On 26 March, Tory MP Suella Braverman said:
As Conservatives, we are engaged in a battle against cultural Marxism.
The phrase ‘cultural Marxism’ is historically a conspiracy theory that Western culture is being undermined by sinister Jewish academics. It was also used by the far-right mass-murderer Anders Breivik.
Although that sounds quite bad, the Tory party has assured its friends in the right-wing media that it only becomes clear it’s antisemitic if you do a cursory Google search.
Let’s not do that
To be fair to the British tabloids, it’s not like they spent the past few years trying to determine what is or isn’t antisemitic. I mean – they have spent a lot of time claiming there’s an awful lot of it in the Labour Party – but the time they spent doing that prevented them researching what it actually is.
As one senior source from the Daily Mail Group philosophised on Twitter:
If a member of the governing party repeats an antisemitic trope but the tabloids don’t lose their shit, does it even make a sound?
The Board of Deputies of British Jews seems to think so, but obviously it hasn’t got the memo yet:
Board of Deputies rebuke Conservative MP Suella Braverman for using 'antisemitic trope'https://t.co/kur92kPsmM pic.twitter.com/FxbFmuAf0a
— The Jewish Chronicle (@JewishChron) March 26, 2019
The Tory Party isn’t bigoted, you see, and any appearance to the contrary is just a misunderstanding:
just catching up on timeline, for avoidance of doubt, couple of insiders told me using the nickname informally, no intended connection to anything else
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) March 25, 2019
Clarity
If you yourself are confused about what is or isn’t xenophobic, please consult the Daily Mail. Its co-founder was friends with Adolf Hitler, so it’s always had a pretty good grasp of the matter.
Featured image via Flickr – Ashley Coates
