Yesterday, I received a breaking news alert from Axios – ” George Santos tells colleagues he’s stepping down from House committees.” That will be nice if it happens. But he’s such a liar, how can one tell? I also spent way too much time untangling – but that, alas, is what it takes, and it has to be done if I’m going to use the yarn. Today is the first day of Black History Month (except in FLorida.) I”ll be doing what I can – which means not every short take is going to be current.
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Mother Jones – How a Sunken Slave Ship Set Off “a Search for Ourselves”
Quote – [M]aritime archaeology has tended to focus its masked eye on the wrecks of rich and famous ships rather than those that traded in flesh and blood. Redressing that archaeological, academic and sociocultural imbalance was the driving force behind the Slave Wrecks Project, a partnership established in 2008 between the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) and other institutions and organizations in Africa and the US. “People talk about the slave trade; they talk about the millions of people who were transported, but it’s hard to really imagine that, so we wanted to reduce it to human scale by really focusing on a single ship, on the people on the ship, and the story around the ship,” says [Lonnie] Bunch [NMAAHC Director]. “Yes, we tell you about the thousands of ships that brought the enslaved, but we also say: ‘Here’s a way to humanize it.’” Click through for story. Not everyone wants to know about their ancestral history, and that is true of people from all backgrounds (and compinations of backgrounds. But those who do want to know should have equal access to that information. Henry Louis Gates Jr. has done wonderful work in that field, but anyone who has watched his show knows that the history of slavery in the U.S. presents a huge stumbling block, much as fires destroying records do, with the revealing difference that this suppression was deliberate. Anything which can help cut through that curtain is welcome.
Daily Beast – Florida Explains Why It Blocked Black History Class—and It’s a Doozy
Quote – The Florida Department of Education says it banned AP African American History because it teaches students about activism, intersectionality and encourages “ending the war on Black trans, queer, gender non-conforming, and intersex people,” according to a document the department sent to The Daily Beast…. DeSantis’ administration further made their anti-LGBTQ stance known in their explanation for prohibiting the class, simply listing “Black Queer Studies” as a violation of state law. The document further admonishes the teaching of intersectionality, claiming it is “foundational to” Critical Race Theory, without explaining how. Click through for details. I’m not sure “doozy” is the right word – “doozies” are supposed to be positive (it’s derived from “Duesenberg.”) This is so negative, and so far right – I’d call it a “Q-zy,” as in QAnon.
Yesterday, I slept later than I have for months – apparently after all that worry I needed to. Of course the disadvantage of thet is that the longer I sleep, the worse the aches and pains are when I arise. Fortunately the TENS makes short (not instant, but short) work of that. Virgil called – his friend dialed for him – so I was able to accept the call. I stressed that he needs to gethis friend to dial for him when he calls – it’s not a matter of money (an “unaccepted” call is not charged for), but the stress to bothe of us (probably more to me than to him, since I am more aware of what’s going on.) I’m not sure how much he actually absorbed, but his friend will get the point.
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ProPublica – How Congress Finally Cracked Down on a Massive Tax Scam
Quote – After six years of failed efforts by the IRS, Justice Department and lawmakers, new legislation is expected to prevent the worst abuses of a tax-avoidance scheme that has cost the U.S. Treasury billions of dollars. Tucked into the massive, $1.7 trillion government spending bill signed into law by President Joe Biden on Dec. 29, a provision in the law seems poised to accomplish what thousands of audits, threats of hefty penalties and criminal prosecutions could not: shutting down a booming business in “syndicated conservation easements,” which exploit a charitable tax break that Congress established to preserve open land. Click hrough for details. I had never heard of this, though it doesn’t realy surprise me. Sometimes, thankfully, our elected representatives are more knowledgeable than we are, which is good, since one can’t advocate on something one doesn’t even know is a problem.
PolitiZoom – Pelosi Attacker Calls SF Television News to Apologize… For Failing to Kill Paul Pelosi, ‘Unprepared’
Quote – David DePape called the KTVU newsroom from San Francisco County Jail Friday, the same day a superior court judge ordered video of the hammer attack on Paul Pelosi to be released. The call was unexpected. He told our reporter he had an important message…. In the chilling and bizarre phone call, he apologized for not going further. “I want to apologize to everyone. I messed up. What I did was really bad. I’m so sorry I didn’t get more of them. It’s my own fault. No one else is to blame. I should have come better prepared,” he says. Click through for story. C.S. Lewis once penned the phrase “the disinterested hatred of evil for good” (not meaning a lack of intellectual interest, but an absence of an ulterior motive, such as greed or fear) in a way that suggested it didn’t really exist. I think it does – it may be rare, but some actions seem so far out as not to be explainable otherwise. Is this one of them? I don’t know.
Yesterday, I did get to see Virgil. It was snowing and cold – but I really had to see him because omething had gone wrong in the phone system; he had tried 3 times to call me Friday but I wasn’t able to accept ythe call and I wanted to tell him it was not I who was haning up on him. Fortunately, he didn’t think that, and I got to talk with the inmate who helps him place calls and tell him what happened. I had called the provider, and I did get an answer – frankly it didn’t make sense to me, but I shared it anyway because it’s not something I can fix, and if they are going to they need all available information – at least. I wasn’t able to finish scraping the windshield before starting out in the morning; I got the driver’s side and part of the passenger side clear, but part of it was just rock solid, despite my having turned the defrost on for over a half hour and of course kept it on while driving. I was worried about having to deal with that before leaving for home, and I was also worried, as by this time the snow had reached Pueblo and was coming down, about getting on to the interstate. But by the time I left, the rock hard ice had melted so thoroughly that a couple swipes of the windshield wipers took care of it, and when I got to the interstate there was a huge gap to get into, and just about everyone was driving slowly anyway, plus it was practically dry, both directions (I don’t know how Colorado snowstorms know to fall most heavily on residential areas and frequesntted commercial areas, and less on highways, but they do a good job of it.) So there are three more proofs of one of my favorite sayings (see right). As usual, Virgil returns all greetings. He does appreciate all of you – he knows, among other things, you are company for me, which he can’t be under the circumstances.
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Washington Post (no paywall) – Justice Department asks FEC to stand down as prosecutors probe Santos
Quote – The Justice Department has asked the Federal Election Commission to hold off on any enforcement action against George Santos, the Republican congressman from New York who lied about key aspects of his biography, as prosecutors conduct a parallel criminal probe, according to two people familiar with the request…. “Basically they don’t want two sets of investigators tripping over each other,” said David M. Mason, a former FEC commissioner. “And they don’t want anything that the FEC, which is a civil agency, does to potentially complicate their criminal case.” Click through for story – From WaPo’s keyboards to God’s iPhone.
Timothy Snyder – Thinking about… – The Specter of 2016
Quote – The reporting on this so far seems to miss the larger implications. One of them is that Trump’s historical position looks far cloudier. In 2016, Trump’s campaign manager (Manafort) was a former employee of a Russian oligarch (Deripaska), and owed money to that same Russian oligarch. And the FBI special agent (McGonigal) who was charged with investigating the Trump campaign’s Russian connections then went to work (according to the indictment) for that very same Russian oligarch (Deripaska). This is obviously very bad for Trump personally. But it is also very bad for FBI New York, for the FBI generally, and for the United States of America. Click through for analysis. Snyder is a historian and this falls right into his special area, namely Europe. What strikes me here is that we all seem to be laboring under themistaken impression that if a responsible adult is aware that there is a problem under his or her purview, he or she will take some action. That does not appear to be the case Look at the 6-year-old school shooter – other students reported to multiple adults that he had a gun, starting early in the day. One of, I guess, the last to hear, just said, “Don’t worry, the school day’s almost over.” And then there was the entire police department in Uvalde. I understand the impulse, I really do, to mind one’s own business, but we citizens deserve better. Just because fascists want to supervise inappropriately doesn’t mean that we must fail to exercise supervision at all.
Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”
Holocaust Remembrance Day was this week. The present day is a time in which Holocaust denial is at an all-time high (and trending higher.) I’m reminded of a remark by C. S. Lewis, that we often fall into the error of thinking of a societal change as a moral improvement (or the reverse) when in fact is is merely a change in common knowledge. For instance, some people think we are better than our ancestors because we no longer kill witches. But that is because we no longer believe witches exist. If we still believed that there were people who had teamed up with the devil to do as much harm as possible, we might well agree that, if anyone deserved the death penalty, these traitors to humanity did.
So it is critical, in order to be a good person, to be knowledgeable about facts, and not to believe lies. The number and the nature of deaths we have experienced from CoVid demonstrates that convincingly – to anyone who knows the facts. The suggestions here are valid for anyone who does not want to be deceived, and for educators who do not want their students to be deceived.
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Combating antisemitism today: Holocaust education in the era of Twitter and TikTok
Technology is increasingly important in Holocaust education – seen here in ‘The Journey Back’ within The Richard and Jill Chaifetz Family Virtual Reality Gallery at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center. Courtesy of the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center, CC BY-NC-ND
In the era of social media, antisemitism and Holocaust denial are no longer hidden in the margins, spewed by fringe hate groups. From Ye – formerly known as Kanye West – and NBA player Kyrie Irving to members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, well-recognized personalities have echoed antisemitic ideas, often online.
Beyond high-profile figures, there are clear signs that antisemitism is becoming more mainstream. In 2021, using the most recent data available, the Anti-Defamation League reported that antisemitic incidents in the U.S. reached an all-time high. Eighty-five percent of Americans believe at least one anti-Jewish trope, according to another ADL survey, and about 20% believe six or more tropes – a sharp increase from just four years before. In addition, Jewish college students increasingly report feeling unsafe, ostracized or harassed on campus.
Rather than teaching the Holocaust as an isolated event, educators must grapple with how it connects to antisemitism past and present. That means adapting to how people learn and live today: online.
Toxic information landscape
The online ecosystem where today’s antisemitism flourishes is a Wild West of information and misinformation that is largely unmonitored, distributed in an instant, and posted by anyone. Social media posts and news feeds are frequently filtered by algorithms that narrow the content users receive, reinforcing already held beliefs.
According to a 2022 report by the United Nations, 17% of public TikTok content related to the Holocaust either denied or distorted it. The same was true of almost 1 in 5 Holocaust-related Twitter posts and 49% of Holocaust content on Telegram.
An emerging danger is artificial intelligence technology. New AI resources offer potential teaching tools – but also the menace of easily spread and unmonitored misinformation. For example, character AI and Historical Figures Chat allow you to “chat” with a historical figure, including those associated with the Holocaust: from victims like Holocaust diarist Anne Frank to perpetrators such as Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s minister of propaganda.
These sites come with warnings that characters’ responses could be made up and that users should check for historical accuracy, but it is easy to be misled by inaccurate answers.
Another potential AI hazard is deepfake videos. Media experts are warning about the potential for destabilizing “truth decay,” the inability to know what is real and what is fake, as the amount of synthetic content multiplies. Holocaust scholars are preparing to combat how historical sources and educational materials may be manipulated by deepfakes. There is particular concern that deepfakes will be used to manipulate or undercut survivors’ testimony.
Media literacy
Much of my scholarship tackles contemporary approaches to teaching the Holocaust – for example, the need to rethink education as the number of Holocaust survivors who are still able to tell their stories rapidly declines. Addressing today’s toxic information landscape presents another fundamental challenge that requires innovative solutions.
As a first step, educators can promote media literacy, the knowledge and skills needed to navigate and critique online information, and teach learners to approach sources with both healthy criticism and an open mind. Key strategies for K-12 students include training them to consider who is behind particular information and what evidence is provided and to investigate the creators of an unknown online source by seeing what trusted websites say about its information or authors.
Media literacy also entails identifying a source’s author, genre, purpose and point of view, as well as reflecting on one’s own point of view. Finally, it is important to trace claims, quotes and media back to the original source or context.
Applying these skills to a Holocaust unit might focus on recognizing the implicit stereotypes and misinformation online sources often rely on and paying attention to who these sources are and what their purpose is. Lessons can also analyze how social media enablesHolocaust denial and investigate common formats for online antisemitism, such as deepfake videos, memes and troll attacks.
Learning in the digital age
Holocaust educators can also embrace new technologies, rather than just lament their pitfalls. For example, long after survivors die, people will be able to “converse” with them in museums and classrooms using specially recorded testimonies and natural language technology. Such programs can match a visitor’s questions with relevant parts of prerecorded interviews, responding almost as though they were talking to the visitor in person.
There are also immersive virtual reality programs that combine recorded survivor testimonies with VR visits to concentration camps, survivors’ hometowns and other historical sites. One such exhibition is “The Journey Back” at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center. Not only can VR experiences transport viewers to such sites in a more realistic way than traditional lessons, but they also allow learners to partially decide how to interact with the virtual environment. In interviews for my current research, viewers report Holocaust VR experiences make them feel emotionally engaged with a survivor.
Society’s ‘family tree’
People often learn about themselves by exploring their family trees, examining heirlooms passed down from ancestors and telling stories around the dinner table – helping people make sense of who they are.
The same principle applies to understanding society. Studying the past provides a road map of how people and prior events shaped today’s conditions, including antisemitism. It is important for young people to understand that antisemitism’s horrific history did not originate with the Holocaust. Lessons that lead students to reflect on how indifference and collaboration fueled hate – or how everyday people helped stop it – can inspire them to speak up and act in response to rising antisemitism.
Holocaust education is not a neutral endeavor. As survivor and scholar Elie Wiesel said when accepting his 1986 Nobel Peace Prize, “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.”
============================================================== Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, I’m confident that techniques like these will work – if they are used. My concern is that too much education in America (and quite possibly elsewhere, but I can’t speak to that) is in the hands of people whi emphatically do not want students to know the truth. I fear that these techniques will (to paraphrase Chesterton) not be tried and found wanting, but will be found diffucult and left untried.
Forgive me for a little rant here on a pet peeve of mine. I am well aware that when someone uses the phrase “It’s all about the Benjamins,” they are referring to Benjamin Franklin, whose face appears on our $100 bill, currently the largest denomination in circulation. But I am also aware that “Benjamin” is the name of one of the sons of Jacon, and is therefore the name of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. I am also aware that Judah P. Benjamin, a Jew, was an American (later Confederate) statesman, resigning the position of U. S. Senator to become the Confederate Attorney General (later Secretary of War, and still later Secretary of State.) I don’t know wht we cannot, if we want to use the colorful phrase, start saying, “It’s all about the Franklins” instead. Sometimes it isn’t what you say that matters – it’s what others hear.
For further reading, Steve Schmidt has made available in one place six essays he has written over the years on the Holocaust.
Yesterday, the radio opera was “Dialogues des Carmélites” by Poulenc. It’s based on a historical incident from the French Revolution – a group of nuns were executed for refusing to give up their faith. They went to the guillotine singing hymns. One survived and wrote a memoir, which in the 20th century was turned into a screenplay, in which the central character is not historical, so I really can’t say how far the libretto is from reality, especially as to the detail which must have really attracted Poulenc to the story – he was not only devout but a bit of a mystic. In the first act the Prioress dies, a difficult and dramatic death during which she expresses fear and agony. This seems so out of character that another novice remarks that she must have died someone else’s death, and that some day someone will have an unexpectedly easy death, because that person will die the death she would have had if she’d had her own. The main character, Blanche, responds “What nonsense you talk,” but actually, Sister Constance has nailed it, and Blanche herself is the one who will die that peaceful death. The tessitura (that’s the term for the range between high and low notes in a particular part or a song) sits in the middle for most of the characters, so that several of the roles can be sung equally well by a soprano or a mezzo soprano. The people who take part in the “Opera Quiz” intermission features, who can listen to recordings of four different people singing the same phrase and name each one accurately every time can probably tell the difference, but I can’t. For one thing, I can’t help getting caught up in the story. I defy anyone with a heart not to be moved by the last scene, when the nuns awaiting execution are singing “Salve Regina,” going to the (thankfully off stage) guillotine one by one, and every time the guillotine drops with a thud (maybe not the best word as there is a clash of metal in it) there is one less voice, until finally there is only one voice, and then silence. And after that – I felt I’d better share some good news.
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Mother Jones – To New Yorkers’ Delight, Dolphins Return to the Bronx River
Quote – “It’s true—dolphins were spotted in the Bronx River this week!,” the [New York City]parks department gleefully tweeted. “This is great news—it shows that the decades-long effort to restore the river as a healthy habitat is working. We believe these dolphins naturally found their way to the river in search of fish.” Click through for story. Not a destination, but a step in the right direction.
PolitiZoom – Right Now, The Democrats Are Unified, And Pitch Perfect On The Debt Ceiling
Quote – And what are the Democrats doing? Smiling at each other and high fiving in the cloakroom. They’re doing it perfectly by letting Joe Biden run point. Especially effective since Biden is embarking on a multi week national tour to tout his accomplishments, and highlight the accomplishments from last year that will only start to show up this year. Click through for details. Of course we are not going to agree all the tie over everything, because we are not mindless morons – we can think. But those disagreements don’t mean we can’t come together in order to get something done.
driving slowly anyway, plus it was practically dry, both directions (I don’t know how Colorado snowstorms know to fall most heavily on residential areas and frequesntted commercial areas, and less on highways, but they do a good job of it.) So there are three more proofs of one of my favorite sayings (see right). As usual, Virgil returns all greetings. He does appreciate all of you – he knows, among other things, you are company for me, which he can’t be under the circumstances.
