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No, the White House Did Not Deny the Holocaust
At some point, the overwrought and ridiculous accusations against President Trump have to peak. I have a visceral dislike of him and yet those attacking him have gone so far round the bend that I am forced, over and over again, to defend him. No, the White House did not deny the Holocaust in the press release for Holocaust Remembrance Day. To think otherwise is crazy with a side of ridiculous and covered in stupid gravy. Harsh words? Yes. Necessary? Absolutely.
I would have never imagined such claim would exist had I not seen it with my own eyes. I would not have cared if such asinine claims were made by anyone other than Ricochet contributors I respect. Our very own @claireberlinski has bought into this, as has John Podhoretz. Here is the tweet that got me started on this rant today:
Yes, the White House really did engage in Holocaust denial. This is part of an irrational pattern of thought that's dangerous for everyone. https://t.co/uvILxCIRJv
— Claire Berlinski (@ClaireBerlinski) January 30, 2017
When I first saw it I thought “no way that’s true,” so I followed the links. Mark Hoofnagle published a blog post on ScienceBlogs that starts with this:
The White House in its statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day engaged in Holocaust denial. Then they doubled down on the action and via Reince Priebus on Meet the Press expressed no regret about the wording which had no mention of the Jews in their supposed “remembrance”.
It’s possible that Trump and company wrote a poorly-worded press release worthy of this accusation. Performing all due diligence, I went to the source and read the press release. Here is the offending press release in full:
It is with a heavy heart and somber mind that we remember and honor the victims, survivors, heroes of the Holocaust. It is impossible to fully fathom the depravity and horror inflicted on innocent people by Nazi terror.
Yet, we know that in the darkest hours of humanity, light shines the brightest. As we remember those who died, we are deeply grateful to those who risked their lives to save the innocent.
In the name of the perished, I pledge to do everything in my power throughout my Presidency, and my life, to ensure that the forces of evil never again defeat the powers of good. Together, we will make love and tolerance prevalent throughout the world.
No, the president didn’t specifically say “Jews,” but exactly who the [expletive] else could he be referencing by “the victims…of the Holocaust”? If you read that and think of anyone other than the Jews, or read it to exclude the Jews, then it is an error of reading, not writing.
I understand Trump-Hate because I do a lot of it. I understand wanting to warn of his dangers because I fear them as well. This, however, is reaching way beyond honest criticism and into the realm of histrionics. There is plenty about which to criticize the new president, so there is zero need to invent or imagine things like Holocaust denial.
Stop making me defend the orange ass.
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Here we are agreed. Were I to have tried to be inclusive (which the administration claims was the point of the wording) I would have been additive rather than subtractive. I would have explicitly noted the unique suffering of the Jews, but I would have added that though they suffered the most, they did not suffer alone. If that is the whole of your point then we actually agree completely. I simply chose to focus on a different aspect of the controversy in the OP and most of the discussion.
Except that something is constantly being said about it. The president said something about it. He allowed certain truths to be implied, and virtually every reasonable person who read it drew the correct inference.
It’s one thing to make legitimate complaints, it’s another thing to see anti-semitism literally everywhere. I’ve posted on this before JPod is at the point where I just don’t take him seriously on that topic. He’s like a woman where everything is sexism, or a minority where everything is racism. Especially when you’re describing things that literally everyone experiences equally, your victimhood is ridiculous. He’s the boy who cries wolf, and there are so many Jewish-Americans who cry wolf that the exact opposite of what you say happens… the real dangers run the risk of being blown off. You’re right that we should “never forget,” and part of that is not being opportunistic with your victimhood (or that of your ancestors).
Only because you snubbed Texas.
Jerk.
( ;) )
I’m perfectly ok with people ignoring the younger Podhoretz. I hope we get to the point where most of the ridiculous stuff just washes off or we relegate it to a small part of the discussion.
I think people who point out Miss Berlinski, hallowed though the ground she walks upon, is stretching the bounds of politeness are also right. We need to calm down some.
I would also say that the constant need for affirmation most of the time goes too far. I’m not sure what can be done to deal with it.
But the real story has got to be the oratorical failure, or else there’s not going to be any talk about what public statements are & how they should be done. America does not have lots of public statements & public occasions where anyone speaks credibly for America as a whole.
I’ll PM you.
I’ll visit Texas one day. It’s just an enormous place.
Sure!
That was the entire point of my post, sans my screedish exposition.
This would be fodder for a post of its own, especially when coupled with the historical literacy you previously mentioned.
Well, I’m out of beer. I might do a post.
So, I think that’s the end of the brouhaha I stirred. Sorry to anyone whose feathers I ruffled. If someone’s feathers are unruffled–sorry for that, too. I’m sure they’re perfectly, uh, lovely, rufleable feathers. This has been fun!
The ruffled state really brings out your eyes!
I’m a big fan of the younger Podhoretz. I don’t listen to the commentary podcast, but I really enjoy him on GLoP, and I think he is both smart and insightful. I wish he wouldn’t cry wolf… but I don’t see it as terribly important in the bigger picture.
As for calming down, I agree. But it is not the right that is hyperventilating.
The instance I cited in the OP is. That is a problem. The statement was inadequate, perhaps even insensitive, but it is not as portrayed by Claire and JPod.
Yes. In many people, it seems.
Some on the right? Goodness, an entire gaggle it seems to me. But never mind that…
You are right and I’ve heard other serious people say the same thing. The press can not be trusted, well frankly, it simply is not trusted by majority Americans. Who then will act as the sober and cogent check and balance on this Presidency?
The lunatic left and their many hysterical minions in the MSM are literally complicit in giving President Trump enormous unchecked power.
This is a beautiful, terrifying, and true statement.
I see a distinction between the two, however. One is simply wrong, the other is in the realm of opinion.
Again, stipulating that I think Trump’s statement is absolutely innocuous…
It’s not uncommon for some holocaust deniers to claim that, yeah, Jews were killed by the Nazis and, sure, there were camps, but it wasn’t specifically an antisemitic thing. Leaving out specific mention of Jews could be corroborative evidence of antisemitism, but it’s not direct evidence as such.
In this case, I see no reason to presume holocaust denial.
Even this famous Trump Hater would have to stretch pretty far to make that connection.
I admit to being unaware of this viewpoint, but, as you indicate, it’s not what the average person thinks of when “denial” is raised. Perhaps the inability of Twitter postings to communicate more nuanced interpretations is partially at fault here, but that should be taken into account by the user.
So here’s my article on Americans remembering the Holocaust. You’re going to learn a few facts and you might agree with me. If you think I get things right, do me a favor and vote to send this to the main feed. I believe I have offered a better statement on the matter than most of the stuff now causing or participating in yet another public scandal.
I listened to JPod on the Commentary podcast, and he said the word Holocaust definitionally means the destruction of the Jews by the Nazis and also that it’s grammatically incorrect to use the word and not say Jews. It seems redundant to me to require the one word when the other includes it in the definition.
The analogies to BLM have been made by others. It seem to me that these comments by @johnpodhoretz exemplify a problem. How is the criticism of “all lives matter” by BLM differ from not specifically naming Jews in connection to the Holocaust which is historically about the Jews and not the other Nazi victims? Does JPod now sympathize with BLM? If not, isn’t he being inconsistent?
TKP,
What would be analogous would be if one talked about ‘Slavery’ without talking about ‘Blacks’. If in a very short statement I spoke of the horrors of Slavery but didn’t actually use the word ‘Blacks’ then would I be accused of racism. It seems doubtful that anyone who understood what I was talking about would actually assume that I wasn’t talking about ‘Blacks’.
I think we are being taken in by the standard tactic of the left which is to divert attention from major problems and lose everyone in a wild goose chase of semantics. The most significant thing that has just transpired is the Obama-Kerry delegitimization of Israel. The entire Democratic Party remained silent and must accept its complicity in this travesty. Why didn’t Chuck Schumer cry over the Kerry Speech? He really doesn’t want anybody to ask that question. Trump went easy on him and just called him a phony. Similarly, Obama-Holder-Lynch ignored the huge inner city black death rate while Trump has directly addressed the problem. What better way for the Democrats to avoid the blame for their massive irresponsibility than to blow smoke in everybody’s eyes over semantics.
When the dust settles who will the American People believe? Before Trump, we knew we were going to lose. Now with Trump winning? Maybe, let’s hang in and see what’s what.
Regards,
Jim
But it’s not the left this time. It’s Claire Berlinski and John Podhoretz! They dislike Trump so much they are doing the left’s work for them. If the left was doing this I could blow it off as the left being their idiot selves. It does no one any good (and likely does us all some bad) for people on the right to act like the left. We absolutely must oppose Trump when he is wrong. People like Claire and JPod will have no traction or credibility to do so if they continue this course of semantic asininity to oppose Trump when he’s mere careless or inconsiderate.
I am disappointed that they have not commented to present their sides of the story. Very disappointed.
Time difference for Claire, and I don’t know that JPod comments here.
I think it is 6 hours later in Paris from EST. (My daughter lives in Lyon, so I am familiar with the time difference.) Your post has been going all day. Maybe she will respond tomorrow. Who knows?
TKP,
Perhaps some of us have become a little spoiled. Easy arguments that flatter our own egos but miss the real point have been so well rewarded during the Obama years. Hitting the real point doesn’t make you popular and doesn’t guarantee instant success. Some of us may need to get back to working for it. By working for it I don’t mean the number of hours you put in. I don’t mean how much talent or experience you have. I mean asking yourself the really hard questions and taking the risk to deliver an honest answer.
By the way, I don’t think Trump is careless or inconsiderate. He simply isn’t very poetic. That’s enough to get you in trouble with some. I went to Carnegie-Mellon, not Harvard. Andrew Carnegie’s motto was “My heart is in the work.” Not very poetic. We used to joke that we were glad to know he had a heart. It was Carnegie Steel until JP Morgan and the New York crowd bought him out and made it into US Steel. Frankly, they bought him out to get rid of the little scots devil. He was pushing them very hard. After that Carnegie was the richest man in the world. He gave away 3/4ths of his fortune to charity. Libraries and Concert Halls etc..
Some work. Some heart.
Regards,
Jim
I just finished M. Stanton Evans’ Blacklisted by History – The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy. So much of the conventional wisdom about McCarthy is the opposite of the truth.
I’d say this is spiraling into McCarthyismism.