This is a follow-up to a
diary I wrote yesterday about a
column in WorldNetDaily where it was stated that "if the Germans could move 6 million Jews, we can certainly move 12 million Mexicans".
Unsurprisingly, this article attracted a firestorm of criticism. On his blog, the author tried to defend himself.
Update [2006-5-17 15:42:15 by dmsilev]: Kossack SFOrange makes a great catch. WorldNetDaily has now scrubbed the offending language from the column. The paragraph in question now reads
t couldn't possibly take more than eight years to deport 12 million illegal aliens, many of whom don't speak English and are not integrated into American society. In fact, the hysterical response to the post-rally enforcement rumors tends to indicate that the mere announcement of a massive deportation program would probably cause a third of that 12 million to depart for points south within a week.
At the moment, Vox is still defending the Nazi reference on his blog.
First, a couple of other stories on this column:
Another dkos diary, looking at how this column is an example of the "ratchet effect" of rhetoric.
Digby's take on the issue
Steve Gillard's blog entry.
Crooks and Liars was, as far as I know, the first to bring the article to people's attention.
Musing85 has a nice article on his blog explaining some of the idiocies, logistical and otherwise, in Vox Day's "argument"
The paragraph in the original article that lit off the firestorm:
Not only will it work, but one can easily estimate how long it would take. If it took the Germans less than four years to rid themselves of 6 million Jews, many of whom spoke German and were fully integrated into German society, it couldn't possibly take more than eight years to deport 12 million illegal aliens, many of whom don't speak English and are not integrated into American society.
Now to the main event, Vox's attempts to (a) answer critics and (b) try to claim that he isn't a Nazi.
We start with this. The inner blockquote is a critic, the outer is Vox's reply:
Did you seriously just compare deporting illegal immigrants from the US to what the Nazis did to the Jews in the 1930's and 40's?!?! That was NOT deporting; it was more akin to, say... killing. The Nazis KILLED 6 million Jews, they didn't deport them. You, sir, are an idiot with no knowledge of history and an extremely limited undertstanding of the role immigrants currently play in this country.
Actually, I compared it to what the National Socialists did between December 1941 and June 1945. Perhaps you've never heard of concentration camps - really death camps - such as Dachau and Auschwitz. Before they killed the Jews, the National Socialists had to identify them and transport them. The point, as seems to have escaped you and many other morons, is that it is quite clearly possible to enact deportations on the scale required.
So, critic 'JK' points out that the Nazis
killed 6 million Jews (and, let us not forget, roughly 6 million
other "undesireables"). Vox's response: Yes, they killed them, but don't forget, the Nazis had to move the people first. So, I guess that means that our job is actually
easier than the Nazis; all we have to do is implement the same cattle-car transportation system, without worrying about those expensive gas chambers and mass crematoriums at the recieving end. Well, I feel
so much better.
Oh, and for added irony, the title of the post is "Dumber than one would imagine". Indeed.
Half an hour later, the critics have intensified their fire, and Vox comes back with this:
The point is simple. President Bush states that something is not possible. There is a very well-known historical example which proves otherwise. Whether one is sexually stimulated by that historical example or enjoys moral preening by condemning it more often and more loudly than his neighbor, it does not change the fact that Dear Jorge is completely wrong.
It goes against my grain to defend George Bush, but I'm with him on this one. Yes, the Nazis established a proof-of-concept that it's possible to move several million people against their will. However, that concept included "segregate the target group, preferably behind barbed wire", "incite the general population to violence against the target group", "Not give a shit about how many members of the target group die in transit", and several other minor technicalties.
Vox complained that people were calling him a Nazi. I say "if the jackboot fits..."
He takes criticism from Captain Ed, hardly the world's most liberal commentator. In his response, he writes
Yes, there were also Jewish ghettos, to be sure, but perhaps my fellow Minnesotan is familiar with the term "barrio"....
I don't know about Mr. Day, but the barrios and other "ghettos" that I'm familiar with have a distinct lack of walls, barbed wire fences, and guard posts on the edges to keep the inhabitants in. There are no mandatory state-issued papers that say "This person must live in the barrio". Etc.
At the end of that post, he writes:
The ludicrous accusations of my desire to round up and deport illegals, much less massacre them, serve very well to demonstrate how many bloggers leap at the chance to indulge in hysterics and moral preening. They demand an apology? They'll receive nothing but well-deserved contempt.
Well-deserved contempt strikes me as the appropriate response
to Vox Day. Reprehensible Nazi-wannabee racist scum also comes mind. The fact that bloggers across the political spectrum read that column and all had the same reaction should say something. To Vox, it says "I'm right, and the rest of the world can't read". The rest of the world disagrees.
This is getting long (and depressing), so I'll just look at one more post he made, a response to Andrew Sullivan.
Yes, because getting rid of six million people is a logistical task rather similar to getting rid of 12 million people. Whether you kill them at the end or buy them all haciendas complete with margarita bars, the task is largely the same. DNCTL is correct to mention that I did not advocate killing anyone, he disingenuously neglects to mention that I didn't even advocate a massive deportation program. Since I was specific with my recommendations in the article, it's quite clear that DNCTL, like many other Medvedian morons, is more interested in throwing a hissy fit than responding to the column.
(emphasis added)
DNCTL is "Do Not Cross This Line", Vox's new pet name for Andrew Sullivan. That said, read the sentence that I bolded. Once you finish washing your eyes out with bleach, marvel at the fact that Vox objects to people calling him a Nazi. And, while it's true that his original column didn't
directly advocate for a deportation program, it did say "We can do this; after all, the Nazis did" and never went on to say "but it would be a bad idea to do this". You can perhaps forgive the reasonable reader for assuming that the author of the column is attempting to argue in favor of mass deportation.
People reading this diary may wonder whether it is worth while to go after Vox Day, whether the best course of action is just to ignore him rather than give him the attention he covets. I say that the best time to stamp out reprehensible ideas is when they are small and unliked. Kill this dead dead dead, and try to prevent another turn of the ratchet.
-dms