Charlie Krafft Story Stirs National Debate

..... I was waiting for somebody else to say this. It's an unpleasant topic, so it was easier to pretend it wasn't going on. Finally I just decided to call it bullshit and be done with it. What happened is that I was playing online chess with Harvey. He's Jewish. He lives in Boston. I told him about my friend Charlie Krafft and his anti-Semitic ravings on Facebook. Harvey said why do you even have such a friend?

Good point. So I blocked Charlie on Facebook, because it's not a debatable question. I wasn't initiating a dialog with him, I was ending it.

I also stated this clearly in a Frog Hospital newsletter, dated January 11. People emailed me after that, old friends of Charlie's, saying it's about time for this..... good for you ... yes, it needed to be said .....

But a dangerous path is fixing somebody's life, so I just forgot the whole thing. I'm living in Santa Barbara these days. The weather is nice down here and who needs trouble.

Meanwhile, my story stirred up a national debate on anti-Semitism -- read the story about Charlie Krafft in the Huffington Post -- I am interviewed at the end of it. And one other story about Charlie, also in the Huffington Post.

Both of these national stories were based on a similar story in the Seattle Stranger written by art critic Jen graves --- this story generated more than 200 comments. You might find it interesting to scroll through the comments, especially toward the end, when the white supremacists come out of their dark holes to defend Charlie. These people actually exist!

And the Stranger story was based on my Frog Hospital newsletter about Charlie's bad habit -- posted further down --

The sad thing is that Seattle's soft-headed "tolerant" climate has known and put up with Charlie's mad hatred for many years. It was really about time somewhat called it bullshit, which I did, and apparently it's sticking.

Charlie makes a modest living as an artist. He promotes himself very well. He thrives on controversy. He's verbally agile. But this stuff he's gotten into -- if that's how he needs to make a living, it would be more honorable to collect food stamps or sponge off your relatives.

From the January 11 Frog Hospital

A Message for Charlie Krafft

Charlie Krafft is a well-known and well-liked Seattle artist with a penchant for notoriety. Charlie's appearance is courtly and his manners are thoughtful. He can be quite good company at a dinner in Chinatown -- a part of Seattle that he knows very well.

Then of course there is history -- his sojourn in Fishtown back in the misty dawn of hippies days, when he lived his monk-life in a small cabin on the North Fork of the Skagit River.

But the problem with Charlie -- this is a recent development -- and why beat around the bush -- Charlie has become anti-Semitic. He doesn't yell or scream or say he hates Jews. No, not like that, much more quietly. He might say it's research or just following his curiosity to peer into various websites which preach the Holocaust denial and warn of the Zionist conspiracy.

Charlie has over 2,000 friends on Facebook -- a good place for him to promote his art. You can cruise his Facebook page and find links to all kind of websites. Just this morning, I found a link he had posted to a YouTube video about how the Jews had masterminded the opium trade in China at the end of the imperial age.

Why is that so important to Charlie? He wanted to investigate the behavior of Jewish merchants in the previous century who were doing something they shouldn't have been doing -- it being fairly easy to discover Jewish (i.e. human) transgressions against the common good.

But, Charlie, why are you so interested in Jewish behavior?

He has told me in person that he advocates a "genteel anti-Semitism" -- sort of a high-church Anglican snobbery, as if it were a harmless custom.

I don't think it's harmless. I think it's bad and wrong and nasty and a debasement of Charlie's own character.

He should stop doing this.

Here's another one -- Charlie just sent it to me yesterday, headlined "The Jewish Mafia and Their USA Bankers." How does Charlie find the time to do all this research?

This is nasty stuff. There is nothing good in it.

A lot of people know and like Charlie, including myself. We've been saying for years, "Oh Charlie, that's just the way he is." Why did we ever tolerate this?

I'm not in the habit of fixing someone's life, but here I make an exception. I want this to stop.

Charlie, give it up or be gone!


Onward.



--
Fred Owens
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