Comment by bell-cot | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bell-cot | Hacker News Reader

What fraction of young Americans could even vaguely describe Joseph Stalin's 3-decade reign of terror (1922-1952), let alone have a sense of how many millions he killed? Or the Romani Holocaust? Or the horrors of King Leopold II's so-called Congo Free State? Or ...

(Yes, it's interesting that the article calls the Holocaust "one of modern history’s greatest crimes" - but gives zero words to any of the others. And there's no hint that the poll asked about any of the others.)

If your knowledge of history is pretty minimal, but you keep seeing "Because Holocaust!" used as some kinda magical rhetorical/moral trump card...then having serious doubts about that "Holocaust" thing is fairly reasonable, AS AN UNINFORMED EMOTIONAL REACTION. [Please re-read the shouty part there 3 times, before you angrily respond.]

Vs. if you do know the history - the Holocaust's "special cultural/moral status" still really sticks out. My pet theory is that, from the PoV of well-educated, middle- and upper-class western whites, the Jewish Holocaust victims "look" like just-one-thing-different-from-me analogs. Vs. the poor Slavs, Romani, Black, etc. victims do not - so killing "their kind" in 7-or-so-digit quantities just doesn't push the same deep emotional buttons.

There's a difference between being unaware of something and actively denying it like the responses in this poll. It's good to also have knowledge of the events you called out, but I bet more people are aware of them than you're giving credit. A lot of Jews are pretty aware that the Nazi Holocaust targeted other groups of people as well, including Romani, Slavs, and the mentally handicapped.

By your logic, as long as a tragic historical event is referenced over and over again, it's ok for lots of people to doubt or play down its significance. Are you understanding of large numbers of people being against any of the recent black civil rights touch-points, since slavery, Jim Crow, and racism against blacks has been _the_ talking point and justification for contentious events in the US for the last 5 years?

It's fascinating that for the last couple of decades, Holocaust denialism was seen by US liberals as this inhuman and inexcusable philosophy. However, now that it's not just the "evil" right-wingers being called out for buying into it, a common and acceptable response has effectively become "eh, what do the Jews expect?" I'm not aligning with either political philosophy, just calling out the hypocrisy.

> By your logic, as long as...it's okay for...

Sorry, but NO. Please re-read my italicized & shouty & "Please re-read...before you" words another 3 more times. Then me how you interpreted that to mean "it's okay". Without assuming that I took the same Moral Philosophy 483 class as you, and subscribe to the deductive methods which you learned there.

Also notice - my analysis was history/sociology/psychology, without reference to culture wars or chain-of-logic moral judgement of people. Vs. your analysis seems to be very much the latter.

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