On anti-Semitism. What it is and isn't.

[conuly]

I don't think I'm anti-Semitic. I could be wrong, though. Let's lay out the reasons why I don't think this:

1. I don't think that the world is ruled by some shadowy Jewish alliance.

If this were the case, I think there'd be a lot less anti-Jewish stuff going on in the world, and far fewer people would be talking about how the world is run by the Jews. Unless all this free speech stuff is just a very clever decoy, but.... no, I can't see it. Seems to me that the world is more likely to be currently run by a not-so-shadowy Fundamentalist Christian alliance than by the Jews.

2. I don't think that the Jews are to be held responsible for the death of Jesus.

I don't especially care, either, but even if I did, the sheer illogic of that argument would shut me up fast. Although I suppose it makes sense if you buy into the whole concept of Original Sin... maybe... kinda... no, it still doesn't make sense. In order for it to make sense, every single Jewish person at that time would have had to have wanted Jesus dead, and only Jewish people (not, say, Romans) would have endeavored towards this goal. And I don't see that.

3. I no longer think that all the Chassidic Jewish guys I occasionally see are just a group of 1-3 guys who are stalking me

Yeah, I used to think that when I was little. I honestly thought all Chassidic men were one man, and that since I saw that one man all the time.... I have since learned a lot. I also no longer believe that the people on book covers are plotting my death.

4. I think that Jewish people should not be obligated to work on their holidays/Shabbos (once had a cat with that name....)

This goes for all religious groups, actually. So... yeah.

5. I don't think the Holocaust was faked

And this leads nicely into the next part of my entry.

Despite my obvious not-hating-anybody-ness (and that's not restricted to Jewish people! There are huge numbers of people I simply do not hate! I'd list them, by name, but the list would get too large. I think I dislike Fred Phelps. And Jack Chick. And I suppose Hitler. Oh, and that twit in my computer class senior year who went out of her way to make me miserable.... but that's really about it) I have occasionally been accused of being anti-Semetic, apparently for espousing the radical statement that more than six million people died during the Holocaust.

I don't deny that 6 million Jewish people died. I don't believe that there is any sort of active cover-up of the other 4-6 million deaths, or that Jewish people are actively trying to profit somehow by pretending that other people didn't suffer. I think that to suggest that is abominable. I think that the ignorance many people have about the subject is simply because we can't conceive of the number six million easily, and to increase it makes it harder.

However, I belive that is exactly what we have to do. It isn't right or fair to ignore a large portion of the population for any reason, and certainly not out of neglect. If I thought people were actively trying to ignore most of the victims, you'd have heard harsher words than this about it, long ago.

The Holocaust started with the forced sterilization and deaths of physically and mentally disabled people.
Fully half of all Poles killed during the Holocaust were not Jewish. (Half of the Jews killed were Polish, according to multiple sources).
At least a quarter of the Roma were killed during the Holocaust. They are still being actively persecuted and discriminated against in many areas.
And of course, six million Jews died, as well as many people who tried to save those who were being actively persecuted.

I'm no doubt missing huge numbers of people here, and I'm sorry. Give me a resource, and I'll update my paltry list.

We don't do ourselves any favors by trying to ease our minds when thinking about these tragedies, and we do ourselves a grave disservice to assume that anybody pointing out, say, the other deaths, must have an ulterior motive. I've been told I'm anti-Black for (correctly!) defining "kaffir" as "nigger" in an English class (all right to bandy around the word kaffir, but not to define it?) and told that I "must be gay" for defending gay marriage in that same class. This is nonsense, and it needs to end.

It is a painful thing to live in this world, and know how many people die for stupidity. The Holocaust? Tragic. What about Stalin's Holocaust of famine? What about, as Hitler himself pointed out, the genocide of the Armenians? Or of the Native Americans? Or of countless groups of people for time stretching back before words?

I don't think people are trying to "cover up" all these deaths. I think that we just don't like to think about it. But that's tough. Thinking about it is the only way to make sure we stop being stupid in this world of ours.

*steps of the soapbox*

Sorry about that.

Edit: I'm not sure I was called anti-Semitic by Jewish people, (which is what makes it even more annoying). I'm also somewhat confident that I've never been accused of anti-Semitism by Jewish people for my belief that Israel isn't a shining palace of virtue in the middle east. I'm sorry, but I think *all* groups being violent about Israel are wrong, both on an ethical level (don't kill people) and on a policy-level. It's not getting them what they want. And the situation appears to be more like a multi-faceted gem than a simple yes/no Jews/Palestinians thing anyway.

Just sayin'.

Edit again: Yes, I realize I left out gay people, Jehovah's Witnesses, Communists, and possibly Catholics. I also didn't mention the number of blond children snatched by their parents to be "Germanized". If anybody can provide links on these, or other atrocities, I'd be much obliged.

Comments

[eofs.livejournal.com]

50 million is the number I have for Stalin (which is the same as the total losses from WWII across all countries, civilian and military.) People who were unfortunate enough to live in the parts of Russia which were Nazi-occupied were often sent to the gulags or simply killed I believe. Not collaborators or anything, just normal citizens who happened to live in those areas.