So the way antisemitism here works is pretty much the same way it always did. The same way Nazis used.
People assign certain qualities to Jews. They repeat the same ad nauseam in jokes, in caricature, etc. Rather than treat Jews individually, antisemites tend to treat them in a way that dehumanises them -- which is a move that makes further antisemitism easier. You see, dehumanising is about disconnecting your empathy, about not seeing "them" as individuals but as a class of people that you can assign to qualities you hate.
Also there is a reason Nazis hated Jews so much. The whole goal was to find a way to be able to make people do things by finding a common enemy that will be easy to vilify. And Jews were already pretty common (everywhere in Europe), easy (no own government) target and already with pretty poor sentiment. No, Nazis did not invent antisemitism.
The funny thing about all this is that historically Jews were prevented here from many trades and, out of necessity, they took up certain professions connected with finances because they just couldn't do much else. Because of this Poles formed this connection between Jews and money and greed while completely forgetting that it was the governments at the time that caused this.
> Because of this Poles formed this connection between Jews and money and greed while completely forgetting that it was the governments at the time that caused this.
I don’t think they’ve forgotten. In much of Europe rulers that issued crippling taxes or engaged in ruinous financial schemes are not remembered fondly.
People assign certain qualities to Jews. They repeat the same ad nauseam in jokes, in caricature, etc. Rather than treat Jews individually, antisemites tend to treat them in a way that dehumanises them -- which is a move that makes further antisemitism easier. You see, dehumanising is about disconnecting your empathy, about not seeing "them" as individuals but as a class of people that you can assign to qualities you hate.
Also there is a reason Nazis hated Jews so much. The whole goal was to find a way to be able to make people do things by finding a common enemy that will be easy to vilify. And Jews were already pretty common (everywhere in Europe), easy (no own government) target and already with pretty poor sentiment. No, Nazis did not invent antisemitism.
The funny thing about all this is that historically Jews were prevented here from many trades and, out of necessity, they took up certain professions connected with finances because they just couldn't do much else. Because of this Poles formed this connection between Jews and money and greed while completely forgetting that it was the governments at the time that caused this.