There is no question that the slur “Zio” is antisemitic. As even Ha’aretz acknowledges:
Anti-Semitism linked to “Zio” can be traced back to the late 1980s, according a 2006 Philologos column in Mosaic magazine, when a student at SUNY Binghamton scrawled “Zionazi racist” and “Kill Kikes” near the campus’ Jewish Student Union — on the 50th anniversary of Kristallnacht.
“Zio,” however, didn’t become a common anti-Semitic slur until Duke made it famous over the past decade. A search of Duke’s radio archives reveals that “Zio” has been used 359 times in episode descriptions since January 2012, with 17 mentions in 2017. A search of “Zio” on Duke’s website yields 264 pages of results since 2002.
Following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December 2012, Duke posted that “lead bullets are not murderers.The real murders are not the bullets, but the Bullies of the Zio Media …. Guns did not create the horror in that little school in Sandy Hook, Connecticut. The Zio masters of the media did. They have devoured the real America. The masters of the media continue to take us down the path of human depravity.”
“Social justice activist” Sophie Ellman-Golan, no Zionist by any stretch of the imagination, responded to an antisemite by pointing this out.
Enter DouchebloggerTM Richard Silverstein, who has decided he will use the antisemitic slur, “Zio” if he wants to, dammit!
Of course, I suspect he has a soft spot for Duke. Duke is a fan, after all.
