Antisemitism as a Terminological Distortion: A Structural Intelligence Analysis of Language, Identity, and Misapplied Classification

This paper applies Structural Intelligence to examine the term Antisemitism as a case of terminological distortion. The root term “Semitic” originates from Semitic languages, a linguistic classification that includes multiple populations across the Middle East and Africa.

However, modern usage of “antisemitism” refers exclusively to hostility toward Jewish people, creating a mismatch between linguistic structure and applied meaning. This distortion is compounded by the widespread conflation of Yiddish and Hebrew, despite their belonging to entirely different language families. The result is a system in which language, identity, and terminology are misaligned, enabling imprecise or expanded application of labels beyond their original structural boundaries.

This paper analyzes how this distortion forms, stabilizes, and is operationalized—and how Structural Intelligence can restore coherence.