Ben Carson, the Holocaust, and gun control

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What’s a Yiddleleh to do? Carson says that Jews with guns could have prevented or ended the Holocaust. As it happens, there were several revolts at concentration camps and ghettos, none of which halted Hitler. Carson seems never to have heard of Sobibor or Warsaw. Well, in this Carson isn’t unique; GOPers seem to revel in what they don’t know or, considering their need to appeal to the values of their base, what they pretend not to know. But strangely enough, there’s another opinion, expressed by Gandhi. He famously criticized the Jews for not employing the tactics of passive resistance that he and his followers employed in India. And why shouldn’t the Jews done exactly that? Well, because the Germans weren’t the British and the Nazis weren’t the Tories. Hitler did not have a well-developed sense of fair play. He did not play cricket on the fields of Eaton. But my purpose is to point out how anti-Semitism works. The anti-Semite says that Jews are pushy, the anti-Semite says the Jews are clannish. The anti-Semite says that Jews are smart, the anti-Semite says the Jews are cunning. The anti-Semite says that Jews are behind global capitalism, the anti-Semite says the Jews are leaders of international communism. The anti-Semite says that Jews are racists who suppress people of color in Palestine and South Africa, the anti-Semite says the Jews are outside agitators conspiring to secure the vote for minorities and overthrow white rule. The anti-Semite says that Jews are avaricious, greedy predators, the anti-Semite says the Jews are bleeding heart liberals. And also, the anti-Semite says that Jews are responsible for the Holocaust because they didn’t use guns to oppose the Nazis, the anti-Semite says the Jews are responsible for the Holocaust because they didn’t follow the tactics of passive resistance. And none of this is new. The Passover Haggadah points out “that in every generation some have arisen” to damage or destroy the Jewish People, and this is demonstratively true. But anti-Semitism is more than hatred; it also has a certain logical structure, a stereotypical way of thinking which links it to other forms of racial, religious or ethnic hatred. Once you open your eyes and see how it works, you can understand how hatred works between White Europeans and African-Americans, Germans and French, Hindus and Muslims. Recalling Tom Lehrer’s song (“National Brotherhood Week”), “Oh, the Protestants hate the Catholics, and the Catholics hate the Protestants, the Hindus hate the Muslims, and everybody hates the Jews.” See: http://bluenationreview.com/ben-carson-implies-holocaust-could-have-been-prevented-if-jews-were-armed/

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