GOP Rep. Eric Burlison Invokes Holocaust over TV Channel Being Dropped from DirecTV

[Shadow Wolf]

DirecTV dropped them over a fee dispute. Their arrangement was bad for business, so they were replaced by another conservative network. That's capitalism for ya.

Turns out they don't actually like Capitalism either. Disney, Facebook, DirecTV, they've shown for all their harping on about the free market they really don't practice it or like it.

 

[Rachel Rugelach]

Following satellite provider DirecTV's dropping of conservative channel Newsmax, GOP House member Eric Burlison brought up the Holocaust to argue that "they will eventually come for you":

GOP Rep. Eric Burlison, Mad Over Dropped Newsmax, Invokes Holocaust

There's a touch of irony in a GOP member's invoking the Holocaust so casually while members of his party continually harp on the "offended snowflake" trope. Apparently, he sees it fit to compare the genocide of millions with a channel's lack of access to one satellite service provider. Shameful behavior, to say the least.

Thank you for posting about this, DS. What you have described is called "Holocaust trivialization" and we are seeing more and more of it these days in the ugly arena of U.S. politics.

It trivializes the horrors of the Holocaust when people compare the Holocaust to just about anything that they don't like or that inconveniences them. Such as being asked to wear a mask during the pandemic - a trivialization of the Holocaust offensively done by Republican candidate for Minnesota governor, Scott Jensen. Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green, also, compared the masks to the yellow stars that Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust in order to more easily identify them to the public for harassment and assault.

These excerpts in blue text below are quoted from an article by Edna Friedberg, Ph.D., a historian writing for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:

Neither the political right nor left has a monopoly on exploiting the six million Jews murdered in a state-sponsored, systematic campaign of genocide to demonize or intimidate their political opponents. Recently, some conservative media figures explicitly likened Parkland, FL students advocating for tightened gun control to Hitler Youth, operating in the service of a shadowy authoritarian conspiracy. This allegation included splicing images of these students onto historical film footage of Nazi rallies, reflecting the ease with which many Americans associate the sound of German shouting with a threat to personal liberties. A state representative in Minnesota joined the online bandwagon in these accusations.

It is all too easy to forget that there are many people still alive for whom the Holocaust is not “history,” but their life story and that of their families. These are not abstract tragedies on call to win an argument or an election. They carry the painful memories of the brutal murder of a cherished baby boy, the rape of a beloved sister, the parents arrested and never seen again.

Careless Holocaust analogies may demonize, demean, and intimidate their targets. But there is a cost for all of us because they distract from the real issues challenging our society, because they shut down productive, thoughtful discourse. At a time when our country needs dialogue more than ever, it is especially dangerous to exploit the memory of the Holocaust as a rhetorical cudgel. We owe the survivors more than that. And we owe ourselves more than that.

For those who wish to read the entire article, click on: Why Holocaust Analogies Are Dangerous