Let's get rid of antiSemitism

Something I wrote three years ago (at least) but never published - obviously parts of which borrowed from some Facebook conversation I was having.

Now, I know what many of you are thinking - well of course I agree with that. We all want to get rid of antiSemitism - you're not saying anything new there. The question should surely be: HOW?

Right?

Wrong.

I am not suggesting we fight a "Campaign Against Anti-Semitism". I think, in fact, I might be saying the opposite.

I would like us to stop using the term antiSemitism. It has become so confused, so intangible, so meaningless that it is less useful to use it than not to use it. What do I mean? Let me explain.

Anti Semitism is / was a scientific (anti-scientific) racist movement of the late 19th and early 20th century that posited that Jews were a race and that believed that "the races" were in competition over the earth's resources and that Jews would do anything to destroy the other races upon whom they fed as parasites. Now - I understand that the meanings of words often change over time. I understand that people will use words in a way that the originator of such a word would not necessarily have understood - all this, I understand. BUT.... the word must then be useful for it to continue to be used - my claim would be that antiSemitism is virtually never useful, and that other terms could be more so. I am wary of labelling anything antiSemitic, since I am not sure what the point of doing so is. Discourse around antiSemitism has become inherently political.

AntiSemitism was the first racism. Let's just use racism. 

Why do we care about what we care about? Or rather - why do I?

The combined female population of Alabama and Georgia is about 4.5 million. The female population of Iran is around 45 million. Roe vs Wade came to the US in 1973. Similar legislation was passed in Iran in 1978. Why do so many of my feminist friends care about the women of Alabama and Georgia but none seem to care about those of Iran? (Americans exempt from this criticism).

On the other hand:

We have just witnessed gay marriage in a (Legally autonomous part of) China (Taiwan). And at the same time, we know that China is herding up millions of Uyghur muslims in concentration camps. Why have seen no-one mention both?

On a similar vein of dealing with complexity and nuance: Why do my zionist friends think that Israel cannot be both an ok-ish place for gay people to live (despite disgracefully not recognising/forbidding gay marriage) and a terrible oppressor of human rights (of Palestinians) at the same time? (LGBTQ folk exempt from this criticism).

In other words - when did we stop caring about values, about responsibilities, about Justice about Human rights and started caring only about political positions? And perhaps more worryingly - why am I using we in this sentence and not I? When did I start pretending that this is not just as true of me?