It’s often difficult to distinguish between the arguments of anti-semitic pro-Palestinians (à la Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Louis Farrakhan) and anti-semitic white nationalists. Actor John Cusack ran across this problem Monday night when he posted an anti-semitic tweet that used a Neo-Nazi quote, thinking it was a pro-Palestine meme. The Con Air star later deleted the tweet and issued an apology, but through the left’s readiness to forgive, it unintentionally exposed its own hypocrisy.
The tweet in question is a picture of a Star of David-emblazoned arm crushing a group of haggard paupers with a quote that reads: “To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” The quote -- falsely attributed to Voltaire -- comes from Neo-Nazi Kevin Alfred Storm. Cusack added the caption “Follow the money.”
In hilarious irony, the anti-semitic tweet stood in stark contrast to the remainder of his Twitter which serves as a shrine to Bernie Sanders. Bernie, who is ethnically Jewish, described himself as being “100 percent pro-Israel” despite its “racist government.”
Even though the tweet was clearly anti-semitic, Cusack was hell-bent on defending it. Cusack initially blamed the tweet on an “alt-right bot,” stating
A bot got me- I thought I was endorsing a pro Palestinian justice retweet - of an earlier post - it came I think from a different source - Shouldn’t Have retweeted -
After rational critics pointed out the absurdity of blaming a bot, Cusack deleted the tweet.
In Cusack’s apology, he claimed that he did not realize that the picture was anti-semitic, believing that the Star of David solely represented the state of Israel. He also asserted that the tweet was made in the context of an alleged Israeli bombing of a Palestinian hospital. He provided no explanation for his “Follow the money” caption nor the white supremacist quote.
If Cusack was anywhere right of Marx, he’d no longer have a Twitter account. Instead, he was given full pardon. Compare this treatment to that of Kyle Kashuv yesterday. All of Hollywood rushed to condemn the teenager as a racist. All of the media defended Harvard’s decision to rescind his acception. But what do we hear when a fellow lib makes a racist remark? Nothing but crickets.
