[msla]

Were I to spread lies about horrible things the Jews were doing, Jewish people around me would become angry and, yes, fearful, depending on my ability to make or find platforms, not because they'd be afraid I was telling the truth, but because, historically, those lies have been early warning signs for violence against Jews, including state violence.

Making it more personal: Would you get angry were someone to falsely accuse you of a crime? Would it frighten you? Would those emotions come from a lack of confidence in the truth, or a lack of confidence in your support system and, ultimately, the justice system to separate fact from fiction?

[philwelch]

Empirically, many people seem to be willing to believe deranged conspiracy theories about Jews. That doesn’t mean those theories are correct or credible in any objective sense, but the risk is exactly that people might believe or take seriously those claims.

The thing is, if you really want to prevent antisemitic violence, censorship is not going to help. If someone claims that the Jews rule the world, you can argue, “so why did the Jews end up on the wrong side of the Shoah” and if they claim the Shoah didn’t happen, you bring out all the documentary evidence that it did happen. If censorship is on the table, the anti-Semite can—as he does in many countries already—censor all of the documentary evidence that demonstrates the barbarity of his position.

[strogonoff]

Hate speech: I have encountered that at times, have you? Anger is pointless, because that is what they want. Allegation of a crime: probably not going to anger me if I did not commit it, but may make me afraid if it is made by law enforcement.

Fear is natural if hate has the potential to spill into action, but anger is a signature behavior of a cornered creature—it will not lend credence to any of your counter statements and is useful in a very, very limited range of scenarios. Keep your cool.

[msla]

Hot anger is pointless, except as a social signal, cool anger drives action and is very powerful.

[strogonoff]

Now I am not sure where you are going.

To circle back to the topic at hand, any anger stems from fear/insecurity (which may or may not be warranted); when it happens unexpectedly when discussing a random topic, like in TFA—no one wishes death to anyone, and yet someone gets mad—then it is a useful indicator.