The word holocaust has a meaning before The Holocaust. Calling other things a holocaust is not diffusing anything, it’s just using the meaning of the word. Whether the Palestinian genocide can be called a holocaust is arguable, but you’re allowed to call other things holocausts.
Whether the Palestinian genocide can be called a holocaust is arguable
So far since all of that evidence is sitting under the rubble that nobody will ever has access to.
Remember that we only know what Germany did in detial because Germans got beat into submission by several other countries and they could not cover it up properly.
When anyone talks about Holocaust these days, it’s reasonable to assume they talk about the one vs the Jews by Nazi Germany. It has gained a special meaning unlike the more generic word genocide, which is perfectly fine for other use cases. The Holocaust was a genocide, not every genocide is a Holocaust.
If you want to go semantic/etymological, calling the current Palestine genocide a Holocaust still makes no sense, as the old Greek holocaust literally means “full incineration”, burning sth so nothing is left. Which makes sense in association with Nazi crematoriums, and its historic use for large fire catastrophes such as whole cities burning down.
It also made - semantically - sense for Neonazis in Germany who called the fire-bombings of German cities by the Allied in WW2 holocausts as well. This also tries to form a link and somehow equate two entirely different things. Both atrocities by modern standards, sure, but at vastly different levels.
(Mis-)appropriating terms to undermine and diffuse their meaning is a simple and effective populist tactic, which is why it’s popular with extremists.
Call a genocide a genocide, call the Holocaust the Holocaust.
The world is full of nuance, not just radicals and extremes.
The word holocaust has a meaning before The Holocaust. Calling other things a holocaust is not diffusing anything, it’s just using the meaning of the word. Whether the Palestinian genocide can be called a holocaust is arguable, but you’re allowed to call other things holocausts.
So far since all of that evidence is sitting under the rubble that nobody will ever has access to.
Remember that we only know what Germany did in detial because Germans got beat into submission by several other countries and they could not cover it up properly.
I meant more in the semantical sense. There’s no denying the level of destruction and killing.
When anyone talks about Holocaust these days, it’s reasonable to assume they talk about the one vs the Jews by Nazi Germany. It has gained a special meaning unlike the more generic word genocide, which is perfectly fine for other use cases. The Holocaust was a genocide, not every genocide is a Holocaust.
If you want to go semantic/etymological, calling the current Palestine genocide a Holocaust still makes no sense, as the old Greek holocaust literally means “full incineration”, burning sth so nothing is left. Which makes sense in association with Nazi crematoriums, and its historic use for large fire catastrophes such as whole cities burning down.
It also made - semantically - sense for Neonazis in Germany who called the fire-bombings of German cities by the Allied in WW2 holocausts as well. This also tries to form a link and somehow equate two entirely different things. Both atrocities by modern standards, sure, but at vastly different levels.
(Mis-)appropriating terms to undermine and diffuse their meaning is a simple and effective populist tactic, which is why it’s popular with extremists.
Call a genocide a genocide, call the Holocaust the Holocaust.
The world is full of nuance, not just radicals and extremes.