How Social Media Destroyed Holocaust Guilt

Almost a decade ago, on my previous blog, I wrote a series about how social media and the internet in general has fundamentally changed the way ‘the people’ perceive their relationship between themselves and their rulers, governments and institutions to an extent not seen seen for a century. At that time, in the pre-2016 era, this assessment might have seemed a bit extravagant, however everything we have seen since 2015 Brexit vote shows that it was absolutely correct. With that in mind, let me introduce you the central argument of this post- namely, that the proliferation of social media has destroyed what is best described as ‘holocaust guilt’ in the West. In case you are wondering, every other part of the world never gave anything other than the briefest lip service to that issue- because it was not their monkey or circus. But what do I mean by western ‘holocaust guilt’ and why is this topic relevant now.

Let us start by briefly describing what is implied by western ‘holocaust guilt’. In my observation, there is a tendency (especially among the older generations) in West to believe that the ethnic cleansing and killing of Jews in Central and Eastern Europe by Nazi Germany during WW2 was somehow much more morally abhorrent than similar treatment meted out by Nazi Germany to other groups in that part of the world during that time. Given that 20-30 million people of various Slavic ancestries (mostly civilians) also died during WW2, the argument that Nazi genocide of a few million European Jews was somehow more morally abhorrent seems like a cry for special treatment. It is worth pointing out that Hitler expressed as much contempt, revulsion and hatred for people of Slavic ancestry as he did for Jews- a point often overlooked by most people. Nazi Germany was a bit more interested in killing tens of millions of Slavs and seizing their land and resources than solving what was euphemistically described as the ‘Jewish Question’ and their allocation of resources during WW2 backs this up.

If you don’t believe this, feel free to offer an alternate explanation for why 70-80% of Nazi Germany’s war effort was spent on the Eastern Front. My point is that the pattern of geocidal behavior displayed by Nazi Germany towards multiple groups of people in Central and Eastern Europe during WW2 was fairly consistent and the number of civilian deaths backs that up. Sure.. they had more contempt and hatred for those of European Jewish ancestry- but not by that much, just ask people in Poland, Belarus, eastern Ukraine and Russia. There is also the issue of how most people in West totally overlook how Imperial Japan treated people in China in the period between 1937-1945. By any measure, what Imperial Japan did to Chinese people was as just as bad (or worse than) what Nazi Germany did to Jews and Slavic people. There are also other instances of such behavior during that time period, such as what the British Empire did to people in Bengal during the famine of 1943- which was as bad as what Nazi Germany did to any group during WW2. Clearly, here is a lot of blame to go around.

So why were people in the West (especially older generations) willing to go along with the idea that the Holocaust was somehow much more immoral than similar treatment and deaths among other groups such as Slavs, Chinese, Indians etc? If we were honest about it, a majority of people in the West still do not see Asians as real human beings- so that explains why the fate of millions of Chinese and Indians during WW2 does not register in their minds as equivalent to the Holocaust. The situation with Slavs is a bit more complicated, but can be explained as result of a combination of anti-communist propaganda and the still prevalent belief that East Europeans are not fully European, hence not really equal human beings. If you find this blunt assessment of the Western mindset to be a bit harsh, I am just reporting what is obvious for anyone to see. So what explains the special consideration for WW2-era atrocities towards Jews?

It comes down to the demography of USA during the 20th century. Those of you who have read some history will remember that there were huge waves of immigration from Europe to USA during the late 19th and early 20th century. One of the groups who moved here during that time was Central and East European Jews, mostly from the Eastern parts of Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Pale Of Settlement of Russian Empire. It reached a point where almost every Jewish family in that part of the world had one or more relatives who immigrated to USA. While it took them a generation or two to start their ascent in the higher levels of American society, they did reach a decent level of political, demographic and economic power by the time of WW2. It is these people, who more than anyone else, pushed the idea that the genocide of their relatives in Eastern Europe was somehow far more morally depraved that similar treatment of Slavs, Chinese, Indians etc.

After WW2 was over, USA was the only Western superpower and this belief slowly spread to (or was imposed on) other western countries, notably UK and Germany. While western ‘holocaust guilt’ started slowly in the 1950s and 1960s, it gained a lot of steam and power during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s as people of Jewish ancestry occupied increasingly important positions in the American government, institutions and corporations. Hollywood and the entertainment industry did its part too. In my opinion, the 1990s were the peak of western ‘holocaust guilt’ for a number of reasons ranging from racial demography to still having enough people who had lived as adults during WW2. But trends almost always start declining after a certain point due to changes in underlying conditions. In this case, changing racial demography in USA and rest of West (more Hispanics, Asians, Indians etc) was the beginning of its decline since these and other non-white groups simply don’t care about what happened to one specific group during WW2 and do not have the history of strong anti-semitism.

Beyond aging of the white population and general browning of USA, it also became much harder to keep claiming that people of Jewish ancestry were somehow still the target of discrimination and mistreatment in USA and rest of West. In fact, since the 1980s it is possible to make a case that the converse is true. Nevertheless until the late 1990s and early 2000s, most people generally believed that the West was somehow uniquely responsible for the Holocaust- and then the internet started becoming ubiquitous. It was at that point an increasing number of people started getting their news from non main-stream media. While most people still think that the decline of mainstream began in the 2010s, I would argue that it actually started in the very late 1990s to early 2000s. Social media apps such as FakeBook, InstaThot, Twatter, TikTok etc just greased the wheels of what was an inevitable process. Regardless of when and how the process began, the influence of main-stream media outlets has declined to the point where only people above 70 or something like that even care about what they say.

But there is one final part of this story. It concerns how a significant percentage of the Jewish population in Israel cannot seem to keep their mouths shut on a number of topics such as how they really see USA, non-Jews, Arabs, Palestinians etc and what they think about themselves. It is this inability to censor themselves which, in my opinion, is the final nail in the coffin of western ‘holocaust guilt’. Listening to even a dozen of these people on social media is enough to convince anyone younger than boomers that you are dealing with people with a mindset similar to Nazis. Moreover, unlike in the past, such stuff becomes viral really quickly. To make matters worse, especially in past year, the ability of Palestinians to broadcast their suffering to rest of world makes it basically impossible to ignore the fact that the state of Israel looks and acts a lot like Nazi Germany. I would argue that the smartphone is the most powerful weapon in the hands of Palestinians. To summarize, at this point most everyone who is younger than a boomer and not some right-wing nutjob can see that invoking western ‘holocaust guilt’ is just a ploy to justify genocide and condone race-based colonialism.

What do you think? Comments?