This video starts out with a bicycle ride down a New York city street. No stunt riding. No weaving in and out of traffic. No traffic at all until a mini van passes the bicyclist. Then stops. The man riding the bicycle passes the minivan on the right. The minivan passes the bicyclist on the left. And stops. Again. The bicyclist squeezes by the minivan on the van’s right and continues along. The minivan passes the cyclist again on the left ans stops in front of the cyclist. And the minivan pulls to the right. And the confrontation begins. On “film.”
And the dialogue begins.
Van Driver: “You don’t drive down the middle of the street.”
Cyclist: “What the fuck were you doing back there?”
Cyclist: “Come on and hit me, Hit Me.”
Van Driver: “You don’t block my car.”
Cyclist to passer by: “He’s harassing me.”
Van Driver to passer by: “He’s harassing me.”
Well, you get the idea I hope. Watch the video from World Star of David,
There is a type of argument that I consider unfair and other than not giving in to the overt antagonism I am unable to formulate a good defense. I don’t think that it’s anti-semitic to call some of the Hasidim assholes and this road-rage incident instigated by the operator of the mini-van serves to further the point I’m trying to make. Here you see the driver of an automobile pass and stop in front of a bicyclist several times before using his automobile to force the bicyclist off his bicycle.
I think that this form of argument, used by the Hasidic driver comes from a place of deep contempt for anyone not of his neighborhood. That’s a problem because the ultra-orthodox Hasidim pull out the “You’re Anti-Semitic” card at a moments notice and no one wants to say the words: NO, you’re just being an asshole. Yeah, I’m not the most well spoken person around.
