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> The Holocaust is far from unique. Only if you ignore the ideology behind it. Which doesn't make Stalin, Pinochet, Franco, Pol Pot or Mao less evil. > "ICE a
by anoncake 7y ago
> The Holocaust is far from unique.
Only if you ignore the ideology behind it. Which doesn't make Stalin, Pinochet, Franco, Pol Pot or Mao less evil.
> "ICE are not executing Jews" distracts from the very valid analogy.
That the ICE isn't executing anyone also doesn't mean that they won't in the future. Heinrich Himmler – the SS leader – called the "bolshevist method of physically exterminating a people [...] un-Germanic and impossible" as late as 1940.
- ncmncm 7y agoIdeologies come and go. It is all sophistry: People will always invent reasons why doing what they are inclined to do is justified, and then do it if not stopped. It is everyone's personal responsibility to stop them.
- anoncake 7y agoThe Nazis didn't just randomly decide to exterminate the Jews and adopt facism as an excuse.
- ncmncm 7y agoThey did randomly decide to exterminate Jews, and Roma, and gays, and Catholic Poles. They were predisposed to fascism because it lent cover to gratuitous violence. Fascism is never a reasoned position. It provides a social framework for people's worst impulses.
- anoncake 7y agoThat wasn't random. The Nazis did have reasons, just not sane ones. > Jews were a culture-destroying race. Just by existing, they weakened the Aryan race. Also, they stabbed Germany in the back after it had won World War 1. > Catholic Poles weren't supposed to be exterminated. In fact, they would be much happier as a culture-less people of uneducated laborers under German rule. They were docile and incapable of leadership or cultural achievements anyway. That "polish" intelligentsia? They actually had German blood. Some could be salvaged and regermanized. But many had to be killed to prevent them from working against Germany. This was very important because German blood made them quite awesome at everything, including treason. > They were predisposed to fascism because it lent cover to gratuitous violence. > Fascism is never a reasoned position. It provides a social framework for people's worst impulses. The Nazis had their share of thugs but impulsivity isn't what leads to industrial genocide. The gas chambers weren't built on a whim. They were built to protect the executioners' mental health, operating a gas chamber is less "personal" than shooting someone. The Holocaust didn't happen because Nazis liked killing people. They thought it was necessary.
- ncmncm 7y agoI see that you really, really don't understand fascists. "Had their share of thugs"? It is the very essence of fascism. They "thought it was necessary" because they preferred to think that way. The Soviets had a completely different set of "reasons". The Chinese have another. ICE and Trump have a third. The behavior is the same. The behavior is the problem. The reasons are a distraction.
- anoncake 7y agoThe reasons are the root cause, the behaviors are the symptoms. Treating symptoms doesn't solve problems. > I see that you really, really don't understand fascists. If gracious violence were the essence of facism, it wouldn't have arised in the 20th century but in prehistoric times.
- ncmncm 7y agoThere was plenty of gratuitous prehistoric and historic violence. Fascism can be seen as a throwback to the old mode. The root cause is authoritarians in power. Ideology is how they try to distract you. Successfully, looks like.
- anoncake 7y agoIf not being ignorant about history distracts me from recognizing that the NSDAP was founded because Hitler was in power, I'm fine with that.