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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 22, 2023

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Thanks for sharing. But I'm nearly as tired of Holocaust-themed morality plays as I am of the Civil Rights Era-flavored ones. Has anyone under age 70 not been bludgeoned through their entire lives with "Prejudice is bad!" and "The banality of evil!" and "Never again!" etc?

I don't understand people who write books on these themes in 2014. Is there even the thinnest residue of stunning bravery to be mined and exploited by speaking truth to a (long vanquished) power? I have to imagine that even blue tribers would yawn at yet another Holocaust tear jerker or To Kill a Mockingbird clone, "don't they know trans persecution or MAGA terrorism are where the points are scored in 2023?" And even dispensing with the cynicism, is there really anything interesting left to say on these topics? I'd wager that nearly any book you could write on them has already been written.

As I've remarked when every new "fascist" politician is compared to Hitler, it speaks to a lack of interest in the breadth of history, even in the relatively narrow scope of 20th century genocides, fascist regimes, or political oppression. Why does it seem like basically no one is interested in comparing their opponent to Franco instead of Hitler, for example? I suppose it's just not enough of a cultural touchstone, but it would at least make me pause for a moment and think about whether they have a point, as where yet another Hitler comparison completely fails to do so.

Why does it seem like basically no one is interested in comparing their opponent to Franco instead of Hitler, for example?

Franco, Pinochet, etc have much higher risk of opposing politicians and their supporters responding with the yeschad.jpg image.

The blue tribe generally views these men as Spanish-speaking Hitler, but to non-blue tribers they were standard strongmen at worst and benevolent dictators at best, and it's worth noting that the one occasion of democrats in the US comparing their enemies to these guys was a Biden Spanish-language ad campaign in south Florida in which he called Trump a Caudillo. Needless to say this campaign clearly didn't work.

It's only slightly more interesting why Mao and Stalin don't get used in comparisons; Mao is weird and foreign and Stalin does sometimes get used in political comparisons, just less commonly than Hitler(or Fidel Castro, for that matter- the red tribe tends to see him as unmitigated evil while the blue tribe has more nuanced views in an interesting reversal of the situation with Franco and Pinochet).

It's only slightly more interesting why Mao and Stalin don't get used in comparisons; Mao is weird and foreign and Stalin does sometimes get used in political comparisons

Far-leftists might likewise reply to Stalin comparisons with a yeschad.jpg, but only if they're in so deep that they've effectively created a whitewashed version of Stalin in their head, and are as committed to Holodomor denialism as neo-Nazis are to Holocaust denialism.

Sure, I was trying to mostly be talking about people closer to the mainstream than tankies or neonazis.