Now that we are in the Trump Era this post bears repeating, especially in the wake of the Charlottesville riot. The original has been edited to make it fit an F-pattern in an H.G. Wells style. I added a message from Superman in 1949 at the end.
The eight stages of genocide (1996) are the steps that every society goes through when it destroys a people not for military reasons but because of their race, religion, culture or national origins. Gregory Stanton, who had studied the genocide in Cambodia for the American State Department, noticed the very same steps unfolding in Rwanda in 1994 in the middle of Africa. The genocide in Darfur at the edge of the Sahara has since followed the same steps in the same order:
- Classification: the division into us and them. This is extremely common in human societies. While it is not a sign that genocide is on the way, genocide would be impossible without it.
- Symbolization: words or symbols are applied to the them: the yellow star that Jews had to wear before the Holocaust, skin colour, classifications put on identification cards. Again, this is common and is not a sign of genocide, but genocide cannot proceed unless there is some sure way to tell people apart.
- Dehumanization: the them become pariahs: they are seen as less than human, as animals or a kind of disease. The Tutsis in Rwanda were called cockroaches before they were killed by the thousands. Killing them was no longer murder – it was just ridding the country of something bad. Dehumanizing words, like “gook” and “nigger”, belong to this step. Unlike the first two steps, dehumanization is not common! It is the first sick step on the road to genocide.
- Organization: To kill people in large numbers you need organization: leaders, followers, a chain of command, duties, meetings, guns, training, hate speeches. Sometimes it is the government that does this, but often it is an armed group that seems to be acting on its own (but which the government is either secretly helping or at least turning a blind eye towards). The killing might start at this stage, but not on a huge scale. Examples: the SS in Germany, the Klan in America, the Janjaweed in Darfur.
- Polarization: The first people killed in any genocide are not the pariahs themselves but those who speak up for them. The voices in the middle are silenced through threats, arrests or even killings. Now the message of hate goes unchallenged.
- Preparation: the pariahs are often separated from the rest of the country – into camps, reservations, ghettos (parts of cities) or some undesirable part of the country. Their property is taken from them (they are not coming back!). This step leaves them defenceless.
- Extermination: the mass killings, the genocide proper.
- Denial: The leaders of the genocide downplay it or tell complete lies and say there never was a genocide. As long as they are in denial the killings can go on.
Now you know why “nigger” is a bad word. America has gone through all eight steps with Indians, up to step 6 with Japanese Americans and at least as far as step 4 with blacks.
Stanton says that genocide is preventable by stopping it at one of the early stages.
– Abagond, 2009, 2017.
See also:
- Words not in H.G. Wells:
- dehumanization
- genocide
- ghetto – black ghetto, Warsaw Ghetto
- polarization
- Charlottesville riot
- The Trump Era
- Darfur
- Holocaust
- Japanese American internment
- Klan
- Hotel Rwanda – a film about the genocide in Rwanda
- How to deny a genocide
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Reblogged this on The Militant Negro™.
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Reblogged this on League of Bloggers For a Better World.
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The guy with the baseball bat looks a bit strange for a Russian eye, because here the bats are used mostly as semi-legal weapons 😀
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Stanton in 2012 added two more stages. Discrimination which fits in between Symbolism and Dehumanization and Persecution which fits in between Preparation and Extermination.
http://hmd.org.uk/page/path-genocide
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Reblogged this on AGR Daily News Service.
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Another way this could play out:
The New Yorker did a piece looking at the probability of civil war in the U.S.
I think it is a probablity and would play out as a low intensity conflict. In Europe we have terrorists doing car bombing ect on a regular basis. I don’t see a full scale conflict with armies. Rather society de-evolves with fanatics wrecking havok. The lack of faith in institutions then leads other people to take the law into there own hands.
“Mines cited five conditions that support his prediction: entrenched national polarization, with no obvious meeting place for resolution; increasingly divisive press coverage and information flows; weakened institutions, notably Congress and the judiciary; a sellout or abandonment of responsibility by political leadership; and the legitimization of violence as the “in” way to either conduct discourse or solve disputes.”
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/is-america-headed-for-a-new-kind-of-civil-war
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Given recent events (including the death of a white protester in Charlottesville, you might want to bump that up to Step 5.
In the meantime, plenty of whites out in the rural areas are getting ready for the true day of redemption, when they can return to which once was:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/08/we-just-feel-like-we-dont-belong-here-anymore/
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@ Mack Lyons
You beat me to it. I think we are definitely at #5 right now.
There is also an institutional aspect to this silencing of voices in the middle and left. According to Bruce Dixon, managing editor of Black Agenda Report (BAR), there has been a push by social media giants such as Google, Facebook and Twitter to block access to left of center and Black owned sites. Dixon writes:
https://www.blackagendareport.com/google-censors-the-real-left/
These efforts are backed by both the corporate Dems and Repubs. They are united in their desire to quell independent voices that don’t spout the corporate line.
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Supremacist ideologies, whether it’s nazism, fundamentalist Islam, fundamentalist Christianity, or generic white supremacy can all be DANGEROUS once they have the power to act on their lust for dominion. History has shown us that time and time again and the Left’s willingness to wink at Islam, almost declaring it above reproach, is part of what’s giving the more extreme voices on the other side a foothold.
There aren’t many voices of moderation saying, “probably we shouldn’t allow people, living in secular societies, to be preaching HATE in the name of Religion”. Instead a faux-racist term is used against anyone who dares broach the issue, some of whom are ex-Muslim. However a belief system is NOT a race. When I left the religion I was raised in [thankfully I didn’t fear being murdered as an apostate] my race didn’t change.
You don’t just go to an Arianne Grande concert, at a mere 22 years old, and blow yourself up or deliberately run over pedestrians at much risk to your personal safety or massacre people at a gay bar while fully intending to die yourself, on a whim. You have to be indoctrinated first. Just as with the “stages of genocide”, the ground has to be tilled ideologically for the anti-social actions to eventually grow. You have to learn to consider your targets subhuman and you have to consider your cause to be worth dying for. The behavior is contextualized and made rational, to the individual, by adherence to an irrational and hateful belief. Religious freedom should not be used as a Trojan horse for hate and incitement to violence. So I cannot find common cause with people who would use it thus.
IMO, Islamic fundamentalist fanaticism is a genuine threat to civilized existence. So is white supremacy racism. Interestingly the two were united in the desire for Jewish genocide during the WWII alliance between the original Nazi, Hitler, and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. Jew hatred remains a feature of both belief systems: “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville vs “Khaybar, Khaybar, ya yahud, jaish Muhammad sayud” (a reference to a Jewish massacre by Mohammed at Khaybar) at some Muslim protests.
I would like for the Left to stop pretending Islam is fundamentally harmless the way, say, Jainism is. In that religion the most committed, fundamentalist, monks go naked and carry brushes to sweep the ground before sitting to avoid hurting even a germ (in adherence to the Ahimsa principle of non-violence). The equivalent in Islam tries to kill you for the crime of not being Muslim because they’re admonished to do so by texts they consider sacred.
The Left, by abandoning principle and focusing on identity politics is allowing two undesirable forces to grow. Islamic fundamentalism on one hand, through direct protection out of an overzealous conception of tolerance that extends it to the intolerant. And also far right nationalism since people with concerns about Islamization and increasing exposure to Islamic terrorism have nowhere else to turn. You cannot keep telling people, after every unexpected violent attack, that the cause of the attacker is fundamentally “peaceful” and retain your credibility. It beggars belief.
So, yes, we are in a rather complex and kind of uncertain time. The Liberal Left won the culture war and decided to commit seppuku by going to bed with an essentially illiberal ideology and running a disastrous presidential candidate. It lost a lot of its moral authority since the contradictions are too evident. Through undermining its own position, it has made the alternative seem more reasonable than it should and has given it a louder voice. So we’re seeing more open expression of white supremacist belief and among younger people.
Nonetheless, I don’t think open genocide of black people is on the cards. Like Jews in Germany, African Americans have a real history of oppression in the USA. This makes anti-black racism in America a very visceral issue; not a theory, a reality and a history. Trump’s botching of the Charlottesvile response has probably hurt him, among Americans in general, more than many other things he has done. Despite underlying racial inequalities, the taboo against OPEN anti-black racism is still strong and Trump is flying a bit too close to the sun with his wax wings.
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@Origin
Muslims make up 22% of the population or around 1.5 billion people. The majority are fundamendalist.
Those terrorists who happen to be Muslim represnt only a small persentage of Islam that has been “radicalized”. The majority are peaceful even if we find religious patriarchy and some Isalmic penal codes barbaric.
. “Radicalized” is a term used to deflect away from why young islamic men are strapping bombs on themselves and blowimg things up. There is a war going on against many Muslim counties and their actions are a direct result of Western violence against their communities.
So lets not talk about the why and point towards Muslim clerics who are blending religious and political idiology because their culture needs to be protected from the West.
It is no different then some Black preachers who blend scripture with political idenity to protect against white supremacy.
I do agree that belt way liberals bent over backwords not to offend Muslims. A lot of that behavior was tied to our foreign policy and the U.S. didn’t want to embarrass those Muslim countries that are our war and gas partners. That said Muslim “attrocities” could be discussed if the U.S. was addressing Iran or Syria.
In the U.S. localized Muslim terror is preety minimal.
The greater threat is white supremecy.
Nazis and white supremists are preparing for a race war. And that idiology isn’t the result of U.S. foreign policy or police action leading to violence against whites.
Rather it is rooted in self interest to preserve an imaginary culture and way of life.
I know the majority of U.S. citizens are racist but as you pointed out the “taboo against OPEN anti-black racism is still strong” so the general population isn’t going to be rising up with Nazis any time soon. That could change if whites get their asses squeezed up against the wall but that would require intense economic termoil.
A war with China might create the economic turmoil (Chinese own trillions in U.S.bonds) needed but that would be directed at those of Chinese decent. Camps would be a given.
I imagine someday Nazis will become bolden enough to begin to wage a guerilla style war.
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@ Origin
“The Left, by abandoning principle and focusing on identity politics is allowing two undesirable forces to grow. Islamic fundamentalism on one hand, through direct protection out of an overzealous conception of tolerance that extends it to the intolerant.
[…]
The Liberal Left won the culture war and decided to commit seppuku by going to bed with an essentially illiberal ideology and running a disastrous presidential candidate. It lost a lot of its moral authority….”
What, in your analysis is the role and responsibility of the global corporate system that cares nothing for ideology, religion, culture or any other intangible? Their single minded focus on profit-taking, dominance and control of all resources is more a threat in my mind than wild-eyed fanatics of any ilk.
To me, the global corporate system is the elephant in the room. They are literally destroying the biosphere that supports human life for a few (trillion) lousy bucks. Yet, ordinary people are caught up in petty blame and hatred based on beliefs and cosmetics.
Ideological and religious conflict feeds the elephant that threatens to crush us all.
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@mjb
<
blockquote>
Muslims make up 22% of the population or around 1.5 billion people. The majority are fundamendalist.
Those terrorists who happen to be Muslim represnt only a small persentage of Islam that has been “radicalized”. The majority are peaceful even if we find religious patriarchy and some Isalmic penal codes barbaric.
<
blockquote>
Right. The majority believe the same things the terrorists are willing to die for as most polls indicate. Terrorism always has a cause otherwise it would be indicriminate, random violence not terrrorism. You don’t say the Klu Klux Klan are terrorists that just happen to be white supremacists. No. You call them out as white supremacist terrorists who commit violent acts in order to spread and empower their ideology. It is the same for Islamic terorists. They don’t just “happen” to be muslim. They are using terrorism to try to advance the cause of Islam as they often say quite clearly with support from their scriptures.
Islamic Jihad, as commanded by the koran, is the reason 22% of the population is Muslim. Why are Southest Asian people in the verdant Islands of Indonesia giving their children Arab names from the desert? It worked similarly for Christianity and even though Jesus did not command violence that was often employed.
Most of the current Muslim world in the Middle East was Christian under the Byzantine empire before being invaded by Muslims. Syria, Lebanon, Egypt etc. were all Christian. Even Spain and India were under Muslim rule for many centuries. The Muslim Ottoman Empire was Germany’s ally in WWI, which they lost. Notable elements of the Islamic world was also allied with Nazi Germany in WWII which also lost that war. We’re talking about a long history of conflict so painting the issue as Western bullying of the Islamic world just because the West currently has ascendancy is not the full picture at all.
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@Afrofem
I think I fear fanatics more.
The greedy are relatively easy to understand. They are self-interested and they don’t usually want to die. Basically, a hyper-expression of the basic tendencies of living organisms.
The fanatically deluded operate by rules incomprehensible to those outside their mindset. They may be willing to die just to kill others, for example. How does the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction (wrt to nukes) interact with such a mindset. It may not be relevant!
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It may not be relevant as an implicit deterrent to use.
[The thought was a little incomplete]
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Hitler was an ideological fanatic. I think it would be hard to argue he was PRIMARILY driven by economics. Yes, I definitely fear them more.
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Yes, another car crash in barcelona yesterday, ‘asymmetrical’ warfare is bypassing the state completely, in some sense…
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“Stanton says that genocide is preventable by stopping it at one of the early stages.”
Really? at which stage does it become inevitable and where has genocide been stopped? By whom?
“Gregory Stanton, who had studied the genocide in Cambodia for the American State Department, noticed the very same steps unfolding in Rwanda in 1994 in the middle of Africa.”
This Stanton guy sounds like a propagandist for ‘Humanitarian Intervention’. Did he include the terroristic bombing of Cambodia by the USA as one of the steps to toward genocide?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Menu
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@ gro jo
At any rate, fleeing is the only real, concrete solution for anyone targeted by genocide. You may have your freedom fighters, but the chances of the average person tooling up against their oppressors in the midst of a pogrom are quite slim.
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“The Left, by abandoning principle and focusing on identity politics is allowing two undesirable forces to grow. Islamic fundamentalism on one hand, through direct protection out of an overzealous conception of tolerance that extends it to the intolerant.
[…]
The Liberal Left won the culture war and decided to commit seppuku by going to bed with an essentially illiberal ideology and running a disastrous presidential candidate. It lost a lot of its moral authority….”
NONSENSE. The Left, whatever that might be, didn’t arm Jihadists in Afghanistan during the Carter presidency.
“Brzezinski, known for his hardline policies on the Soviet Union, initiated in 1979 a campaign supporting mujaheddin in Pakistan and Afghanistan, which was run by Pakistani security services with financial support from the Central Intelligence Agency and Britain’s MI6.[38] This policy had the explicit aim of promoting anti-Communist forces. At the behest of Pakistani officials, the CIA began providing some $500,000 worth of non-lethal assistance to the mujahideen on July 3, 1979—several months prior to the Soviet invasion…When asked if he regretted supporting Islamist groups in their fight against the Soviet Union, Brzezinski replied, “What was more important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Muslims or the liberation of central Europe and the end of the Cold war?””
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zbigniew_Brzezinski#Afghanistan
The US and other western powers have a long history of stirring up Muslims. Left and Right have been guilty of this. Every president since FDR has backed the Saudis for the same reason, US strategic interests.
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What measures did the conservative Bush administration take against Saudi Arabia after the 9/11 attacks? Was there even a wrist slap?
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@ gro jo
“The US and other western powers have a long history of stirring up Muslims. Left and Right have been guilty of this. Every president since FDR has backed the Saudis for the same reason, US strategic interests.
“
So. Very. True.
They are still at it to this day. They also stir up fanatical Christians achieve their aims, too.
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[Abagond: Please delete the extra post in moderation, it is just an accidental copy of the first part of the original post.]
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@ Origin
Comments deleted due to use of a slur.
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India, under its Hindu fundamentalist party is working its way up the list.
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Reading and learning about Fascism and white nationalist. So the white nationalist fear that the white race is on its way to extinction because of interracial unions and immigrants and diverting in society. Most of the ones who are committing crimes from the murderer on the commuter train in Oregon to Dylan Roof in Charleston to the dirt bag who drove his car into the protesters in Charlottesville,the characteristic that they share they are losers and want to blame their failures on people of color. But I believe these losers are just clowns who are expendable. There are some wealthy and educated among these many white supremacist the current president and his administration among them. In my humble opinion I don’t think we should ignore these monsters they are dangerous. People of marginalized groups need to come up with solutions to protect ourselves from these beast.
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*diversity in society * typo^^^^
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Low birth rates is another issue that have white supremacist paranoid. Because of the many interracial unions occurring.
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@ Mary Burrell
IMHO this explains the true intentions of the “pro-life” movement: to eliminate abortion as a viable birth control option so white women will have no choice but to bring more white babies to term. It doesn’t matter what happens to those babies once they’re born, which is why you’ll never see pro-life groups open orphanages or promote adoption as alternatives for single or struggling parents. It doesn’t matter whether they’re born into poverty just as long as they’re born, period.
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[…] via The eight stages of genocide — Abagond […]
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@ Mack Lyons
“…the true intentions of the “pro-life” movement: to eliminate abortion as a viable birth control option so white women will have no choice but to bring more white babies to term. It doesn’t matter what happens to those babies once they’re born…It doesn’t matter whether they’re born into poverty just as long as they’re born, period.”
That is how I view anti-choice types. Cloaking their true intentions with flowery religious, moral and ethical arguments.
However, their bottom line is money and power. Money they can extract from the wretched masses born into poverty. Power over the lives of White women and low-status White men.
For Black, Native and Latinx women, the deeper issue is not freedom to choose whether to have children or not, but facing hurdles to having healthy children with opportunities to thrive and contribute to society. A quality healthcare system with universal prenatal and pediatric coverage would be a first step. Excellent schools, high standard housing and elimination of hunger (like an expansion of the Women Infants and Children (WIC) program to cover more families for longer) would be good next steps.
Also, not losing those children to the foster care system. Native and Black women are hit particularly hard by local, county and state governments snatching their children away for spurious reasons.
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Mack Lyons brings up a good point. It shows how the Republicans’ White racism, anti-immigration and pro-abortion stands are all different parts of the same thing. And why “pro-life” ends at birth.
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@ Abagond
“Republicans’ White racism, anti-immigration and pro-abortion…”
Republicans pro-abortion?
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I thought it was Republicans and and anti- abortion. The dominant culture is very paranoid about the dying out of the Caucasian bloodlines. That’s the hypocrisy of evangelicals it’s not so much about pro-life because if they cared about pro-life they would care about all lives that includes black lives, which we know they care nothing about. They are anti-immigration because too many brown and non white immigrants too much browning of America.
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Evangelicals are very disingenuous when it comes to matters of anti- abortion it’s not so much for matters of faith and because they love Jesus like they claim, it’s because they too hide behind the guise of Christianity even though they are no better than those tiki torch Nazis. It’s all about keeping white supremacy alive.
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@ Afrofem
Sorry, I meant anti-abortion.
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@Mack Lyons (@DDSSBlog) 2017 Speaking about the blacks and this subject, you must not have read the history of Jim Crow.
During the Jim Crow period every attempt was made to wipe out the blacks in the South East states. Only the strength and determination of the blacks saved them. Otherwise they would have been reduced to basic animals.
While a few names of blacks are mentioned it was the everyday (common) black that held on to their beliefs in self that saved them!
Go beyond the names of the few black educators and see the many fathers and mothers that nurtured their children through those dark days.
Sorry I am so late with this I just ran into it when reading a current article.
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Most of the world has gone through all these stages to exterminate babies
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