‘Guilt by association’ becomes political weapon

 

‘Guilt by association’ becomes political weapon

Applied to Muslims, Democrats

 

Gordon L. Weil

Last week, a man destructively drove his car into a Jewish synagogue in Michigan.  A guard there killed him.

The man was an American who had immigrated from Lebanon, though much of his family remained there.  Some of them had been killed by an Israeli bomb attack, part of its extensive aerial campaign against Hezbollah, the terrorist group operating there.

The Michigan attack was likely the man’s response to his family’s loss of life.  He acted against an American Jewish religious site, though the bombing had been carried out by Israel, the Jewish state in the Middle East.   Attempting to punish one Jewish community for the actions of another would be a case of guilt by association.

Guilt by association occurs when “an individual is guilty of a crime simply because of his association with the person who actually committed it.”   It is based on an assumption without evidence.

The assumption in this case was that American Jews support Israel’s actions.   In fact, some do and some don’t, so it is incorrect to assume that all Jews agree with Israel simply because they are Jews.

Quite properly, the governor of Michigan quickly condemned the attack.  But she went further, proclaiming that it was an act of antisemitism.   She assumed that the man hated Jews because they were Jewish and acted against them in expressing his sentiment. 

She, too, engaged in guilt by association, ascribing the action to a motivation she assumed rather than the more obvious possibility that the man, not having been known for antisemitism, had not disliked Jews but associated them as members of the same group that had killed members of his family.

Guilt by association has become increasingly frequent in the U.S.  Entire groups are regularly held responsible for the actions of individual members of the group.

Nowhere is that more evident than in attitudes toward Muslims.  The Al Qaeda terrorists who conducted the 9/11 attacks were Muslims.  There are about two billion Muslims in the world, most of them not connected to the Middle East terrorists.  Yet some Americans, reacting to the religious zeal of militant groups, have become strongly opposed to Muslims.

The reaction has gone so far as members of Congress proposing that Muslims should be denied legal entry to the U.S. and, even if legally in the country, should be deported.  Proposals go so far as suggesting that naturalized citizens who are Muslims should be stripped of their citizenship and deported.  This is surely acting out guilt by association.

President Trump asserts that Somali immigrants are “garbage” and says, “We don’t want them in our country.”  In a Minnesota scandal, an organization run by Somalis fraudulently recovered funds meant for food programs.  That action did not involve most of the 260,000 Somalis in the U.S. or impugn their character.

Thanks to guilt by association and a dislike of their country of origin (among what he calls “shithole” countries), Trump wants them removed.  He backed the ICE armed and masked invasion of Minnesota, where the principal casualties were two U.S. citizens, neither of them of Somali origin.

Similarly, Trump says he “hates” Democrats.  Though  he is president of the government of all the people, he treats his opponents as the enemy, implying they are a “socialist” threat to the country.   Because Communists consider themselves socialists, the implication is that Democrats are associated with a traditional American enemy.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent aligned with the Democrats, labels himself as a democratic socialist.  It’s a short step from his affiliation to intentionally confusing the Democrats with socialism, with its barely hidden implications.  The opposition party can be made into a subversive force, which must be defeated.

If you believe GOP allegations that Democrats are socialists, then it becomes possible for voters to abandon them and become unquestionably loyal, conservative Republicans.  One recent report shows that is happening in Maine municipalities, though the cause is not known.  Guilt by association with Bernie’s label is a possibility.

On a much more minor scale, the Epstein documents reveal the names of many people, though none of them has been charged with supporting his illegal actions.  Just having known him is a cause for public scorn and possible retaliation.  Guilt by association has become so common a standard that it can be self-righteously applied to some previously well-regarded individuals.

“Judge not lest ye be judged” is a biblical maxim.  It is obviously tempting to assign guilt to others from a safe or dominant position in society.  But guilt by association clearly has no limits, and anyone may one day find themselves the unwarranted target of those who oppose them.

Not only can it be personally risky, but guilt by association can be a major contributor to the national divisiveness that people say they oppose.