Re: Palin's secret message

On Sat, 15 Jan 2011, Mike Findlay wrote:
> So blood libel applies to medieval Jews?

That is what the term originally referred to, yes.

> Hmmm, I guess it was inaccurate, and since it wasn't being applied in 
> the exactly proper historical context - offensive as well, to call The 
> Passion Gibson's blood libel.

Actually, Mel's film was nothing if not medieval.  That was kind of the 
whole *point* of the criticism around that film: that it was reviving the 
medieval passion plays *along with* the anti-Semitism that was part of 
those plays.  (The fact that Mel himself has called Jews "oven dodgers" to 
their face, or that the film was reportedly popular in the distinctly 
anti-Semitic Muslim world -- where Palestinian schoolbooks basically teach 
a modernized version of the same old blood libel -- doesn't help.)

Now, I think these criticisms of Mel's film were a little overblown; if 
you compare his treatment of Simon of Cyrene to that of Sr. Anne Catherine 
Emmerich, whose visions formed the basis of Mel's film, it's obvious that 
Mel (and/or his screenwriter) *toned down* the anti-Semitism in there.

But Mel Gibson, like Sarah Palin, is not a very deep thinker or a very 
careful speaker, and so he was clueless about some of the signals he was 
sending out.  And Mel's combativeness, like Sarah's, didn't help either.

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