“Refreshing,” somehow, doesn’t seem quite the right word. But with so much contemporary resentment of Jews expressed in oh-so-subtle ways, dressed up as genteel, high-minded criticism of “Zionists,” “globalists” or “bearers of white privilege,” it’s sort of, I guess you could say, invigorating to witness the antics of a forthright, potty-mouthed, ludicrously Jew-hating loser like Jon Minadeo II.
The California man (now rumored to have moved to Florida), according to his posting last week on the social media platform Gab (under the grossly misleading on both counts handle “Handsome Truth”), was arrested last week in Poland. For railing against Jews.
At the gates of Auschwitz. Holding up a profane sign.
Released after a short detention, minus his seized computer and swastika chains, he exulted: “You can’t keep me down, Jews!”
Mr. Minadeo, who, before finding his crass calling, worked as a waiter and amateur actor, is a real work of art (well, cartoons are considered art). The founder of what he amusingly calls the “Goyim Defense League,” he has placed flyers with anti-Semitic messages on lawns across the country, and encouraged others to do so.
He has also hung banners from California highways with slogans like “Honk if you know the Jews want a race war.”
His accomplice in some of those intrepid feats was one Jesse Shenk, who, incidentally, was arrested and charged with, among other things, “communicating with a minor with intent to commit specified offenses.”
Another of Mr. Minadeo’s confederates is Robert Wilson, who appeared with him at Auschwitz. Mr. Wilson faces felony battery for allegedly, unprovoked, striking a neighbor in the face.
Know them, as they say, by the company they keep.
Though Mr. Minadeo primarily loathes Jews, he’s an equal opportunity hater. In a video he made during his visit to Poland, he follows and harasses a South Asian immigrant walking down the street.
“Why are you here?” he demands to know. “You think you can just invade Poland? Why don’t you go back to your own country?” And “Why are you coming to the white man’s land?”
Ignoring the man’s plea to leave him alone, Mr. Minadeo continues to harangue the poor fellow with slurs like “parasite” and accusations like “You’re genociding our race” for more than four minutes.
He also videos himself at an outdoor café in Poland wearing a T-shirt that says “White Pride” and sporting a gold swastika necklace. When a man approaches and tells him the Nazi symbol is illegal, he asks who made it illegal. The man answers “the Polish government.”
“No, the Jewish government!” is Mr. Minadeo’s reply, adding obscenities for good measure and then a challenge to a fight, which is declined.
There are those who, entirely reasonably, feel that “Goyim Defense League” and its ludicrous leader are best just ignored. The fact that his flyers have appeared from California to New York and New Jersey means nothing more than that there are societal reprobates out there with computers, printers and time on their hands—no great chiddush, to understate the case.
And Mr. Minadeo makes no secret about how much he craves attention and has thanked those who express public disgust with him. “Thanks, Jews, for the publicity,” he has announced.
Indeed, there is nothing to gain by directly challenging him. As the old adage has it, “Never wrestle with a pig. You just get dirty, and the pig enjoys it.” And it’s hard to effectively parody or mock someone who is already a parody and mockery.
But there’s an upside, I think, to at least exposing the larger public to men like Mr. Minadeo. Let people see what anti-Semitism and xenophobia look like, denuded of all pretensions.
And it’s especially worthwhile for the urbane and civil critics of “Zionists,” “globalists” and “bearers of white privilege” to see the same.
Because there’s always the possibility, remote though it may be, that, after a bit of honest introspection, they might come to recognize a bit of Minadeo-think in their own minds, buried deep and festering in what they imagine are their impartial, enlightened positions.
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