Didn't you write about a "filthy Adolf" once?

Just think...filthy as an equal opputunity racial/ethnic slur that sweeps both Jews and Nazis under it's rug!

Behold the power of words!

(Great Post by the way!)

I did a quick search of Willis's archives and turned up a reference to Ann Coulter as "filthy." And it doesn't get much more Aryan than Coulter. So, agreed: I don't think there was any pernicious intent here.

Still, it's fun to see a race-baiter squirm, and I'm not sure if Lileks wasn't making precisely the same point you are. I.e., it's not that Willis is anti-Semitic but that he's hypocritical in his hypersensitivity to racial code words.

Perhaps, but I think there's a way to be more explicit about that. Just a quick statement that *I* don't play by these rules, but you do, so let's examine how you've comported to your own ostensible standards of "thenthitivity."

I understand your point, Ace, but perhaps if we take into account the belief that Wolfowitz is one of the supposed 'neocons' (read: Jew), then perhaps Lileks is dead on. Further, since most of our last 40 years of public policy has been based on the left's use of white guilt, I do seriously fight them back with the injustices that were done to 'white' peoples (which Michelle Malkin has written about, especially the WWII US internment of Italian Americans- you mean you didn't know about that??), as well as the injustices of 'affirmative action', which have cost many folks (who were grouped into the category of 'white' by the civil rights act) jobs, job advancement, scholarships, etc, because of the color of their skin. I grew up hearing from my great-grandparents and their children of the signs in windows saying "No Micks wanted" and "No Dagos wanted" when they reached the American shore. They didn't come here as slaves, but there was plenty of racism to go around. My own father, a San Francisco Fireman, was one of the most decorated, and highly respected men in the department. He scored in the top of his class for the Captain's exam, but was pushed back down the list to make room for 'people of color' due to communist judge Marilyn Hall Patel's 'consent decree' upon the Fire Dept of SF.
He retired a lieutenant after 30 yrs service, with people having only a couple years' experience then serving as his senior. Destroyed morale of dept; same has happened in our military, and in the fed, state and local levels of our government.

Happy St. Patrick's Day, by the way...

Wait, the Jews are crafty? That's funny, Ace-- just the other day you said they were lazy, like the dirty Mexicans.

(Man, I love me that Family Guy)

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

one of my favorite Steyn quotes.

Mark Steyn: "A couple of years back, I went to hear Paul Wolfowitz. I knew him only by reputation: the most sinister of all the neocons, the big bad Wolfowitz, the man whose name started with a scary animal and ended Jewishly."

Oliver may just be scared, cut him a little slack.

I don't think James is being very serious. I can just imagine him rolling his eyes at his own words. He's rarely that serious about anything.

Except, you know... Star Trek, architecture, and hummels.

That said, I certainly want to echo your call, Ace, to guide those thin-skinned Lefty souls back to the light and not to become like them.

I remember watching the Reagan funeral procession on television, and fairly leaping from my chair when the commentator remaked that "the president's casket will now be pulled by four blacks atop... "

"What! Are you insinuating that Ronald Reagan was racist...?" Before it dawned on me that I knew nothing about equestrian affairs and the four horses in question were black and that "black" might be the proper technical term.

I sat back down.

Erm. I wasn't thinking "Jew" when I read that. Then again, I'm a flamig racist homophobe - or so says Willis.

So what I'm sayin Ace, is I think you missed Lileks' boat.

I don't know if Lileks is jerking Goofy around or really thinks the use of 'filthy' in this context has a scent of antisemitism (I'd guess the former), but anyone besides me remember the 'water buffalo' incident about ten years ago..?

Anyone with a working familiarity with the RACIAL SLUR DATABASE does not get a pass on "filthy" when applied to a jew.

Period.

Ace, please reconsider.

I agree with hobgoblin on this one. Even if a lot of us gentiles can't clearly remember a time when we heard anybody use that epithet, I think Jews have a slightly longer memory for Holocaust related language, and rightly so.

I just read Ann Coulter's column from today- 'Freeze! I just had my nails done!'- and she nails down what I was saying above in my rant re: PC politics of the last few decades and their ramifications...bash em' back!!

"Even if a lot of us gentiles can't clearly remember a time when we heard anybody use that epithet, I think Jews have a slightly longer memory for Holocaust related language, and rightly so."

Let's suppose you're right. Would the proper response to be a gentle, almost apologetic chiding -- "I'm sure you didn't mean it this way, but please bear in mind Jews have unconfortable memories about that word" -- or the automatic assumption of bad intent that the left likes to ascribe to us?

I vote with gail and hobgoblin. A guy who is so ultra-hypersensitive about demanding the respect that he clearly hasn't earned needs to be very careful about tossing around possible ethnic slurs. And even if Wolfowitz were Methodist, I don't think "filthy" really would have qualified as an incisive criticism of his policy shortcomings.

"Like kryptonite to stupidity." Obviously the stuff isn't working, because The Nameless One's stupidity is as superhumanly powerful as ever.

ace,

I'm not suggesting ChubbO get a raked over the coals for calling Wolfowitz a jewish epithet (as I think gail is) but rather that he shouldn't get a pass EVER for ANY potentially racially derogatory remark, if he's going to be such an ASS as to suggest that the Kool Aid man comparison is RACIST.

(soory for the caps, time's tight here).

Interesting discussion. Too bad I can't be part of it, as my head exploded as soon as I read the words "defend Willis."

It grieves me deeply to differ with either our host or with A-double-lizzle, but I think that Lileks truly found le mot juste when he compared "filthy" with "uppity". I suspect that it's an age thing: I don't remember the 40's (born mid-50"s), but I do remember the Kennedy/Johnson/Nixon years where "filthy Jew" and "uppity Negro" were the polite versions of the more standard formulations. Perhaps we were more exposed to human ignorance then, perhaps the constant diet of WWII movies on TV (hey, they were only 20 years old, and B&W movies worked great on B&W TV!), but to this graying gentile the point seems apt. Now, I know Lileks is significantly younger than I, falling well within the fat part of the blogging demographic, but one must admit that his interests and proclivities have exposed him to a far greater amount of mid-20th century material than is typical. So, gently please: St. James the Great deserves the benefit of the doubt; He Who Should Not Be Linked does not.

I don't think "Filthy" is all that old of a slur...and even if it is old, it's common enough a part of our language that when Lileks prompts "Filthy (group)", most everyone knows what he means.

Now, I don't think O-Dub is an out-and-out anti-semite on that, but it sure was a piss poor choice of words on his part. If you were to type "Filthy Liberman", you'd be hammered for it. I think Lileks was more in the realm of "Gee, look at what this retard just typed out".

I guess I'm too young to have associated "filthy" with "Jew". I honestly thought Lileks was referring to the term "filthy hippie" and was trying to be ironic. As in "remember when the Right referred to filthy hippies? Now the Left uses the same to refer to politicians they don't like. They sound like curmudgeons."

I'm with Lileks on this one. "Filthy Jew" was a standard epithet used by the Nazis...and you can't get more anti-semitic than that.

I think the bigger gaffe is alluding to O-chub as a "brand name." Unless we're talking about Silly Putty.

Cordially...

The part of this whole kerfuffle I enjoyed most is how O-Dub is crying about how Lileks called him an anti-semite (which of course, he did not do -- Lileks merely was making a point about using language that could open one up to such a charge), and then, a paragraph or two later, he calls Charles Johnson a Nazi.

Look in the mirror much, Oliver?

The real question is, if Blogger the Hut hadn't intentionally implied Wolfowitz's assumed Jewish-ness, why would he have used "filthy"? Is W. only a *weekly* bather? Does he oil up too readily under tv lights? Does he smell bad? Does he have some skin disease?

Get real. The only bloody reason he would have picked this particular word is the obvious one, since it has no other descriptive use in this context.

The second I saw "filthy Wolfowitz" I had the same reaction as Lileks, though I had no idea where he was going with that passage. It was immediate, and visceral ... and I'm only in my 40's. Anyone reasonably literate ought to have recognized it right off.

It was no mistake (meaning unintentional).

WAIT! I have anOTHer comment:

Why the HELL do people read Blogger the Hut?!? ... and then comPOUND that flaw with comment upon his blather?

... and, speaking of his blather -- what IS the opposite of "pearls before swine"?

Ace:

You need to come down South and sit a while. You'll hear plenty of racial slurs all the time, right out in the open. You can drive down the street in any working class neighborhood where I live and there are Rebel flags on every block.

"Dirty" is applied to Jews mostly. To a lesser extent, the word gets applied to Lations. But while black folks get lots of adjectives slung at them down here, filthy isn't typically one of them. And white folks get plenty of slurs thrown their way also.

Sad to say, but that's just the culture down here. In some ways, it's rather preferable to see bigotry (if it must exist) out in the open then hidden behind shut doors. At least you know it when you see it.

The "racial slur database" is a good point. Seems to me I remember something like Willis using the RSD to prove that "fat" was a racial epithet.

Anyway, two "Magneto-to-stupid" comments by Willis today:

Movements on the liberal side of the aisle need to throw out these desire for "consensus" and replace it with unified purpose..

And (this would make a good tagline):

And puppets - WTF is up with all the puppets? It makes no sense.--Oliver Willis

Bonus:

500,000 people sporting a single color or logo would make news and some think.

All in one post. This buffoon gets money to write?

Thanks, Mr. Kronos, I really needed to read that shit. What the fuck are you trying to do to me here? Vomit on my damn computer screen.

Just what I needed. To read those sentences makes me wonder why I spend my time analyzing data and writing for a living. I could just fry my brain with narcotics and get paid to post crazy shit like that and earn a living.

It's not about the slur, it's about the HYPOCRISY.

Charlie is spot on in his remarks. That said there are two alternative points of view concerning "he who shall not be named", neither of which are flattering:

(1) He's a dyed in the wool anti-semite and race-baiter on the same footing as a Julius Streicher.

or

(2) He's an ignorant, bombastic fool.

Take your pick.

no one's really been keen on the "filthy Jew" descriptor for a long, long time

Au contraire - it's haute mode, if you know where to look. Like here, here, here, or here.

Interesting afterthought - google "filthy group" where you substitute "Jews" "blacks" etc for "group" and see which ethnic group scores the most returns. (Hint - it ain't "Jamaicans"...) Also how many were recent usages and where they came from...

Ace, luv ya, but I've got to side with Lileks here. I did a google search to find the offending post (curiosity...) and while I didn't find it found all kinds of websites with 'filthy Jews/Zionists'. So it's very much a current epithet in anti-Semitic circles.

I'm not that old but that was the first thing that came to my mind, and upon further reflection, I just find the use of the word "filthy" to describe any human being, unless literal, to be abhorrent, because it is often associated with a racial slur, whether you are referring to Jews, Blacks or whatever......