Quillette has a piece called Hate Crime Hoaxes are More Common than You Think, by Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning, February 22, 2019.
In a Batman episode that I watched when I was eight or so (this was Adam West as Batman, 1966) a henchman, staring at piles of money says "We're rich! Beyond the dreams of avarice!" and the main villain says "Not my dreams of avarice!"
In the same way, when I see a thing on Cracked saying "Ten Things You Didn't Know About" somethiNg, I can't help noticing that I usually know most of them. So when Quillette says hate crimes are "More Common Than You Think", they're wrong, in my case. I always think "hate crimes" are fake, until they're actually proven.
But the Quillette guys are right—most people have never heard hate hoaxes, and get a little crazy when someone suggests them. In 2017, there was a rash of bomb threats against synagogues, and at the same time, the MSM highlighted some instances of vandalism, or apparent vandalism, against Jewish cemeteries. Trump was dubious about the bomb threats, and Anonymous Attorney blogged at the time that Pennsylvania AG Josh Shapiro Has Apparently Never Heard Of Hate Hoaxes, because Shapiro had reported Trump being dubious:
That's a mainstream outlet, not a blog. But here's the Intercept, not as mainstream, but still big, doing the same thing:
That's from a Sailer blog headlined Dept. of Oops: THE INTERCEPT's Fake News Headline Fail
From The Intercept on February 28, 2017:
Trump Can’t Accept That His Allies Are Targeting Jews — So He Blames His Opponents
From the same webpage today:
Updated: Trump Suggests Anti-Semitic Acts Might Be Faked to Make His Movement “Look Bad”
Robert Mackey February 28 2017, 4:22 p.m.
Editor’s Note:
We have changed the headline of this news story to better reflect its content. Since its publication, former Intercept reporter Juan Thompson was arrested and charged with making bomb threats against Jewish Community Centers and the Anti-Defamation League.
There were actually two synagogue threateners. One, fired Intercept reporter Juan Thompson, was black: see "Nothing to See Here, Please Disperse:" How the NYT Downplays the Juan Thompson Hate Hoax Fiasco.
The other threatener was an Israeli teen: New Jewish Center Bomb Threat Guy Is Jewish Himself—Trump Right Again About Fake Hate.
As for the vandalism in Jewish cemeteries, some of it was actually caused by gravestones being toppled by weather, but some of it was caused by local "teens" in neighborhoods that used to be Jewish but are now black. I am not aware of any of it that was caused by white anti-semites.
My blog post was called If Desecrating Jewish Cemeteries Is A "Neighborhood Tradition" It Must Be A Black Neighborhood.
Here's one guy who was charged as a result:
But there were no public apologies from anyone that I know of, for believing that bomb threats, by their nature anonymous, were caused by Trump supporters, nor any apology from the people who attacked Trump for doubting.
Doubters get attacked, threatened, and publicly shamed. The credulous go on to bigger and better MSM jobs.
Here's hoping the Jussie Smollett thing brings the concept of "hate hoax" to the general public.
