The Olympian anti-semitism of the LRB

A Jogo guest blog

The cover of the new LRB (Israel lobby quote) is absolutely shocking. As it sits on newsstands, this cover amounts to a broadside -- a highly compressed, unambiguous MESSAGE -- a rhetorical hammer and nail on the church door. The editors of LRB knew EXACTLY what they were doing.

I think this cover pretty much proves that LRB is not a "review of books" in the old sense of the term.

LRB is an extreme leftwing, anti-American, anti-capitalist, Marxist journal that hides inside the form of a "review of books." In fact, most of the reviews are used to promote the leftist thinking of "reviewers."

Who, by the way, are often not writing actual reviews, but polemics of their own in the *guise* of reviews.

At the same time LRB displays its ultra-refined version of jew-hatred, at the same time it gives succor to the enemies of civilization, at the same time it eats the shyt of Moslems and other anti-capitalist allies, LRB is civilizationally elitist to the extreme, as though civilization would actually survive their hoped-for Marxist revolution.

Not one person in ten thousand understands, or cares about, the content of LRB. Take a look at the little advert for Zizek's new book. Does one person in a hundred thousand understand what this book is about? Will one person in two-hundred thousand read it?

And those personal ads! They are world famous for their snobbery and elitist twittery. (Not that they aren't fun to read, of course.)

My point is that this disgustingly elitist, snobby magazine is not above pushing its political agenda in the crudest, most populist way possible. Jew-hating bastards who haven't a clue who Henry Roth, or Trollope, or Zizek are will be referring to LRB in their jew-hating conversations this month.

Curiously, along with the Jew-hating, you see in LRB an interesting philo-semitic strain (current Henry Roth article is but one of many examples). It is as though jews continue to fascinate on an esoteric plane, but on the ground (as people who shit, piss and want to survive) they have always been somewhat disgusting to the Olympian anti-semites of British academia.

I would not be surprised if a probe inserted into the secret heart of 90% of British academics would show that they *really* desire the destruction of Israel and the end of Jews.

And finally, you get an Olympian hipness in LRB when it comes to art and music and other things the average person has no idea of and no appreciation of. As though LRB readers are not only on the right side of history, not only are smarter than everyone else, but also know more about art and music than anyone else.

(You also get this art-snobbery in A. Cockburn's Counterpunch, counterpoint, actually, to the viciousness of the commentary. See Jeffrey St. Claire's jazz notes, for example. Wow, Mr. Hip.)

Well, anyway twitter, twitter, as usual, innit? Twittering all the way to the gallows. Or to the stoning wall. Or to the clitoridectomist's scalpel (or sharpened can-lid).