Replacing "antisemitic" with "Jew-phobic" [View all]

Unfortunately, the word "antisemitic" has lost meaning for some conversations, particularly with those who wear a t-shirt that reads The Left on it but who don't necessarily really know The Left's musical hits very well.

It's kind of tongue-in-cheek to say this, but for those "left fan" folks, if you want to talk with them, and you want to convey the true astray-ness of people who have strayed into antisemitism, you're better off using a word that has "phobic" in it. Unfortunately for our language, that suffix has come to be a kind of digging, passive-aggressive euphemism for "bigot." Among certain audiences, "Jew-phobic" will work better than "antisemitic" when one is trying to be fully understood.

I've noticed that quite a few writers try to use "Jew hating" as a workaround in an effort to be more clear or to cater to reading shirkers. But that workaround doesn't work. It's aggressive, not passive-aggressive. It's too on the nose, so it ruffles feathers. And it's not good to ruffle feathers. That keeps people from wondering what they always need to wonder, whether a particular description applies to themselves or not.

For conversations with our pitiable and somewhat loathable brethren, far right nationalist antisemites (Christian, Islamic or whatever flavor they choose), we could try "Jew Hater." Unfortunately, you can't use the suffix "phobic" with them or even about them with any other folks within earshot. The crazy ones will just embrace it, and normal listeners will sympathize unconsciously with the crazy because of the distaste for the misuse of "phobic" by too many people who speak or write unpersuasively.