The House has passed legislation that would establish a broader definition of antisemitism for the Department of Education to enforce anti-discrimination laws.

‘If passed by the Senate and signed into law, the bill would broaden the legal definition of antisemitism to include the “targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity.’"

Pardon me, but what is this horseshit?

  • aleph@lemm.eeOPEnglish
    801·
    8 months ago

    For those who aren’t aware, this bill aims to effectively enshrine into law the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which has been a controversial doctrine since its inception because critics say it unnecessarily curtails freedom of speech.

    Hell, even the Zionist Anti-Defamation League say on their website that the IHRA definition is a guideline that should not be codified into law because it could be used to infringe the First Amendment:

    ADL does not support the adoption and application of the IHRA Definition in a manner that would create new categories of legally prohibited speech that are subjected to either civil or criminal penalties – something we believe the First Amendment and principles of free speech would prevent.

    This bill does very little that existing legislation does not already except have a chilling effect on freedom of speech on university campuses, and the fact that it got such widespread support from both Democrats and Republicans in the House is an absolute farce.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
      71·
      8 months ago

      It’s a terrible bill, but I feel fairly confident that this will not get through the Senate, so I’m not all that concerned about it. It’s performative at best.

  • FuglyDuck@lemmy.worldEnglish
    574·
    8 months ago

    So, it must now also be bigotry to condemn China’s government for being… uh fucking evil. Or russia’s. North Koreas. or anybody else we don’t happen to like.

    • AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works
      127·
      8 months ago

      The tankies occasionally use the term sinophobia, it was my understanding that the term meant “bigotry by condemning China’s government for being fucking evil”.

      • Lileath@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        111·
        8 months ago

        At the danger of sounding like a tankie, have you looked at politics subs on reddit ir even just the average headline when China does anything at all? I’ve regularly seen people advocating for nuclear strikes against chinese metropolises because “If the Chinese were against their government they would have already rebelled, so they are complicit in everything their leaders do” and the articles that go like “China Has Found A Cure To Cancer; But At what cost?” (slightly exaggerated but probably something we would see if a cure to cancer really was invented in China)

        • AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works
          2·
          8 months ago

          While I’ve never seen that on reddit (I wasn’t very active in global politics subs on there), I completely believe there’s people saying that sort of thing. And I apologize for making a comment that kinda denies that kind of bias exists -it wasn’t my intention but it definitely happened.

          Lemmy is my first time encountering the term and, well, we’ve got a few apologists for the Chinese government around.

      • BreadstickNinja@lemmy.worldEnglish
        61·
        8 months ago

        This is happening in the House that is controlled by Republicans. Unfortunately a lot of Democrats voted for it too, but the only meaningful opposition also came from Dems. So Dems are split while Rs are all in on the genocide.

          • BreadstickNinja@lemmy.worldEnglish
            6·
            8 months ago

            95 Dems voted yes. 92 voted “present,” 13 voted “nay,” and 13 did not vote.

            Republicans - who again control the chamber - voted 216-1 in favor.

            I stand by the accuracy of my comment.

            • Woozythebear@lemmy.world
              23·
              8 months ago

              Yeah so like I said there are only like 15 against it. If all Republicans in the senate vote for it there only needs to be like 10 dems to say yes for it to pass and if we look at percentages it becomes clear this bill easily has enough votes and Biden will 100% sign it.

              You thinking it won’t is just cope.

  • Breezy@lemmy.world
    291·
    8 months ago

    If biden signs something like this i really see trump winning come November. There shouldnt be massive amounts of protest decrying a genocide and to have our president just look at everyone like they’re the crazy ones for saying no to slaughtering a whole set of people. What benefit does america gain for defending Israel. Do they even do anything expect awfull shit. Like do they produce anything other than hate.

  • MalachaiConstant@lemmy.world
    15·
    8 months ago

    A funny thing happens to a word when you give it additional definitions: the original definition loses meaning.

    Great news for traditional antisemites

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
    10·
    8 months ago

    So Israeli government propaganda is about to get turned into US law? So calling a criminal apartheid government as such is suddenly illegal…