'Why Do People Hate Jews': Reactions to Henry Blodget's BI Post

Trolling Level 10: 'Why Do People Hate Jews?'

Henry Blodget runs Business Insider. He also likes to pose chin-scratchers such as "Why do people hate Jews?" Once the inevitable backlash occurred (I think it took about seven and a half seconds), Blodget hastily changed it to "What are the Sources of Antisemitism?" (after a bit of a misstep) .

Mind you, Henry Blodget didn't actually write an article on the subject. He simply punted the question to the comment section. Again, Blodget took a sensitive topic... and placed it in the hands... of internet commenters.

This is a heady mixture of trolling and clickbait.

Henry Blodget is under heavy fire on Twitter, and rightfully so: he (probably unironically) wonders why people are so gosh-darned upset, so we'll break it down in small words: Henry, you asked a question which invites hatred, and you failed to even try to answer it in your own article. 

It's not that Blodget is necessarily antisemitic. It's just that he doesn't seem to care one way or the other what the "answer" is. Henry, if you really, really, really want to know why antisemitism exists, there's always the option of putting on your shoes and socks and going to your local library. Don't leave it to the commentariat, or to Wikipedia.

Oh, but Blodget is "trying to fight ignorance!". Well, you just scored an own-goal. It's not that you can't discuss anti-semitism. It's just that if you say you're going to, then you have to get up off your ass and actually discuss it.

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Also you cannot simply repost something you saw on Yahoo freakin' Answers and call it an article. Bottom line: Lazy and puerile, not to put too fine a point on it.

Please try again, Henry. You can't make more of a hash of it than you did the first time.

You want traffic, dude? Well, you have a guy chewing people's faces off in Miami. If you can't get traffic from that, then try a different career path.

But enough from us. Let's look at some of the other reactions, to which Blodget seems to reply with gormless surprise:

• Dan Nosowitz: "@hblodget it's a question literally written for children which you have lazily and sloppily chosen to exploit rather than explore."
• Joe Podhoretz: "You want to understand anti-Semitism, @hblodget? Read a book. Or does that just take too much time?"
• thisisjendoll: " today's two things i'm refusing to read: anything about cannibals or what henry blodget did." [Oh, how we wish we could do the same...]
• Margarita Noriega:"Blodget (verb; pron. BLAH-jet) : to provoke fury among the public, especially peers, by asking complex questions in a brief manner."
  
• rachelsklar: "@hblodget If you are willing to turn this massive shitshow into something good here Henry I am willing to help you try. Use your platform."
• mediagazer: "Just In Case You Were Starting to Respect Henry Blodget... "
• laura_june: "henry blodget you have to be fucking kidding me"
• Loren Feldman posits that Henry Blodget is indeed anti-semitic, and still smarting from his financial-industry lifetime ban at the hands of Elliot Spitzer. Feldman, to put it mildly, is not a Blodget fan.
  

You can see more reactions below. Meanwhile, we eagerly await Blodget's next think-piece, "How is Babby Formed?".