Exploiting The Memory Of The Holocaust For Political Gain
The Jewish Holocaust should stand alone in the annals of history. If it is tied to anything, perhaps it should be tied to the Soviet Union, since the Soviets were the only people who had more killed by the Nazis than the Jewish people did. Perhaps we might even stop for a moment to recognize that it was the Soviet people, primarily Russians, who liberated Auschwitz.
Such is not the case, however. There is literally no opportunity wasted in Western media to attack Russia and create implied ties between it and the most unspeakable of crimes. Not content with comparing Vladimir Putin to Adolph Hitler, the Western press is now creating impressions that Russia is either guilty of crimes comparable to the Holocaust, or was complicit in the Holocaust itself.
Most people might think that such a coordinated propaganda campaign waged internationally against a targeted nation would be impossible. But as the Twitter files have revealed and continue to reveal, the entirety of the Russian social media interference narrative was based not upon evidence but on coercion. Most everybody uses U.S. social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, and U.S. social media sites are controlled to a much larger degree than most realize by the government and by corporate interests.
I think the reason people have as much trust in the media as they do is that they can’t imagine it being as bad as it is. They imagine there must be some diversity within it, so that when consensus is achieved they figure that must indicate the truth. The sad fact is the global media is overwhelmingly the reflection of the values of the transnational corporations that own it. And as the U.S. military is the primary defender of the rights and interests of those transnational corporations, U.S. military interests will be promoted by the media.
Independent media DOES exist, but it is in the crosshairs of the globe-spanning corporate media. And within the globe-spanning corporate media, dissenting voices are not permitted. Hence, the need for a crackdown on social media, where the voices of independent journalists can be shared.
While the machinations involving the government and various think tanks are being laid bare by the Twitter files, nothing comparable is currently taking place in corporate media. But its output is evidence enough not only of whose interests it serves but how monolithic it is. Below are just some of the many different publications sharing the exact same story with nearly the exact same headline. Again, notice the subtle but undeniable way that Russia is being compared to what is debatably the most horrific crime in human history. Notice that the Soviet Union’s central role in liberating the concentration camps is all but erased, and that Russians are not welcome at the commemorations of the very crimes they put a stop to. Meanwhile, Ukraine, which has issued a stamp commemorating Stepan Bandera, one of the greatest perpetrators of the genocide, is given a place of honor.
This identical printing of the story told round the world is ironically done by the Malta Independent:
From Australia:
Canada:
While this one, translated word for word into French, is credited to a different author (perhaps the name of the translator?)
Remarkable unanimity of thought, isn’t it? From around the world, no less. And there are many, many more, this is just a brief sampling. And while perhaps it is perfectly reasonable to make connections between the Holocaust and any war, it does seem quite unusual to exploit the Holocaust in this fashion to make a political point. Indeed, it is unlikely you will come across a story that does not make this connection in Western media or in any country’s media that is aligned with the U.S. Similar points might have been made against Israel’s actions against the Palestinians, which is far more comparable to the hatred and violence based on race that was the Holocaust. Yemen might have been brought up as a genocide, which the Russian war against Ukraine is not.
This unanimity of opinion is not just happening with a single article. It is occurring with every issue that is important to the transnational corporations. Consensus will be achieved based on what side of an issue they want you to hear.
This uniformity of narrative within the Western world is far worse than people realize, far worse than most people are willing to believe. And yet it exists. We see it over and over if we but open our eyes to the possibility of its existence. And once one has seen it, they can never unsee it. Which, perhaps, is why so few of us are willing to even try. In perceiving things as they are, we lose the comfort and safety of the herd.