This is like the way if you mock someone for making a typo, you'll make a typo.

But it's far worse:

The guys at @PodSaveAmerica laugh at JD Vance for not knowing what the academic definition of a blood libel is—and then immediately demonstrate that they know even less about it than he does...

Instant Karma. pic.twitter.com/LFN6HY6rAx

— H.A. Hazony (@HAHazony) September 3, 2026

There's so much blood in the old stories, so much blood to choose from. They ALL get confused. The term "blood libel" is specific, but there is seemingly very little awareness of what it refers too. Over time, where there is misuse, does the meaning broaden? Actually, it can. It's called "extended use."

And the OED entry for "blood libel" recognizes the original and the extended use: "The (unfounded) accusation that Jewish people use the blood of Christians in religious rituals, esp. in the preparation of Passover bread; an instance of this (cf. blood accusation n.); (also in extended use) an unfounded defamation."

That's enough to warrant circumspection with respect to what Vance said. Those Pod Save America guys veered right into ridicule. A big mistake... especially since the topic could not be more serious.

ADDED: Here's "The Ridiculous Hyper-Parsing of JD Vance" by Rich Lowry at National Review.

It’s true that Vance garbled a discussion of blood libel and blood guilt, and it’s true that [Tucker] Carlson talks a lot about blood guilt (a coincidence that makes some people queasy), but it’s obvious that what Vance meant is the opposite of Tucker Carlson’s point. When Carlson brings this up, he basically says that Christians don’t believe in blood guilt and Jews do; Vance was saying that both Christians and Jews reject blood guilt, and you are a bad Christian if you don’t.

The passage is worth quoting in full: 

JD Vance: My solution to this, and, you know, I’m hardly an expert on the Jewish faith, but I believe that Jews and Christians, one of the critical things that we agree on is this concept of Imago Dei, that we are all made in the image of God. It says it right there in the Hebrew Bible in the book of Genesis. And what I . . . say to the people, like the root of antisemitism, the core of antisemitism to me, is the idea of blood libel. The idea that because of your genetics, because of your blood, because of your ancestry, you are guilty of a crime that you never committed. And I think that blood libel, which is at the root of antisemitism, is the exact opposite of the Christian gospel. And because of that, I believe the gospel is actually the solution to this.

And when I see, you know, you’re right that . . . Fishback won college-educated, or . . . not college-educated, but he won some of the college precincts.

Norm Coleman: University precincts.

JD Vance: I guess my response to that is I say that you cannot be a Christian, and I would say, you know, you know better than I would, but I don’t think that you can be a Jew either if you engage in this idea of blood guilt against people. And I think the antidote to antisemitism is the rejection of this idea of blood guilt. And I would tell any young man who claims to be a Christian that . . . this is super corrosive for the soul. And this brings me to my . . . final point.

So, we’re about to commemorate the 25-year anniversary of September 11, but of course that day will now always have a transformed meaning for me, because I was supposed to go to the 9/11 memorial service last year, but I ended up going to Arizona to take Erika and Charlie Kirk — Charlie Kirk had just been killed — from Utah to Arizona, where Charlie of course was buried. And Charlie, who by the way, like had disagreements with our foreign policy in the Trump administration, had criticisms of the Israeli foreign policy, he was not a person who was always perfectly politically aligned, he was a free-thinking guy, he loved Israel, but he also said something that I just keep on returning to, which is that Jew hatred is corrosive to the soul.

AND: By the way, the OED defines "blood guilt" as: "Guilt for the shedding of blood; responsibility for wrongful killing." No extended use mentioned. So Vance is misusing that term. Having said that, I feel sure I will misused a term today.