New York Sense of Humor

[orichalcum]

Roger Cohen of the NYT points out this answer from Palin during the V-P debate:

"“One thing that Americans do at this time, also, though, is let’s commit ourselves just everyday American people, Joe Six Pack, hockey moms across the nation, I think we need to band together and say ‘Never Again.’ Never will we be exploited and taken advantage of again by those managing our money and loaning us these dollars.”

Um. I'm not saying it's necessarily anti-Semitic to use Holocaust terminology to castigate New York moneylenders, but, at the least, it's remarkably insensitive hyperbole. I'm not underestimating the impact of the economic crisis, but last time I checked, six million people hadn't died as a result.

Still, it's better than her permitting chants of "Kill Him!" during her political rallies.

Comments

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Joe Six-Pack loves the story in the New Testament about Jesus breaking up the moneylenders in the temple, and still extrapolates to presume that all Jews are bankers or Hollywood producers. It's still what happens in regions where the Jewish communities are few and far between and most folks don't like to drive an hour or more to temple so that means a lot of small towns with no Jewish residents at all. It's sort of a subliminable thing, but yes, that association of Jews with lending is, sadly, still there.

[orichalcum.livejournal.com]

Yeah, thanks for that note. I know certainly that I've seen other people called out for (what they thought were "harmless") praises of Jews as being "good with money" and so forth, and I do think that there's still that association. That said, you may all be right that it's too complex a set of associations for most people to have picked up on - though her speechwriters are masters of subliminal messaging.

[stone-and-star.livejournal.com]

I didn't pick up on any of the alleged anti-semitic associations being discussed here, but I *definitely* consider "never again" to refer to the Holocaust. I've heard it used more appropriately in other settings where people were discussing the threat of genocide to groups other than the Jews.

[orichalcum.livejournal.com]

Where it's unfortunately kinda ironic, because what force does "never again" have when there have been 10+ genocides since 1945?