You and me knew life itself is

[sovay]

I think it was at Lunacon this weekend that I was saying to spatch that people don't think about chemical weapons being used in World War II. They are so much a part of the Tarot of World War I, especially the Western Front—Trenches, Poppies, Shells, and Gas—that just because they were not widely employed in combat between 1939 and 1945, in the popular imagination they might as well not have been part of the war at all. Which is one of those weird gaps of definition, I remember saying, because the Nazis used fucktons of chemical warfare, it just wasn't directed against Western Allied troops. It was used chiefly on non-combatants. And being thus compartmentalized off the battlefield, when people around here say "chemical weapons," for many of them I suspect Zyklon B falls into a kind of memory hole. If you have any sense of the Holocaust, however, you think for a minute and the compartmentalization collapses; the memory hole closes. It's not rocket science.

Dammit, Sean Spicer.

(My mother, by contrast, looked at Spicer's remarks and did not think the issue was an unexamined separation of World War II and Holocaust: she thought it was an older problem of definitions. Of course Hitler didn't use chemical weapons on his own people. The Jews weren't his own people. That was kind of one of the key points of National Socialism. So nothing about Spicer's initial statement was wrong, if you take Hitler's word for it. You should just never take Hitler's word for anything. Especially not if you're speaking for the White House.)

So, yeah. I spent most of today away from the internet and then I find out that happened. It does not feel to me as deliberate or as boundary-testing as this administration's earlier omission of Jews from Holocaust Remembrance Day—I think it's more likely that Spicer, who has so far manifested the approximate historical understanding of a turnip, got flustered and tried to bluster his way out of the question and instead just blurted his foot even farther into his mouth—but he's still thrown another bone of garbage to the Holocaust deniers and done nothing to improve the ignorant racist image of the current administration, though truly at this point I believe they are more or less projecting what they intend to, they just don't want to have to get called on it. I'm just amazed that apparently they want to project an image of that level of flailing incompetence.

I'm probably slandering turnips. They're older than Linear B. They're not even unique to Europe. I'm not even going to touch "Holocaust centers." It wasn't like daycare, you know?

Comments

[asakiyume]

You're definitely slandering turnips. (And the icon is not because there's anything to smile about in the entry or my comment--it's because it's a turnip)

That remark about Hitler and "his own people" was evil in two ways. The first was the one your mother was talking about--the denial to Jews of the status of Germans. Since that's what fell out of Spicer's mouth, one has to wonder what groups of Americans he's deny the status of Americans. Only wait, never mind: we know. But beyond that, or underneath that, is the tribalism that says that what you might do to others you'd never do to "your own people." There are two standards of treatment: one for people in the tribe, and one for people out of it. If you kill an "us," the punishment is grave; if you kill a "them," you might get a slap on the wrist, or maybe a blind eye turned, or maybe a commendation. Similar with torture, or infringement of rights.

[sovay]

You're definitely slandering turnips.

Thank you for coming to their defense. Then we should replace Sean Spicer with one; it knows more history than he does. And it is not racist—it is a cornerstone of foodways from here to Japan. If we have to staff all significant government positions with vegetables until we can get humans who know how to do their jobs, dammit, then that's what we'll do.

(And the icon is not because there's anything to smile about in the entry or my comment--it's because it's a turnip)

I'm not sure I knew that, actually—it's obviously a jack-o'-lantern, but I may have assumed it was a pumpkin. Nice.

Since that's what fell out of Spicer's mouth, one has to wonder what groups of Americans he's deny the status of Americans. Only wait, never mind: we know.

It's not even that I'm surprised by the sentiment he expressed. I really am surprised by the clumsiness. You feel that people who are going to make statements that are both factually wrong and morally appalling should do so either with skillful dogwhistles or with unabashed openness. Spicer just coughs this stuff out and doesn't even seem to understand what he's given away until it's pointed out to him and then he makes it worse, as if he's trying to backpedal and double down at the same time. It's so weird to watch. I don't want to know that much about his id. I just want him gone with the rest of them before they can cause any more harm to the country or the planet or language or history.

There are two standards of treatment: one for people in the tribe, and one for people out of it. If you kill an "us," the punishment is grave; if you kill a "them," you might get a slap on the wrist, or maybe a blind eye turned, or maybe a commendation.

That is a very good point. This administration's "them" is always changing, but the definition of "us" never broadens.

[asakiyume]

as if he's trying to backpedal and double down at the same time.

That is hilariously, awfully, exactly what it's like. In fact, that's probably exactly what he's doing.

"I didn't mean something stupid, and by the way I'm right, and *you're* stupid, and shut up!"

[sovay]

"I didn't mean something stupid, and by the way I'm right, and *you're* stupid, and shut up!"

Honestly, that may be this administration's default rhetorical position.

[moon_custafer]

You feel that people who are going to make statements that are both factually wrong and morally appalling should do so either with skillful dogwhistles or with unabashed openness.

Once, while watching tv, I came in on the ending of an adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand. The part that struck me was when two of the heroes laugh in Randall Flagg's face, saying they'd been bracing themselves for sophisticated arguments and subtle moral temptations, and *death threats* are the worst he can throw at them?

This feels kind of like that, except that it's more enraging than laughable when someone is malicious, and stupid, and *still* has the power to get away with it.

[sovay]

This feels kind of like that, except that it's more enraging than laughable when someone is malicious, and stupid, and *still* has the power to get away with it.

Yes. You want to be able to laugh them out of history, not watch them do the same thing again next week.

[dewline]

...as if he's trying to backpedal and double down at the same time.

Exactly what it looks like, I suspect.