I believe Valerie Plame, the former C.I.A. operative and fading liberal celebrity, when she says she missed the anti-Semitic “undercurrents” in an article she called “provocative, but thoughtful.” I believe her when she says she “zeroed in on the neocon criticism” but missed the article’s more prejudicial elements.

The article was titled “America’s Jews Are Driving America’s Wars.” It uses variants of the word “Jew” 22 times. The word “neocons” appears only twice. I believe Plame is telling the truth when she says the subtlety was lost on her.

I believed Donald Trump when he insisted last year there was nothing amiss with him tweeting the image of a six-pointed star superimposed over a pile of $100 bills alongside a picture of Hillary Clinton and the caption “Most corrupt candidate ever!” I believe him when he said it was a sheriff’s star, not a Star of David.

I did not believe white supremacist David Duke when he said there was “no way” it was a sheriff’s star. What does David Duke know about dog whistles anyway?