that emerge in societies undergoing profound cultural, economic and political change.

19 comments :

  1. Wait, wait, wait. So Ford, a florid anti-Semite is complex and Trump, a guy who did more for Israel and Jews (when it comes to defending them from the Woke) than any US president in history is a simple?

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  2. Wow the biggest threat to Jews is Woke and Trump is our saviour?

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  3. If he had written books against blacks, Ford sales would be plummeting.

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  4. Wow!
    If he had incited a riot in the Capitol he would be president
    If he had wheels he would be a car!

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  5. No, Kal is right. If he had written about the glory of slavery and how much he missed it, he'd be cancelled, Ford Motor Co. would have to change its name and all Detroit would say "Henry Ford? Never heard of the guy!"

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  6. Well yes. Woke called for BDS and the destruction of Israel. Woke labels Jews as "White adjacent" and therefore due for the same oppression and punishment they plan for the Whites. Woke makes life hell for Jewish students on campuses across America. Woke is the biggest threat to Jews right now.

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  7. http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2022/03/why-attacking-cancel-culture-and-woke.html

    "WOKE" is used the same as "communist" or "pinko" by an earlier generation of Republicans

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  8. And that earlier generation was right. No matter how much you try to revise history, Joe McCarthy was right, even though his methods were wrong. Communism was/is evil. It was/is trying to take over the world. And it relies on useful idiots to pretend it isn't so it won't be opposed.

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  9. Yes Mccarthy destroyed Democracy to protect from Communisms/ He created an alternative system of power that he controlled -- one of your heros!

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  10. In order to destroy Communism to protect Democracy, as Reagan and Thatcher did successfully, sometimes you need to destroy democracy to protect from communism. That is what happens in wartime, and the cold war was a war nonetheless, with real wars - korea, Vietnam taking a heavy toll.

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  11. The Allies tried playing nice with the Nazis until 1939. What did that get them? In the end they didn't win with nice words but with firebombing and nukes. When faced with a powerful enemy you have to take drastic steps.
    McCarthy was faced with a powerful enemy who was trying to control America's entertainment industry and influence what people thought of the most evil regime the world. Asking them to pretty-please stop making Communists look nice wouldn't have worked.

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  12. Do you know who Joe McCarthy was?

    Sometimes what you suggest is destructive.

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  13. Yes.

    sometimes what I say is cynical and needs to be taken with a kezayit of salt.

    McCarthy was too extreme . His witchunting, public hearings on outing communists was a modern version of the inquisition.
    but today, there is also a limitation on democracy.
    any Russian people with wealth are having their liberties taken away, as well as their money.
    The media is censoring or limiting the view point of Russia. I don't agree with Russia. But we are not currently in a free democracy.

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  14. Yes I know who Joe McCarthy was. And do you know who he was up against? Stalin, Malekov and Kruschev. Do you know who they were?

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  15. Stalin was no tzaddik. He killed 20 million of his own people. So he shed as much blood as Hitler did. How many jews, there is no reliable data.
    I don't support McCarthy, he was cut down by Senate or whomever in Washington DC.

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  16. McCarthy's solution was draconian but the problem he identified was real and it did need a heavy hand to deal with it.
    Thing of the legacy effect. Hitler murdered tens of millions of people, including the Holocaust. Stalin murdered tens of millions of people and a good number of them were Jews too.
    If I walk down the street of any Jewish neighbourhood wearing a swastika, boy am I going to get into trouble. But if I'm wearing a hammer&sickle? I might get a couple of looks, might get some smiles and a couple of the older men might even smile and look nostalgic. Now, why do you think that is?

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  17. We have McCarthyism today as well - it's against all russian Media and sympathisers as well as Russians themselves just because they have money

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  18. Bill Maher has a monologue in which he specifically calls out the Liberal Left for criticizing Joe McMcarthy while simultaneously acting as bad if not worse than him.

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  19. Left and right no longer hold the same meaning they did during the Cold War. China and russia remain dictatorships whether they embrace commuinsm or capitalism.
    The economic system is not the point of the debate. They're totalitarian systems who control the Press S& people's Liberty.
    Extremists in the west also have similar ideology but they claim to be left wing or nationalist.

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