Thursday, September 28, 2006

Read: "The Plot: the secret history of the protocols of the Elders of Zion" by Will Eisner

Read: The Plot: the secret history of the protocols of the Elders of Zion by Will Eisner, 2005, 9780393328608

Eh. Not so great. Plot works well as a succinct summary of the fraud and nonsense of the 'Protocols'. Plot kinda sucks as a comic nonfiction work. This would have been a quicker and more informative read for me as an essay.

Eisner traces the full history of the fraud from it's origins as a harsh critique of Napolean the Third, to the Russian government's plagiarization of the French publication, to the constant rebirth of the 'protocols' in different languages by different publishers.

One critique: Eisner traces how the fraud keeps popping up over and over and gives a recent list of the different countries where different publications have appeared. But, most of the publications look like fringe groups that are preaching to the anti-semitic choir. There are more 'official' publication sources like Hamas. Hamas? The only people believing those murderers are already on their side, they won't be getting many converts.

Eisner's point in Plot is that the fraud keeps living even after being repeatedly, and convincingly, debunked. How is it surprising that anti-Israeli/Jew groups still like to push it? The long legs of the protocols is no different than the crap about the Masons, the Illuminati, Catholic church, or Jack the Ripper conspiracies. I question whether Eisner was really shocked by how the stupidity stays alive.

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