"Blood Libel" Graduates to "Pogrom" Status Against Palin, Conservatives
Conservatives don't think you really appreciate the extent to which they were critically wounded by the shooting last Saturday in Tucson.
Never mind the congresswoman lying in the hospital with a hole going from the front to the back of her head, struggling to understand what happened to her. Never mind the six who were killed, including a federal judge and a nine-year old girl. Never mind the wounded who will live with their scars forever.
Dammit! The REAL victims here are Sarah Palin and the conservative hate machine.
Caribou Barbie accused the media of manufacturing a "blood libel" against her. Now, whether or not she was aware of the actual meaning of that term... this exclusively Jewish bit of history used to describe a commonly held belief by Gentiles that Jews used the blood of children for ceremonial purposes and as an ingredient in their Passover matzohs... that's not the point. Methinks Sarah heard someone use the term and said to herself, "That sounds like what they're doing to MEEEEEEEE!"
But misusing that term wasn't enough for Caribou Barbie and her defenders in the right wing media.
On January 12, an editorial in the Washington Times doubled-downed on the "blood libel" slur and upped the ante by calling what is happening to Palin and the echo chamber of hate voices... a "pogrom."
This is simply the latest round of an ongoing pogrom against conservative thinkers.
Pogrom. Calling out Caribou Barbie for her crosshair map. Calling out Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and other hate screechers for screeching hate... that's a pogrom.
Let's see if that matches up to an ACTUAL description of an ACTUAL pogrom.
From Wikipedia...
A pogrom (Russian: погром) is a form of violent riot, a mob attack, either approved or condoned by government or military authorities, directed against a particular group, whether ethnic, religious, or other, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres. The term usually carries connotation of spontaneous hatred within the majority population against certain (usually ethnic) minorities, which they see as dangerous and harming the interests of majority. The term was originally used to denote extensive violence against Jews in the Russian Empire and a series of anti-German pogroms in Russia in 1915. Pogroms often affect members of middlemen minorities. This can, in extreme cases, result in genocide, such as that of Armenians or Jews.
Let's see if we can find a historical description of an actual pogrom — for the purposes of education.
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