politics

Absolutely!

All kinds of violent suppression is, but the sheer scale, audacity and inhumanity as well as the complicity of most of the richest and most powerful countries in the world makes for an especially potent recipe for the kind of trauma and feelings of helplessness that leads to the extreme radicalization of oppressed people

antisemitism was alive and well for most of western history

So was anti-Teutonism and anti-Sinoism and anti-Americanism for that matter. I'm not sure you can absolve the Jewish state of its crimes by pointing to a rival clan of bigots.

seeing Israel starve a bunch of children in Gaza make me hate Israel / IDF, not the Jewish baker down the street.

Part of the problem with Zionism (and other ultra-nationalist movements), is how it deliberately works to draw sharp lines between people globally in order to justify horrifying colonial violence locally. I've got Jewish neighbors and family who are very weird on Israel specifically, because they've considered a Jewish State a source of pride for so much of their lives. You can't really address the Gaza Genocide without getting an earful about how Palestinians started it and Arabs deserve it.

In the same way, seeing my state government persecute trans people and black/hispanic minorities can't mentally be divorced from a Texas baker down the street waving a little Trump flag.

I don't know if it's the number one cause, but it has definitely caused me to have some antisemitic thoughts before I caught myself doing it and started making a serious mental effort to always distinguish between Zionism, Judaism, and Jewish ethnicity. Nothing else has ever caused me to give credence to racist ideas.

It also seems pretty obvious to me that it contributes to antisemitism when monsters like Netanyahu are allowed to get away with claiming they represent all Jews.

Reality is a scam made up by Big Philosophy to sell more philosophy.

I have learned so much I’ve forgotten over half of it.

The crux is, i have learned it, told myself "Oh yeah, that's on Wikipedia" and only remember where to find what information. I'm utterly useless without Wikipedia, as many family quiz losses around Christmas turned out.. Hell, even sources i use for discussions on the internet i get often from Wikipedia articles, they sometimes link the actual studies...my google foo is pretty good, but some things i'm simply unable to find, except in the Wikipedia source lists...

Well. I think they can dox someone editing out of Pajala in Sweden, Drenas in Kosovo, Bifuka in Japan or Bella Cola in Canada and it will mean fuck all. Perhaps Cletus in Bumfuck North Carolina will seethe but i will mean nothing