"The Holocaust was like the Crucifixion in tragedy, only for the Jews..."
Wow, I don't even. I think I can get where he's coming from, in terms of visceral 'oh shit' horror. But I think it would only be talking about early Christians and modern Jews, dealing with the presence of recent, lethal persecution. I get really angry, actually, when contemporary Christians attempt to make an empathic connection with my Big Jewish Persecution Thing by pointing out that a thousand and a half years ago Christians, too, were persecuted (by Jews! How about that!). It always feels like, to me, there needs to be a rule: whoever's people were massacred most recently wins the Persecution Game, and other people have to be gracious about that.
That being said, I've had black people try to guilt me about being a slave owner, and I totally get to be like 'suck it, white man's guilt, all my relatives emigrated here in the 20th century'. So there's clearly some loopholes in the Who Has To Feel Bad About Persecution game.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2010-08-13 08:50 pm (UTC)Wow, I don't even. I think I can get where he's coming from, in terms of visceral 'oh shit' horror. But I think it would only be talking about early Christians and modern Jews, dealing with the presence of recent, lethal persecution. I get really angry, actually, when contemporary Christians attempt to make an empathic connection with my Big Jewish Persecution Thing by pointing out that a thousand and a half years ago Christians, too, were persecuted (by Jews! How about that!). It always feels like, to me, there needs to be a rule: whoever's people were massacred most recently wins the Persecution Game, and other people have to be gracious about that.
That being said, I've had black people try to guilt me about being a slave owner, and I totally get to be like 'suck it, white man's guilt, all my relatives emigrated here in the 20th century'. So there's clearly some loopholes in the Who Has To Feel Bad About Persecution game.