Machinist

It's totally possible. Like, historically the parallels are spooky.

I don't have a good feel for the likelihood yet, too early. We may end up with camps, we may just have another four years of slide into shit before the next possible crisis.

That's cute. How do you describe your political alignment?

You can probably consider me self educated, especially when it comes to history and culture. My public education occured in a state that is consistently ranked 49 or 50 and is far right. We were not even taught about evolution but given a statement that there is controversy between Evolution and Creationism, this was state policy in a publicly funded school. Prayers were common and led by authority. I was raised by Christian Fundamentalists and didn't logic my way out of it until my 30s.

Anyhow, to make my way out of it I cultivated a finely honed bullshit detector. I think I'm lucky enough to be naturally skeptical and self trained in critical thinking. I learned to trust the scientific process.

I can sniff out far right bullshit from a mile away. I'm seeing a fair amount of far left bullshit on Lemmy that I don't have a lot of experience with. The far Right doesn't have monopoly on fanaticism. That's why I'm asking about this. The whole Zion thing sets off my radar and I'm not all convinced it's a false positive given the response in this thread.

I tend to trust my gut on this sort of thing. However, I am actually able to change my mind given clear information that doesn't trip my detector.

I'm leaning towards the Zion thing being an indicator of tankie thought/Left fanaticism or a phrase that is common outside the states. The fact that it was used historically heavily by the Nazis and, I think, by the Stalinist communists is a large negative factor for me. I also think it may have been picked up by non-fanatics and not necessarily be a firm indicator.

Boo. You're making my point for me. Fanaticism on the right or the left is not optimal. Lemmy has a good chunk of left fanaticism that is divorced from critical thinking and is inflammatory.

To a reasonable person, it's obvious that I'm not in favor of genocide or 'wars of conquest'.

However, I'm downright ornery when it comes to people pushing blind agenda. Sick of it. Cut my teeth on the far right agenda and deprogrammed myself as that's what I was raised in.

The Nazis had great fashion sense as well. I mean, they murdered millions and all, but looked fantastic doing it.

This new crop has the fashion sense of a neckbeard living in a college dorm.

If you're going to trample the rights of my loved ones and myself, at least have the decency to wear some spiffy shiny leather boots and accessorize with some skull jewelry.

I don't really have a problem with the term. Its frequent usage here is unusual to me. It feels like it's some sort of 'tell.' You hear someone talking about illegal aliens in the US and you know you're probably dealing with a magat. If they call them undocumented workers, you're most likely dealing with a leftist of some stripe.

I very well could have a propagandized view of the Zion terms. However, it's also not something I ever run into in real life.

What country are you from and how would you describe yourself politically?

I'm somewhat familiar with the ADL and their bullshit. Not so much with AIPAC.

Okay, weird. As I said in another comment, I'm middle aged and from the deep South. I have never heard the term used conversationally. I'm not highly formally educated, high school with some college.

This is a great example of what I'm talking about.

What age range are you? What would describe your political alignment as? (For myself, I'm Left, other countries would probably call me a centrist, and the Republicans would call me a radical leftist.) What region are you from?

Are you from the US?

Glad I'm not the only one. I'm getting down voted to hell here, not that it matters, but I don't think I'm getting good answers.

The Lemmy hive mind is strong.

I guess it's either tankie or non-US. I'm leaning towards tankie due to the down votes.

And Zionism frequently appears in your news sources?

I'm middle aged, only recently left the deep south, and have never heard it used in conversation. Only occasionally saw it used on Reddit and before that, Slashdot. Seeing it a lot more on Lemmy.

My prior experience with the term was religious or white supremacist. I can probably count on one hand the Jews I have met and known they were Jewish. Tiny minority where I'm from. Antisemitism did become quite common as Qanon accelerated in 2020 and people that had no experience with Jewish people were suddenly spouting blood libel and such.

Is it more common outside the US, do you think?