We have a new member here on Daily Kos who thinks the user name “LibertarianSocialistNazi” is cute, is good for a giggle. We’re tried to persuade him that it’s not, but he’s so overwhelmed by his own cleverness that he’s doubling down.
So, Daily Kos, DAILY KOS MODERATORS, please do something about it.
In fact,
DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
Frankly, I’m pretty stunned that I’m writing this, because something should already have been done.
So, just a quick reminder, lest anybody think “Nazi” is just a cute little name, or a fun way to make fun of people who use the word, let me write here what I wrote in the self-aggrandizing diary this schmuck used in defense of his name-choice, and then I’ll ask again,
DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
Because when it comes to people other than Jews, Daily Kos is marvelously sensitive to hate, racism, trigger warnings, the whole kit and kaboodle. But when it comes to trying to be clever with, of all fucking things, Nazi, I have to write this fucking diary.
So here’s my family story, as told to me by my father-in-law, a survivor of the Shoah, and as I related it to our new diarist, after he “explained” that I just didn’t get his “ironic sense of humor.”
My father in law was 7 when the Germans came. Are you laughing yet?
At his home were his father, mother, and two cousins — one about his age, one a little younger. His grandmother was there, and an aunt. Are you laughing yet?
The grandmother was too old to walk a long distance, so the German soldiers shot her. Are you laughing yet.
His aunt tried to stop them, so they shot her, too. Are you laughing yet?
His father was allowed to carry children, but could only carry two. He had to pick which two he carried, and which child died. Are you laughing yet?
He picked up my father-in-law and the younger boy. They watched as the Germans shot his other cousin. Are you laughing yet?
They were marched to trains, where all the Jews from the town were herded, carrying belongings and some of their children. Are you laughing yet?
They were shipped to a place called Transestria, a place many Jews were sent to be worked to death. Are you laughing yet?
The camp his family went to was not a death camp, it was a work camp. Are you laughing yet?
Typhus broke out in the camp. So the Germans, instead of working people, simply put up extra walls and shot anybody trying to escape. Are you laughing yet?
His father snuck out under the wire at night to dig up root vegetable at a nearby farm. He snuck back in, and they survived with occasional bites of raw turnip. Are you laughing yet?
Fifteen thousand people went into that camp. When they were liberated by Russians two-and-a-half years later, 250 survived. Are you laughing yet?
I’m sure by now you’re hysterical, but let me leave you with just a couple of thoughts and images, something to help you giggle your way through your day.
Are you laughing yet?
Are you laughing yet?
Are you laughing yet?
Are you laughing yet?
Are you laughing yet?
So let me demand, one more time,
DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
Because Nazis aren’t funny, or cute, or clever.
This place has teetered on anti-Semitism before, and no doubt it will again. This is an easy call. So, for the sake of this site, for the sake of the people whose families suffered, for the sake of those who might still be survivors and reading this, and for the sake of millions who moldered in unmarked ditches they dug themselves, or whose ashes were spread to the winds, or who were thrown alive into ovens,
