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Atlanta Hawks Visit Holocaust Museum in D.C. ... Before Wizards Game
Showing posts with label Holocaust. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holocaust. Show all posts
Thursday, January 3, 2019
Atlanta Hawks Visit Holocaust Museum in D.C. ... Before Wizards Game
Thursday, July 19, 2018
Mark Zuckerberg: I Didn"t MEAN to Defend Holocaust Deniers!
Remember in late 2016 when it looked like Mark Zuckerberg was testing the waters for an eventual Presidential run? That ship has clearly sailed.
In a recent statement, Zuckerberg seemed to make excuses for Holocaust deniers on Facebook, claiming that the classic neo-nazi talking point is just an honest misunderstanding.
Now, he’s trying to walk back his statements … but not doing a great job of it.
On a Wednesday appearance on the Recode Decode podcast, Mark Zuckerberg reminds listeners: “I’m Jewish.”
That is definitely relevant to the conversation of Holocaust denial and other abhorrent content that spreads via Facebook.
“And there’s a set of people who deny that the Holocaust happened,” Zuckerberg admits.
“I find that deeply offensive,” he says.
For the record, saying that Holocaust denial is offensive kind of misses the point.
‘But at the end of the day,” Zuckerberg continues. “I don’t believe that our platform should take that down.”
Yikes.
He does explain his point of view.
Zuckerberg says that he doesn’t want to block thta content “because I think there are things that different people get wrong. I don’t think that they’re intentionally getting it wrong.”
Some would argue that people who believe evil, untrue things are never intentionally getting it wrong. Other say that most Holocaust deniers are deliberately lying.
“It’s hard to impugn intent,” Zuckerberg says. “And to understand the intent.”
Many would say that the intention behind spreading such misinformation doesn’t really matter.
“I just think, as abhorrent as some of those examples are,” Zuckerberg says. “I think the reality is also that I get things wrong when I speak publicly.”
Zuckerberg sent a follow-up email to clarify his wildly controversial statements.
“I enjoyed our conversation yesterday,” his email begins. “But there’s one thing I want to clear up.”
A lot of people are better-spoken in emails than they are in interviews.
“I personally find Holocaust denial deeply offensive,” Zuckerberg repeats. “And I absolutely didn’t intend to defend the intent of people who deny that.”
That’s … reassuring?
“Our goal with fake news is not to prevent anyone from saying something untrue,” he clarifies. “But to stop fake news and misinformation spreading across our services.”
That sounds like a subtle distinction for those who don’t actively work in social media.
He goes on to explain how he hopes that Facebook will accomplish this goal.
“If something is spreading and is rated false by fact checkers,” Zuckerberg describes. “It would lose the vast majority of its distribution in News Feed.”
“And of course,” Zuckerberg continues. “If a post crossed line into advocating for violence or hate against a particular group, it would be removed.”
That is probably welcome news to the people who have reported direct threats against them on Facebook only to have Facebook respond with the formal equivalent of a shrug.
“These issues are very challenging,” Zuckerberg admits. “But I believe that often the best way to fight offensive bad speech is with good speech.”
“I look forward to catching up again soon,” he concludes. “Mark.”
There are a few issues with his statement.
First of all, addressing direct and explicit violent threats just allows people to play word games. Holocaust denial is a popular word game.
A number of white supremacist groups enjoy presenting the Holocaust as a fabrication, concocted by an all-powerful Jewish cabal in order to procure international sympathy.
Zuckerberg himself is unlikely to be impacted by the spread of anti-semitism, because his status as a billionaire means that he does not face the everyday experiences that non-billionaire minorities do.
And that goes for his entire family.
He might be offended by their rhetoric, but he is not the person who is likely to have his home or place of work vandalized by someone who worked themselves into a frenzy after consuming hour after hour of conspiracy theories.
Many have pointed out that Zuckerberg cares more about making money off of avowed racists on his platform than he is about the real world consequences of helping nazi ideology to spread.
In Zuckerberg’s defense … he’s not the best at public speaking.
Also, YouTube’s video suggestion algorithm, which points so many teens to a cesspool of conspiracy theoriest and white nationalist media, is definitely worse.
Still … defending Holocaust deniers isn’t a great platform for a political run. Unless you’re Trump, apparently.
Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Mark Zuckerberg Refuses to Ban Holocaust Deniers from Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg is coming under fire for refusing to ban Holocaust deniers on Facebook. The FB CEO made the controversial statement in an interview with tech site Redcode, in which he says … “I’m Jewish, and there’s a set of people who…
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Senator Cory Booker Calls Don Young"s Holocaust Gun Argument Outrageous
Senator Cory Booker is stunned that Congressman Don Young tried pitching the Holocaust as a serious defense for arming teachers … calling the pro-gun notion “outrageous.” We got the senator from New Jersey Wednesday in D.C. and asked him what he…
Congressman Don Young Says Arming Jews Could Have Prevented Holocaust
Alaskan Congressman Don Young says if Jewish people in Nazi Germany were armed, they could have prevented the Holocaust — and that’s his argument against gun control. The U.S. representative was fielding questions about how to make schools safer…
Sunday, November 5, 2017
Larry David: SLAMMED for Doing Holocaust Jokes on Saturday Night Live!
So last night, Larry David hosted Saturday Night Live.
It should have been a wonderful opportunity for some solid Bernie Sanders sketches, and he did do a Bernie impersonation at one point, but that’s not what people are talking about.
Nope, instead people are focusing on his opening monologue.
Specifically the segment during the monologue in which he made a few Holocaust jokes.
He kicks off the bit by saying that he’s “always been obsessed with women,” and “I’ve often wondered, if I’d grown up in Poland when Hitler came to power and was sent to a concentration camp, would I still be checking out women in the camp?”
The audience started laughing nervously, and he answered his own question with “I think I would.”
“The problem is,” he continued, “there are no good opening lines in a concentration camp.”
“How’s it going?” he asked an imaginary women in this wacky scenario. “They treating you OK? You know, if we ever get out of here, I’d love to take you out for some latkes. You like latkes?”
When the line didn’t land — for the audience, too, but mostly for that imaginary lady — he said “What, what’d I say? Is it me, or is it the whole thing?”
From there, Larry wrapped up the monologue and went into the typical “We got a great show tonight …” SNL thing.
But, thanks to the internet, that certainly would not be the last we heard of those jokes.
“I’m not a Jew,” one person tweeted, “but I’m low-key offended by Larry David’s holocaust jokes on #SNL. Not cool.”
“I can’t believe they did jokes about a concentration camp I just can’t believe what I just saw it will never be okay to do,” another wrote.
Some people used a popular hashtag, #ReallyMakesMeCringe, to express their feelings about the monologue, for example “#ReallyMakesMeCringe when we have people denying the holocaust & Larry David opens the door for them to think it’s fine to joke about.”
There were a lot of photos shared of actual women in concentration camps to really drive home the point that the joke was offensive.
“Comedy does NOT mean everything can be funny,” someone stated. “Always wrong to joke about the Holocaust, even if you’re Jewish.”
Which is another thing — Larry is Jewish himself, so many people believe that he had the right to make those jokes.
“Don’t get why non-Jews think their opinions matter on whether or not Larry David is allowed to reference the holocaust in his jokes,” one such person tweeted.
Another explained that “If anyone is upset with Larry David’s holocaust jokes on SNL they are likely not Jewish. Comedy can help people deal with tragedy.”
So was he offensive, or does he have the right to make jokes like this?
Does anyone have the right to make jokes like this?
Sound off in the comments!
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Local News Accidentally Uses Holocaust Symbol For Jewish Holiday Story! See What The Station Said About The "Oversight"!
Someone is getting fired!
Local Chicago news station WGN sparked controversy online after using a symbol of Nazi abuse for their Yom Kippur story!
On Tuesday, the news station was highlighting the Jewish holiday — where Jews fast and atone for their sins.
Related: Seth Rogen Is Throwing James Franco A… BAR MITZVAH?!
But viewers understandably took offense upon noticing that the image used for the story was of the yellow Star of David badge — which Jewish people were forced to wear during the Holocaust!
This unfortunate error sparked outrage on Twitter, as users wrote to the news station:
Holy crap, @WGNNews, this is your stock photo for a Jewish holiday?? Nobody thought that’s a bad choice of photo? pic.twitter.com/z7BNuvGybS
— Marc Karlinsky (@MarcKarlinsky) September 23, 2015
Sooo.. someone’s getting fired at WGN… pic.twitter.com/SrSt8arVCa
— Mikaela (@mikaelajannae) September 23, 2015
WGN swiftly apologized, saying they regrettably “failed to recognize” the offensive symbol, and are “extremely embarrassed.” The following statement was issued on their website:
“Last night we ran a story to recognize Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. The artwork chosen to accompany the story came from a graphics image bank. Regrettably, we failed to recognize that the image was an offensive Nazi symbol. We are extremely embarrassed and we deeply apologize to our viewers and to the Jewish community for this mistake. Ignorance is not an excuse. Please know we are reviewing our in house policies and changes have already been made to make sure a hurtful oversight like this never happens again. Thank you for your understanding. We promise to do better.”
Sounds like WGN needs to update their graphics image bank before Hanukkah starts! Check out the clip (below) to see the fail!
[Image via YouTube.]
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