ADL is Actually Doing Little

(SoCI: Still at Valley View. Remember, kids - if you use a microwave, the aliens can scramble the molecules and get inside your brain.)

I should preface this by saying I am a Jew, I am proud to be a Jew, I don't like getting picked on, and picking on Jews isn't nice. Still, the ADL is conducting itself in an awfully immature, ineffective manner regarding the political equivalent of cyberbullying.

The ADL may have its heart in the right place with this campaign, but I think its resources are terribly misdirected thanks to hypersensitivity. It's a Facebook group, people. It's a well-known fact that Facebook is heavily monitored to a scary degree, which means that it's not exactly prime terrorist organization HQ. (I know plenty of organizations that don't advocate the destruction of anything that prefer to stay off Facebook because of its Big Brother qualities.) There certainly are websites and online groups with power and the capacity to cause real-world harm, but I'm pretty sure they're not on Facebook. Besides, if the ADL knew anything about Facebook, it would want all of its enemies organized through it, because that's the best way to keep tabs on people, especially when your cause is more supported by our government and powerful corporations than theirs is.

The ADL is focused on minor name-calling from a bunch of kids who, even if they are educated about the issue at hand, don't have a lot of immediate global power. For perspective, the organizations I'm more knowledgable about - the mental health organizations - fight very hard against stigmatization and public defamation, but even they don't bother going after Facebook groups or other online annoyances. They have plenty to lose from bad public opinion and yet they focus on those who are really in power. 

I realize that it is somewhat hypocritical of me to claim that an online group of young people can't change anything. The ADL is correct in perceiving an ideological threat in the fact that large amounts of young people are anti-Israel, but they're approaching the issue incorrectly. Shutting down the group is not going to win over hearts and minds from the demographic most concerned with their right to free speech. Taking a cue from Icarus and MindFreedom and even the TAC, what the ADL should be using is counter-education and awareness. If they want kids to support the ADL, it shouldn't attack them but rather stage campaigns of PR that show it, the Jewish community, and Israel in a positive light. They've got a lot to work with - Israel tends to be more progressively secular and modernized culturally, so they can appeal to kids' support of gay rights, free speech, self-expression or sexuality. (Or, they can take a stance that doesn't involve as much annihilation of someone else's culture and homeland - but that's an argument I'd rather stay away from.)

It's also rather hypocritical of the ADL to want to shut down these sites, since they're organizing online and using the internet to connect to like-minded people, and there are plenty of people out there who think the ADL is a dangerous or hate group and want its communications shut down. America allows free speech, and while it's terrible to use the internet to claim that you don't like someone, it's completely legal. The group itself is not advocating violence - in fact, its stated mission is to simply change Facebook's policy and country listings. This is contrary to the ADL's mission but not even close to the sort of threat not protected under free speech. If they want the freedom to organize online against certain ideas and beliefs, then they must respect the freedom of others to organize online against certain ideas and beliefs.