"I’m actually thinking the Klan is actually a little better here, because they can come right out and say, ‘We don’t like Blacks, we don’t like Jews,’" he told a crowd at Duke University.

Jerry Seinfeld likened the Free Palestine movement to the Ku Klux Klan — even saying those who use the phrase “Free Palestine” are worse than the white supremacist group — at a student event at Duke University meant to honor hostages who are being held in Gaza.

Seinfeld spoke at the school in Durham, North Carolina, to introduce a former Israeli hostage, Omer Shem Tov, when he made the remarks, according to the university’s student newspaper, The Duke Chronicle. He reportedly started by saying, in reference to the Free Palestine activist movement, “Just say you don’t like Jews.”

“By saying ‘Free Palestine,’ you’re not admitting what you really think. So it’s actually — compared to the Ku Klux Klan, I’m actually thinking the Klan is actually a little better here, because they can come right out and say, ‘We don’t like Blacks, we don’t like Jews.’ Okay, that’s honest,'" the Chronicle reported Seinfeld said.

      • RFKJrsBrainworm@sh.itjust.works
        131·
        29 days ago

        As gross as this is, and clearly a 17 year old is not an adult by any real standard, but depending on the state it was legal. Just fucking gross and wrong immortal and he should be shamed into Oblivion for doing it.

        • MisterFrog@lemmy.world
          0·
          25 days ago

          This is the real answer. Really, really gross, just not necessarily illegal.

          Age of consent varies. Example in Victoria Australia is it’s within 2 years until 16, anyone from 16 as long as they’re not your teacher or someone else with authority, and then 18 anyone older than 16.

          Prevents stupid shit like I’ve heard from the US where an 18 year old gets booked because the parents don’t like that their 17 year old is having sex…

          Don’t look up the age of consent in China, they’ve really dropped the ball on that one 👀

  • pyre@lemmy.world
    57·
    28 days ago

    i don’t know if anyone worked as hard as Jerry Seinfeld to ruin his own reputation insistently for so long.

    • Karjalan@lemmy.world
      12·
      28 days ago

      I mean, he’s doing a great job of it, but there are a lot of other sensational examples

      Musk, Russel Brand, Kanye, Gervais, Rogan, Rowling, Dilbert guy…

      You could argue none of them were as big a self inflicted fall I guess, but they were all, at times, thought of in pretty high esteem by a lot of of people, and then, well, you know.

        • Karjalan@lemmy.world
          8·
          28 days ago

          Been a while since I’ve heard about him tbf, but IIRC he jumped on the whole “can’t do comedy anymore because they’ll cancel you” shtick when getting criticised for transphobic jokes/remarks.

          I guess his is less offensive and more lazy. Just started rambling like an old man about cancel culture and comedy dying and hisow comedians “speak secret truths” instead of realising that the material wasn’t funny and was offensive and working on improving that.

          He’s definitely the weakest example from the list, I’d put him in the same vein as Chapelle actually.

          • Aqarius@lemmy.world
            2·
            28 days ago

            He strikes me as the one genuine example of doing edgy jokes because he actually likes edgy jokes.

        • pyre@lemmy.world
          3·
          28 days ago

          exposes that Stephen Merchant was the funny guy all along.

          more directly, he leans into the “legalize comedy” stuff basically, pretends that he’s too edgy and people constantly want to cancel him. when in reality he’s just doing transphobic hack comedy. he’s just generally super cringe.

          my favorite thing about him is James Acaster mocking the shit out of him on one of his shows.

          https://youtu.be/UHqma3rx-xI?t=154s

    • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
      2·
      28 days ago

      I don’t think this even dents it compared to his “what’s the deal with high school girls” thing.

  • Zombiepirate@lemmy.worldEnglish
    491·
    29 days ago

    Exactly what I’d expect from the billionaire leech class.

    I wonder what he thinks about a thirty-eight year old man dating a seventeen year old? Oh wait we know already.

    Dude’s been fuckin’ gross for years, nobody should take moral advice from this pedo.

  • itisileclerk@lemmy.world
    27·
    28 days ago

    TIL Jerry Seinfeld is genocide supporter. Anyway, he is a fucking rich comedian, he knows nothing about anything. He thinks tha being jew or white american gives you rigth to kill entire nation. Scumbag.

      • arsCynic@lemmy.mlEnglish
        45·
        28 days ago

        Jerry Seinfeld is also a pedophile: https://www.thedailybeast.com/jerry-seinfelds-17-year-old-girlfriend-saga-resurfaces-after-duke-walkout/

        While Jerry’s statement “‘Free Palestine’ are worse than the Ku Klux Klan” is absolutely moronic, he is not attracted to prepubescent children:

        “Pedophilia (alternatively spelled paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty at age 10 or 11, and boys at age 11 or 12, psychiatric diagnostic criteria for pedophilia extend the cut-off point for prepubescence to age 13.” ―https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedophilia

        • Seth Taylor@lemmy.world
          3·
          28 days ago

          There’s actually a separate word for people who prey on teenagers, if you want to be precise. I don’t remember what it is. I’m not up to date on my varieties of sex offender and I don’t want to put that in my search history.

          • arsCynic@lemmy.mlEnglish
            21·
            28 days ago

            still illegal

            Apparently it wasn’t:

            “The minimum legal age of consent to sex in New York is now and was then 17. They dated for approximately four years, from 1993 to 1997. During the relationship, she transferred from George Washington University to UCLA, in part to be with Seinfeld; she cited constant press coverage and missing New York City as reasons for the relationship ending.” ―https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoshanna_Lonstein_Gruss

            I don’t understand why people feel the need to call others things they’re not and simultaneously want to be taken seriously in a debate. If words have no meaning then what’s the point? Jerry Seinfeld strikes me as a pretentious greedy immoral douchebag and his comparison with the KKK can stand on its own as a proper reason for ridicule.

            • Soup@lemmy.world
              2·
              28 days ago

              While agree that words should have meanings, he definitely still was nearly 40 and apparently preferring the company of a 17 year old. Not a pedo by the evidence presented, ok, but that ice is thin.

              • arsCynic@lemmy.mlEnglish
                21·
                27 days ago

                While agree that words should have meanings, he definitely still was nearly 40 and apparently preferring the company of a 17 year old. Not a pedo by the evidence presented, ok, but that ice is thin.

                That’s not thin ice. Paedophiles are attracted to prepubescent children, i.e., below the age of 13. Here’s where the ice is at its thinnest to diagnose someone as a paedophile, while ethically one is already submerged of course, when acted upon. It’s obviously not to be taken lightly with traumatic life-changing consequences when indulged. This is why it’s important to not throw terms around ignoring their meaning. People who actually are born with this condition should find ways to get psychological help to prevent it manifesting into reality. Irresponsibly throwing reputation destroying terms around causes people not to communicate, to suppress, and in the worst cases to satisfy their urges in secret which in turn increases the most wicked forms of suffering.

                The aforementioned conditions are not at all present in Seinfeld-Lonstein’s case, where context matters. Here’s a quote from a book I’m reading which is an apt litmus test to decide if any relationship is weird or not.

                “I spent Saturday evening at Leonberg. In Lisa [Remppis] I’ve found a person I can love wholeheartedly. Don’t misunderstand me, though. I realize Lisa’s half a child still, and I’m not depriving her of her childishness. I can’t philosophize with her.” ―Hans Scholl, At the Heart of the White Rose: Letters and Diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl

                Judging from the sources I’ve read Shoshanna and Jerry were able to talk to each other without one manipulating the other. While it’s statistically more unlikely considering their indeed unusual age gap, it does happen. They had a relationship for four years, so clearly it seems she was fine with it. Conversely, I’ve seen people in their thirties talk to each other where one was clearly dumbing themself down when talking to their significant other, which seemed quite weird.

                TL;DR: there’s a night and day difference between actual indulging paedophiles who cause human trafficking and unimaginable suffering/death, and haphazardly being attracted to someone in their late adolescence. Conflating the two does the victims and the justice system a disservice. The former belongs to the most horrible forms of human depravity, while the latter, well, doesn’t. If one needs to manipulate another to form a connection, then it is ethically wrong regardless of age.

                • Soup@lemmy.world
                  1·
                  28 days ago

                  Ok, so the guy goes for as young as he possibly can and we’re going to assume that that confirms that he wouldn’t going any younger if he could? That’s the thin ice I’m talking about. I agree that we cannot call him a pedophile because there is no direct evidence of it, I’m on board with that, but his actions are not doing a lot for him. If he said “oh yea I like 24 year olds and older” that’s still weird for his age but it shows that his limit is a personal one and not a legal one.

                  It’s also weird that he says he could love someone whole-heartedly but also couldn’t properly communicate with her on more nuanced topics. Like, what made this minor so great and why could he not find that in anyone between 30-45y/o?

  • waddle_dee@lemmy.world
    25·
    28 days ago

    This reminds me of Norm McDonald’s bit, “People say the worst thing about the whole Bill Cosby thing is the hypocrisy. I disagree, I thought it was the raping that was the worst” apologies for butchering it, but I think it’s very relevant, considering it was on an episode of comedians in cars with Jerry

  • dylanmorgan@sh.itjust.works
    24·
    28 days ago

    He’s been overrated as a comedian his entire career, I feel zero sense of loss from continuing to ignore every syllable he produces.

  • Gates9@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    24·
    28 days ago

    Jerry Seinfeld’s entire public profile can be attributed to Larry David. If it weren’t for him, he’d just be another mediocre Leno-esque standup. Nobody would remember him because he sucks.

  • Optional@lemmy.world
    24·
    29 days ago

    Unpopular opinion but the guy’s been out of “real life” for almost three decades now. His bubble is made up very heavily by the worldview of Jewish voices, specifically those from New York Money which is a thing, and it’s not that surprising his take is what it is.

    That said, yeah he probably shouldn’t be talking publicly about it. Because that’s ridiculous. For “regular” Jewish Americans, this time about this topic is incredibly distressing. Sort of like if your whole extended family, town, state, and media voted trump and think everything’s difficult-but-good, when obviously it’s beyond horrible.