I have a confession to make.
I went to the movies this past week. It was a cold, miserable day and anyway, it was half-price Tuesday, only $7.75 a ticket. But that’s not the confession.
Flight Risk, the new Mark Wahlberg action flick, looked halfway interesting and it also starred Michelle Dockery, who played Lady Mary Crawley on Downton Abbey.
I love her.
As the film ended and as I was getting up to leave, I glanced at the credits and saw, to my horror and disgust, that the film was directed by Mel Gibson. If I had known he was the director I would never have bought a ticket. Mea Culpa.
But it reminded me how far antisemitism has come since Gibson’s outbursts in 2006.
When Gibson blurted out during a DWI arrest, that “The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world” along with a bunch of “f-ing Jew” spews, he was criticized, castigated and cut off from the mainstream Hollywood community.
He had to go on national television to apologize. He was contrite and blamed his hate-filled words on “the stupid ramblings of a drunker.”
Even so, it took Gibson years to resurrect his career. Now, he’s back in the good graces of tinsel town, and he was just appointed by Donald Trump as “special ambassador” to Hollywood, whatever that means
Twenty years ago, antisemites at least had to apologize for their Jew hatred to get their lives back. Or they did a stint at the Simon Wiesenthal Center for some reeducation.
I guess those were the good ol’ days of antisemitism.
What Mel Gibson said almost twenty years ago pales in comparison to Kanye West’s 2025 social media, massively deranged antisemitism, X’ed to his thirty-some-odd million followers. No apologies desired. No apologies required.
Gibson is an amateur compared to Candace Owen’s relentless Holocaust denying, world Jewish conspiracy antisemitism, that is watched by her millions on social media. She’s a proud hater not looking for rehab.
Thirty million or so Instagram followers apparently love Dan Bilzerian’s bile, his deep hatred for Israel and his brazen, big league antisemitism. Compared to Bilzarian, Mel Gibson is a scrub.
Tucker Carlson is a welcomed guest at the White House even though he cavorts with known antisemites and accuses Israel of intentionally killing women and children in Gaza. His is a smug, a sober, a more sophisticated and nuanced antisemitism. Confident and articulate, he is a far cry from Gibson’s drunken diatribe.
And of course, almost everyday we are slapped with regular folk posting all sorts of antisemitic remarks on their personal social media pages.
As we saw this past week, AI can generate videos of Jewish celebrities wearing t-shirts giving the middle finger to Kanye West and expensive Super Bowl ads can call out Jew haters in thirty seconds. While they may make us feel good, I’m not sure if they’re making much of a difference.
Antisemitism is the evil that keeps morphing and growing. Jews alone cannot squash it. There needs to be an overwhelming and unrelenting societal repudiation and rejection of these post-Gibson, unrepentant, uninhibited and unbowed antisemites. We’ve seen some of that, but not nearly enough.
Now, about Gibson’s movie. It sucked. The plot was ridiculous, the acting was lame and the special effects were cheesy.
Even my beloved Lady Mary couldn’t save it.
And now for something completely different…
This past week, New York Mayor Eric Adams was let off the hook on his five count federal corruption indictment, by his new bestie, President Donald J. Trump.
You might think that it’s a good thing for Adams’ reelection chances that he won’t be tied up in a trial while trying to hold on to the mayor’s office.
Well, put this in your political pipe to puff on, and pay close attention to what Black leaders in New York are saying about the Department of Justice’s gift to Adams.
Take Al Sharpton, for instance. He’s been a key ally of hizzoner, but this past week Sharpton said he and other Black leaders may be rethinking their support for the mayor’s reelection.
Sharpton said he’s worried about the deal Adams made with Trump to cooperate with the president’s deportations in New York.
Sharpton said, “It certainly sounds like President Trump is holding the mayor hostage.”
And then, he issued the potential political kiss of death. “I have spoken to several elected officials and clergy to meet between now and the weekend to decide where we will go because we have clearly crossed the Rubicon.”
Uh-oh for E.A. Sounds like Sharpton and co. are just looking for an excuse to dump him. But who would they throw their support behind?
Lurking in the background on all of this is none other than Andrew Cuomo.
For months, Cuomo’s been courting Black New Yorkers in his bid to run for mayor and to resurrect his political career that was blown up over allegations of improper sexual behavior.
Cuomo started his comeback tour months ago, visiting Black churches and speaking to their congregants.
But it’s been a tricky thing for Andrew. While he desperately needs Black support if he wants to unseat Adams, but he can’t be seen as the guy who threw New York’s Black mayor overboard into the Gowanus Canal.
Buuuttt, if the African-American kingmakers of New York desert Adams, that leaves the door wide open for Cuomo.
Of course, Andrew will have to make some deal to get Sharpton, Hakeem Jeffries et al, on his bandwagon and we’ll have to keep a close eye on what that amounts to.
While Trump did Adams a huge solid to keep him out of the pen, Trump may have also thrown Adams a huge wrench into his bid to remain in City Hall for another four years.
So stay tuned. There’s lots of backroom politicking going on and lots of deals that will be made.
But let me tell you this. I’ve dealt with Andrew Cuomo over the years when he was governor. For sure he has lots of baggage, issues and hangups, but he’s one of the smartest politicians around.
It’s going to get real interesting.