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Sat 17 Oct, 2015 12:45 am
The word neocon gradually became a political codeword referring to hawkish support for wars like the one in Iraq. Used to describe a pro-Israeli faction in the government that was often seen as a cabal, it also took on much of the tone of traditional anti-Semitic tropes.
What does "it also took on much of the tone of traditional anti-Semitic tropes" mean here?
I'm not certain what the author means here, nor even that the author is correct about the neocons--but traditional antisemitic tropes (the author has screwed up the word antisemitic) means common stereotypes which promote antisemitic prejudices--that all Jews are greedy, that there are Jewish cabals to manipulate non-Jews, that Jews control the world's financial systems. Those are tropes, common over-used descriptions of Jews which are prejudicial in nature, i.e., antisemitic.
@Setanta,
Thanks, so what does "took on" mean here? Does it mean that the neocons has become the target of the traditional anti-Semitic tropes?
In this context, "took on" means assumed the "assumed the appearance or attributes of" something.