As Expected… | The Ashford Zone

The rightosphere is full of lots of stories, marginally documented, which aim to paint the entire OWS movement.

You know what I mean… "There is a guy on Wall Street at the protesters shouting anti-Jewish slogans. Therefore, the whole movement is anti-Zionist and probably socialist and communist as well."

(Interestingly, another meme from the right is that the whole movement is backed by George Soros. Soros, a Jew.)

It's happened before. When the Tea Party was at its apex, liberal bloggers and commenters (myself included) were quick to note extremely racist signs (as well as the lack of ethnic diversity).

But here's the difference. There's tangible and overwhelming evidence that the supposed anti-semitism is isolated. ADL National Director Abraham Foxman condemns those incidents, but acknowledges "we believe that these expressions are not representative of the larger views of the OWS movement."

But if you want tangible proof, here's a video. It was shot at the Wall Street demonstration on Yom Kippur Eve and it features not a few anti-Semites but thousands of Jews celebrating the holiest day of the Jewish year, a day dedicated to the same ideals as Occupy Wall Street: repentance for putting our desires before the needs of the poor, the homeless, and the exploited.

Perhaps one of the funniest misfires from the right comes from Pajamas Media, noting that many protesters are wearing a “neo-swastika power symbol”. But as Charles Johnson mockingly points out, it's nothing but a Twitter hashtag symbol (see photo)