by Summary:
Stephen Law is a philosopher who wrote the book, Believing Bullshit - How Not To Fall Into an Intellectual Black Hole. The Evidence [for anti -Semitism in the Labour Party] What's the evidence supporting the allegation that Labour has an anti-semitism problem? For the most part it consists of a few hundred complaints to the Labour Party, out of well over half a million members. That's a small fraction of one percent of the membership. And then there are various other alleged cases of left anti-semitism that have been featured very heavily in the media. That's it. That's pretty much all the evidence. But of course this is, again, entirely anecdotal, cherry-picked evidence. Citing such examples no more supports the allegation that 'Labour has an anti-semitism problem' than it
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Stephen Law is a philosopher who wrote the book, Believing Bullshit - How Not To Fall Into an Intellectual Black Hole. Stephen Law is a philosopher who wrote the book, Believing Bullshit - How Not To Fall Into an Intellectual Black Hole. The Evidence [for anti -Semitism in the Labour Party] What's the evidence supporting the allegation that Labour has an anti-semitism problem? For the most part it consists of a few hundred complaints to the Labour Party, out of well over half a million members. That's a small fraction of one percent of the membership. And then there are various other alleged cases of left anti-semitism that have been featured very heavily in the media. That's it. That's pretty much all the evidence. But of course this is, again, entirely anecdotal, cherry-picked evidence. Citing such examples no more supports the allegation that 'Labour has an anti-semitism problem' than it
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The Evidence [for anti -Semitism in the Labour Party]
What's the evidence supporting the allegation that Labour has an anti-semitism problem? For the most part it consists of a few hundred complaints to the Labour Party, out of well over half a million members. That's a small fraction of one percent of the membership.
And then there are various other alleged cases of left anti-semitism that have been featured very heavily in the media.
That's it. That's pretty much all the evidence. But of course this is, again, entirely anecdotal, cherry-picked evidence.
Citing such examples no more supports the allegation that 'Labour has an anti-semitism problem' than it supports the allegation that women have a bad driving problem.
This is not to say that there is no antisemitism in Labour - obviously there is. But the suggestion that the Left is riddled with anti-semitism is clearly entirely unjustified. Indeed, drawing that conclusion on the basis of that sort of evidence is a classic example of confirmation bias.
Actually there is plenty of much better quality evidence concerning levels anti-semitism on the Left. However, all this evidence flatly contradicts the claim that there's more anti-semitism in Labour or on the Left than there is elsewhere. For example:
· Jewish Policy Research - a Jewish think-tank - conducted an extensive survey looking into anti-semitism, including on the left (2017). They concluded, and I quote, 'antisemitism is no more prevalent on the left than in the general population'. That's a Jewish think-tank's conclusion.
· A Cross-Party Home Affairs Select Committee was tasked with looking into levels of anti-semitism in the UK (2017). It concluded, and I quote, '...there exists no reliable, empirical evidence to support the notion that there is a higher prevalence of antisemitic attitudes within the Labour Party than any other political party.'
· There is, further, yougov data on antisemitic attitudes that indicates antisemitic attitudes have actually *reduced* in Labour under Corbyn (2018).
· The Chakrabarti inquiry looked into the accusations of significant antisemitism in Labour and found no significant problem.
· In 2016, Channel 4 Dispatches programme did a 6 month undercover investigation of Momentum, looking for dirt, including anti-semitism. They found none at all. After six months of undercover investigation.
So, so far as I can see, all the available hard evidence not only fails to support the allegation that Labour has an anti-semitism problem - it directly contradicts that allegation.
Pretty much everyone agrees there are some anti-semites in Labour. Just as everyone agrees that some women are bad drivers. But is there a greater percentage than in the population at large, or in other parties?
Pointing to a bunch of emotive anecdotes supplied by the Press and on social media is not good evidence that there is. And the fact is that all the available hard evidence very strongly suggests there isn't.
Journalism
So how has this myth been generated? Journalists have played a key roll.
The real story regarding 'Labour's anti-semitism problem' is the story of how this myth about Labour being riddled with anti-semitism arose and came to so dominate the British media for so long - on front page after front page after front page - and with such potential significance for the outcome of the next general election.
A recent Birkbeck College London and Media Reform Coalition Research project into Press reporting on anti-semitism recently concluded that British media reporting of allegations of anti-semitism in Labour has involved, and I quote, "a persistent subversion of conventional news values"
In particular, they said, and I quote: "completely false claims were presented as fact, often without even the most basic challenge." Shockingly, the BBC were singled out as one of the very worst offenders.
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