I disagree with this assertion: "if we are to prevent future Holocausts from happening, we must start seeing each other as more than just people we oppose". What we must start doing is refusing to accept the obliteration of the distinction between two events that have nothing to do with each other. The Holocaust is not "like" any of the…
I disagree with this assertion: "if we are to prevent future Holocausts from happening, we must start seeing each other as more than just people we oppose". What we must start doing is refusing to accept the obliteration of the distinction between two events that have nothing to do with each other. The Holocaust is not "like" any of the events portrayed in the montage at the end the film. It was sui generis. To draw a comparison of it to anything else diminishes the crime and soils the memory of those who perished.
I understand where you're coming from when you talk about soiling their memory, but doesn't putting the Holocaust in a separate, untouchable, unrelatable category undermine the message behind "Never Forget"? The Holocaust was a product of forces inherent in human nature that were manipulated by evil people to an absolutely appalling level, but it wasn't new. If we can't recognize the pattern (and sadly, even if we can), similar things will happen again. It seems like the greatest honor to the victims is to be vigilant of this evil tendency in ourselves and human society.
I was addressing the author’s and apparently Burns’ equivalence of these events, alleged to tell us something about the Holocaust:
“magazine covers featuring anti-immigrant rhetoric; pictures of anti-Muslim graffiti; a brief news clip of Charleston mass-shooter along with the headline “Hatred towards blacks, Hispanics, Jews”; a protest sign that read “Build the wall, nice and tall” along with audio of Donald Trump saying “My first hour in office, those people are gone”; a Fox News clip about replacement theory; videos and images from the Charlottesville protest and riot and the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue; and finally, footage from the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol” all of which, in my view, reflect a loathing of Donald Trump and deployment of the Holocaust in pursuit of that loathing.
If Burns had referred to Armenia, the Holodomor, Cambodia, or Rwanda as examples of crimes against humanity comparable in some misguided sense to the Holocaust at least he would have an argument. Instead, he directs his hatred, as so many on the left do, toward America.
And I beg to differ. The deployment of industrial technology to wipe out 6 million in short order while keeping meticulous records of what they were doing was "new".
And BTW, replacement theory was first advanced by the UN in 2000, not Fox news.
I disagree with this assertion: "if we are to prevent future Holocausts from happening, we must start seeing each other as more than just people we oppose". What we must start doing is refusing to accept the obliteration of the distinction between two events that have nothing to do with each other. The Holocaust is not "like" any of the events portrayed in the montage at the end the film. It was sui generis. To draw a comparison of it to anything else diminishes the crime and soils the memory of those who perished.
I understand where you're coming from when you talk about soiling their memory, but doesn't putting the Holocaust in a separate, untouchable, unrelatable category undermine the message behind "Never Forget"? The Holocaust was a product of forces inherent in human nature that were manipulated by evil people to an absolutely appalling level, but it wasn't new. If we can't recognize the pattern (and sadly, even if we can), similar things will happen again. It seems like the greatest honor to the victims is to be vigilant of this evil tendency in ourselves and human society.
I was addressing the author’s and apparently Burns’ equivalence of these events, alleged to tell us something about the Holocaust:
“magazine covers featuring anti-immigrant rhetoric; pictures of anti-Muslim graffiti; a brief news clip of Charleston mass-shooter along with the headline “Hatred towards blacks, Hispanics, Jews”; a protest sign that read “Build the wall, nice and tall” along with audio of Donald Trump saying “My first hour in office, those people are gone”; a Fox News clip about replacement theory; videos and images from the Charlottesville protest and riot and the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue; and finally, footage from the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol” all of which, in my view, reflect a loathing of Donald Trump and deployment of the Holocaust in pursuit of that loathing.
If Burns had referred to Armenia, the Holodomor, Cambodia, or Rwanda as examples of crimes against humanity comparable in some misguided sense to the Holocaust at least he would have an argument. Instead, he directs his hatred, as so many on the left do, toward America.
And I beg to differ. The deployment of industrial technology to wipe out 6 million in short order while keeping meticulous records of what they were doing was "new".
And BTW, replacement theory was first advanced by the UN in 2000, not Fox news.
Thanks for being one of the few objective and reasoning voices here.
Agreed