Holocaust: can it happen again?

Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group".

"I don't know how I do it. I'm like the Mr. Bean of sex." -Drunkscriblerian

Okay, so what exactly is the word for blanket policies of killing political opponents, near-sighted people, or your female babies, and does it make a damned bit of difference to the enormity of the act?

Hail Martin Septim!

Purges.

edited 1st Jan '12 4:21:42 PM by Erock

If you don't like a single Frank Ocean song, you have no soul.

Lazy reporters? The word was coined (inaccurately) to refer to the Nazi extermination of the Jews. Today, we use it to refer to any mass killing of a people belonging to a group because of their affiliation with the group.

You are a blowfish.

Jews are an ethnic and religious group, so genocide works.

If you don't like a single Frank Ocean song, you have no soul.

Genocide.

Of course, at the end of the day, who gives a fuck? I don't care what you want to call it, the end result is the same: mass murder on an industrial scale.

"Shit, our candidate is a psychopath. Better replace him with Newt Gingrich."

I was actually referring to the word's improper coinage rather than its application to the phenomenon it was coined for.

You are a blowfish.

Keep the people poor and on a wartime footing. — Machiavelli.

I'm a skeptical squirrel

Pol Pot did commit genocide, his regime targeted minorities like the Vietnamese and ironically, Chinese people.

"Is there a threshold after which systemic murder becomes genocide?"

Yes.

"You know, the fact that political arguments these days tend to be about which side's extremists will cause the collapse of civilization first... that's not necessarily a sign that mass murder of innocents is on the horizon, but I think it is a sign that a shit-ton of killing isn't far off."

It is depressing, but don't be down, these generations have a better chance for making the world a better place than any other.

edited 1st Jan '12 4:32:07 PM by stripesthezebra

(Threadhop)

As stated, genocide remains a real risk and has every likelihood of taking place again. But democracies resist such things - they are the domain of dictatorships that can ignore the voices of the groups they are killing, their allies and international groups like the UN. So it's hugely unlikely to take place in western Europe, the US or any democratic region until they stop being democracies.

There's some excellent exploration of genocide in these trope pages: Punch-Clock Villain (explaining the mentality of people that implement it), Would Be Rude to Say "Genocide" (avoiding the subject while hoping to carry it out) and Final Solution (the act itself).

But... I mean, I guess you're probably a socialist, and you're arguing not that socialism won't cause the collapse of civilization, but that religious war will beat it to the punch. And I've made similar arguments in defense of politicians who voted to reinstate the Patriot Act. If there's on thing everyone in politics can agree on, it's that the free world is doomed. And I can't really argue.

Hail Martin Septim!

The free world isn't doomed at all, and it's very doubtable that muslim fundamentalists will cause the collapse of civilization, they can't even topple their own tin pot dictators.

Edit: Wait, were you talking to me?

edited 1st Jan '12 4:49:28 PM by stripesthezebra

Yes, Stripes, I was talking to you. Specifically in reference to:

People like him [Geert Wilders] will destroy the EU far faster than any economic crisis.

But if it was just sloppy rhetoric, I guess I can calm down.

Hail Martin Septim!

... I cannot believe Would Be Rude to Say "Genocide" is a trope.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw

@Doma Doma

Calm down? Why were you angry?

Pol Pot did commit genocide, his regime targeted minorities like the Vietnamese and ironically, Chinese people

I did not know this, actually. But he targetted everyone.

If you don't like a single Frank Ocean song, you have no soul.

More freaked out, really.

Hail Martin Septim!

Well, so does every dictator, but what made it genocide was his openly stated (and achieved) goals of eradicating minorities.

If you don't mind me asking, why?

@Blue Ninja

The sad part is that we've got a real life section.

edited 1st Jan '12 5:18:07 PM by stripesthezebra

Blue Ninja O - a pretty good trope, IMO. Like a really big version of Unusual Euphemism as applied to a whole race. "I think population X needs to be... rubbed out... You know, sleep with the fishes... meet with an unfortunate accident..." "Uhh, what? You mean, genocide?" "Don't call it that!" "Uhh, what about, meet with a Final Solution?" "Don't call it that either!"

Because I was beginning to think that, through repeated uses of arguments like that, most people were focused not so much on improving society as on delaying the other guy, who would destroy it more quickly?

Hail Martin Septim!

I'll note that there've been accusations of genocide as recently as 2009, allegedly committed against the Tamil.

edited 1st Jan '12 5:31:29 PM by feotakahari

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful

I didn't want to imply that at all, I absolutely don't think we should work like that. I just meant to say Geert Wilders is a dick.

Genocide is disturbingly common, even recently.

edited 1st Jan '12 5:35:07 PM by stripesthezebra

Wat.

Wat.

Wat.

Wat.

Good god, is this thread ever terrible...

Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken. Unrelated ME1 Fanfic

And that's why I stopped reading after the first six posts or so!

~puts a thumb up and smiles creepily as I die a little inside~

"Shit, our candidate is a psychopath. Better replace him with Newt Gingrich."

^ What a hero. Such restraint.

edited to avoid being thumped.

edited 1st Jan '12 7:11:52 PM by johnnyfog

I'm a skeptical squirrel