230
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2023
230 points (89.1% liked)
politics
19145 readers
4870 users here now
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Back in college (which is longer ago than I like), I went to the Holocaust Museum in DC. The most impactful exhibit was called Daniel's Story. You enter a room and go back in time - into the life of Daniel. He's a Jewish boy growing up in Germany around when Hitler came to power. Everything looks just fine in Daniel's house.
Then you go to the next room and time has skipped forward a bit. There are slight changes, but it isn't anything too bad so you walk on.
In every room, time moves forward slightly and the changes always seem "not too bad."
Then you get to the final room which is the entrance to a death camp. Suddenly, you realize just how all those "tiny/just fine" changes accumulated. But by now, it's too late to stop it. You're at the gates.
Had the Germans launched the full blown Holocaust on Day 1, too many people would have objected. But after a slow burn of tiny steps for reasons that sounded plausible enough to not be widely objected to, dehumanization, and other such tactics, the Nazis created an atmosphere where "kill all the Jews" seemed like a reasonable outcome. At least to most of the general populace who weren't Jewish. Or LGBTQ. Or political dissidents. Etc.
Damn that sounds like a fantastic exhibit.
It was gut wrenching.
The other exhibit that hit hard (well, they all did, but this one was notable to me) was the train car. You can walk around it or through it. I walked through and paused in the middle.
The plaque outside had said how many Jews were put in this car. I tried to imagine sticking that many people in the car, but I couldn't. Then I realized my problem.
I was trying to put PEOPLE in the car.
Even though the "people" I was mentally putting in were imaginary, I was still treating them like people. If I switched to putting that many people shaped objects in the car, it became easy.
It was a huge lesson in the power of dehumanization.
Brenda Romero made an experience called Train to visualize this and educate.
-cries in spatial reasoning-