The ADL’s Antisemitism Findings, Explained
“Ben Lorber, who tracks white nationalism and antisemitism as a senior research analyst for Political Research Associates, lamented that the audit tends to present vastly different types of incidents alongside one another as equal data points. ‘The audit had the Colleyville, Texas, hostage crisis alongside a middle school kid saying ‘Someone bullied me,’’ he said. ‘It removes a lot of nuance and texture.’ Boxer echoed the criticism: ‘A small piece of graffiti that most people aren’t going to notice is a minor thing. But Tucker Carlson talking about Jewish conspiracies to control the world on Fox—that’s affecting millions of people, and it’s encouraging antisemitism. So, each might be counted as one incident in theory, but they’re not the same.’”
“Lorber was particularly critical of the report’s presentation of the dissemination of white supremacist propaganda. Though he agrees that such distribution has increased, he argued that the hate groups’ focus on disseminating antisemitic flyers, while disturbing, might actually be a sign of weakness. “In many ways, these groups are doing this stuff because they don’t have the numbers to do anything else,” said Lorber. Though he said white nationalist conspiracy theories remain popular, including on major platforms like Fox News, groups have had trouble maintaining their grassroots strength, in part because of the lawsuits and doxxing that many white nationalists faced after the infamous 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. “A lot of groups have moved to activities like putting up a sticker or a flier and taking a selfie, because they’re hoping that it shocks the public and gets media attention that they can use to project an outsized sense of their own impact and relevance,” Lorber said, noting that he would’ve liked to see this context included in the audit.”