February 02, 2025
"Political"
When I was in my twenties, most of my friends were lefties. I was not, but, the past is a different place, and it may astonish some of you that there was a time when people with vastly different viewpoints could actually be friends.
While I thought that some of their views were naive, I had a lot of respect for their (stated) tolerance and commitment to free speech. Like most of my fellow righties, my disagreements were generally in detail rather than principle (ie: porn should be legal, but kept away from kids, genuine national security secrets should remain secret).
One thing that there was NO apparent disagreement on WHATSOEVER was the Holocaust.
It was bad.
It was almost unimaginable evil.
It was example #1 of "Where we don't want to end up".
It was NOT a political question, because there was no debate over its utter wrongness.
The only debate about this stain upon humanity was which political mindset was more likely to result in such atrocity. I would point out the resentment of success inherent in leftism, the dehumanization inherent in the large bureaucracies favored by left of center thought leaders, and written examples like Marx's own ON THE JEWISH QUESTION. Or any number of speeches by a failed Austrian artist that, if the antisemitic bile were removed, would be very well received by left of center ideologs.
The other side of the debate consisted mainly of "Antisemitism is only right wing LOL. Everybody knows that."
There were, of course limits to tolerance. Several people in my circle of friends got enraged when one of the people whose house we used to gather at decided to keep a Kosher home, with the attendant restrictions on what snacks could be consumed. The responses of several of my lefty friends to this imposition upon what they could bring into another person's house, were phrases and rants that would get any right of center person ostracized as a NAZI. Bitter mutterings about "pushy jews" and other, less savory things. This shocked, but did not alarm me because I was a stupid 20-something, these guys and gals were my friends, and after all, whatever idiocies there might be in their political philosophy, they came from a combination of naivete' and an excessive fixation on niceness for its own sake. So, I blew it off as ironic edgy humor. 'Cause I was a stupid 20-something.
The one thing that was NOT in question was that the Holocaust was bad. That was not up for discussion. It was not a debate. Therefore it was not political.
Fast forward through 30 years of lefties increasingly going 'mask off' and we come to THIS.
The National Holocaust Museum (NHM) has been denied permission to run an exhibition in Westminster Hall on the grounds that it was too political.
What is political about the fact that killing 6 million folks because of their immutable characteristics is a horrid outcome that we do not want to repeat? What is political about pointing out that whenever politicos start singling out Jews, that dark times are a' commin'? What is political about holding a memorial to the victims of a horrific and preventable atrocity?
What makes it political, is that in the dystopian miasma of current year discourse, such facts are up for debate.
In the U.K. this might be explained away by the fact that they have unwisely imported a myriad of new voters who subscribe to 7th century viewpoints. But that is far too kind to the decision makers who made this policy, and far too comforting to those who say "It can't happen here".
We saw this in my own country with the campus protests celebrating the October 7th butchery. (Some of which continue to this day.)
These things should give everyone pause.
Jews in the West serve a function that is almost unique. The only analog I'm immediately aware of is the imperfect one of the ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia. That is, they act as a sort of 'canary in the coal mine'. When people start going after them, in fits of resentment and envy, a society is on the edge of an abyss.
We've seen this before.
It went to a place so horrible, that for 7 decades there was such consensus on its odiousness that it, almost alone amongst all topics, was so universally agreed upon that it was not at all political.
That is no longer the case.
And that is a terrifying thing.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
08:03 AM
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