US Congress aims to criminalize Andersonville genocide denial
A bill that makes denying or trivializing the Confederate genocide committed against Yankees at the Andersonville POW camp a criminal offense punishable by jail sentences will be introduced in Congress next week. Offenders will face up to three years in jail under the proposed legislation, which will also apply to those who incite violence against carpetbaggers, scalawags and black Republicans.
Fearing the rise of neo-Confederism, lawmakers in Congress wish to suppress an alarming trend of Southerners who deny the genocide at Andersonville in order to whitewash the crimes of their ancestors.
One lawmaker told FW, “We have nothing against those people down there. Let them have their trailer parks, NASCAR, and grits. But denying History is something quite different. Facts are sacred. And the fact is that Confederate leaders had a policy to starve Union soldiers at their death camp in Andersonville. To deny this creates an environment of hate which will surely lead to violence. We must never forget the victims of Andersonville and never let it happen again.”
Southern apologists have long maintained that Andersonville was not a death camp. While they admit that hundreds died of malnutrition, which they claim was due to food shortages caused by General Sherman’s scorched earth policy, they deny that is was part of the Final Solution to eradicate the Yankee race.
Most recognized scholars, though, consider such a defense unconvincing. “The neo-Confederate revisionists want to rewrite history to make it accord with their romantic delusion of a free and peaceful ante-bellum South,” says the Chair of Andersonville Studies at Harvard University. “But the truth of the matter is that the principles of Southern culture lead necessarily to death camps and genocide. This is the truth that the neo-Confeds are unwilling to face.”
A few Democrats in Congress believe that the new hate law goes too far, though. One representative from Massachusetts calls for increased spending on education so that Southern school children can take mandatory classes on the Andersonville death camp and learn about the odious war crimes of Confederate leaders. “With the money my colleagues are planning to spend on prosecuting and jailing the neo-Confederates, we could develop programs for reeducation. We could, for example, turn Andersonville into an interpretive museum and erect Andersonville memorials in all eleven Confederate states. Prison sentences should only be considered as a last resort.”
Republican lawmakers reject such proposals claiming that the Federal Government already spends enough on education. “Liberals always think education is the solution,” said one Republican spokesperson. “We have spent billions on dollars trying to reconstruct Southern racists by means of education. Most in the South have been reconstructed, but there are still many who refuse to face the fact that their forefathers were vile murderers who wanted to eliminate the Yankee race. If the school house cannot reform their thinking, the prison system is the only viable alternative.”
The Republican spokesperson did extend an olive branch to the Democrats who oppose the bill. “We would consider amending the bill to include the allocation of resources to education provided that is does not gut the hate crimes element and provided that the educational program is outsourced to the private sector.”
Explaining the danger that neo-Confederates pose, one Conservative talk show host, Viagra Rush, told his audience: “Andersonville denial is propaganda used by Southern hate groups such as the League of the South, United Daughters of the Confederacy, historical reenactors, and fans of the Dukes of Hazard to take pride in their heritage, their culture and their racist flag. If we do not nip this dangerous movement in the bud, we may have to fight the war all over again. And if it comes to this, things are going to get ugly. In fact, there is evidence, and you will have to trust me on this (I am not at liberty to reveal my sources, but I assure you it comes from the highest levels), that neo-Confederates are in contact with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.”
Washington insiders believe that there are sufficient votes in both Houses to pass the legislation.
Though he has not committed to signing the bill, the President is on the record as saying, “to misunderestimate the gendercide of Advil gives AIDS and comforts to the terrists. As the Decider, I will decide whether I will sign the bull when it is under my desk in the Opel Office. But I will say this: those who disassemble – that means to, uh, uh, thank you, Mr. Gannon, that means to lie – about the past post a threat to natural security. As Commander-in-Chief of the Amerc’n people, I will do all that is necessary to protect our country from those who are out to destroy our freedoms.”
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Though perhaps not too farfetched, the above story is a fabrication. This one, which bears many striking similarities, is, unfortunately, not.
Whutz uh fabercashun?
Comment by Matthew — April 21, 2007 @ 5:10 pm
As expected, the EU passed the “Holocaust Denial” bill. The penalty for being an historian with an inquiring mind is now three years in the clink. One EU official even had the chutzpah to declare that the law “reaffirm[s] … values of tolerance, of refusal of any kind of violence.” Imagine that, a law which makes it a crime to ask the wrong historical questions is a victory for tolerance.
Orwell’s comment is apropos: “Political language… is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
For the “full story” see here. But Orwell also warns us about journalists. “Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper.” (I learned this lesson as a young college student when I was in a foreign country. I was fortunate; most never learn this.)
Comment by MRB — April 23, 2007 @ 5:25 pm
“Hate laws” legislation is well under way now and its clear that all the laws are virtually in place for a New Inquisition as America’s New Government (post-9/11) is like Lincoln returning, but this time with Martial Law to sift the entire population to Deify America’s Yankee Unconstitutional and Anti-Christian government. Yet too many have been trained to “pledge allegiance” to the flag their slew their forefathers. Now is an opportune time to point out what really happened 140 years ago as Federal Despotism now takes fresh aim at the States again, and is meeting opposition in PATRIOT ACT, REAL ID, and electronic surveillance (the new means of “quartering soldiers”) under a Fascist Government called Homeland Security. The rebel flag was never more needed to be unfurled than right now!
Comment by blueridge — May 5, 2007 @ 1:29 am
“Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper.” (I learned this lesson as a young college student when I was in a foreign country. I was fortunate; most never learn this.)
“The Business Of Journalists Is To Destroy Truth”
http://tinyurl.com/2ec6n3
Comment by Brock Townsend — May 8, 2007 @ 4:41 pm
“U.S. Congress aims to criminalize”, is a very bad joke, by someone who has absolutely no understanding of public relations and public opinion. It reminds me of whoever had the “bright idea” back in he 1990s to create a bumper strip which showed the Confederate Battle Flag and the slogan “heritage not hate”.
It was a terrible idea, because the enemies of southern heritage were and are trying to tie Confederate heritage and the confederate flag to “hate”, and our side did it for them. There all three were together: the rebel flag, “Heritage”, and “hate”. Don’t bring up the word “not”: “not” is a description. The flag is a symbol, Heritage, and Hate are concepts, and public opinion is made up of symbols and concepts, not descriptions. When you put a symbol and its concept with the concept you are opposing, the real result is to tie them together.
What you have done here in a “bright idea” satire, is create an image of Andersonville as a confederate death camp a la WWII in Germany, which resonates terrifically to hundreds of millions of people, and then reinforce the concept with an attack against the EU’s impending legislation against “holocaust denial”. What were you thinking?
Comment by Randolph Phillips — May 8, 2007 @ 11:27 pm
Wow–I never would have thought about it that way. Thanks for the insight.
Comment by ElizaF — May 9, 2007 @ 10:07 am
To #5 -
You seem to think that there is a political solution to the kultur krieg. When southerners think that battle is one of “PR,” the war is lost, again. Yankees and Judaics are the masters of PR since for the former appearance is reality and for the latter deception is a way of life. You cannot beat them at their own game. So why play on their field?
Keeping confederate banners waving over state capitals is hollow if we do not preserve the values those symbols once stood for.
Go back and read the agrarians, read Dabney, read Cato, read Jefferson, read Mencken. You play right into the hands of Central Command when you look to Madison Avenue for your battle plans.
It took dozens of generations to build southern culture. It cannot be rebuilt by a referendum or a vote in the legislative chambers.
The way we fight the war is determined by the nature of the war itself. Given your comment, it is likely that we are fighting different wars.
Comment by MRB — May 9, 2007 @ 10:52 am
Maybe just different battles in the same war?
I think Randolph presents an interesting thesis. Moreover, symbols are important and are worth fighting for, “because of our weakness” as Calvin said re sacraments. As Sheeple, we need a symbolic mesh to undergird our tacit beliefs.
Nevertheless, it is not everyone’s nitch to fight that battle, even while approving of it. I tend to think that readers that are drawn to our offering will not be likely to fall prey to the danger that Randolph has highlighted. If the square root of the number of people he mentions were on board, we would start to see some change.
Randolph’s pitfall is misplaced in this case, but it also shows the weakness of sarcasm and satire: it only benefits those that are already basically on board with the key premises; which he is obviously not in this case.
Comment by Tim H — May 9, 2007 @ 2:32 pm
Comparing a bumpersticker campaign to this web site is apples to oranges. This web site is not a PR campaign, nor is it intended to be one, as far as I know.
The “Heritage not Hate” bumper stickers, in contrast, were a PR campaign. Whether or not the campaign was effective (Randolph says “nay”), is one question; whether or not an effective PR campaign was the right objective (MRB says “nay”) is another.
I think that the lampoon conveys what it intends to convey quite well (which, I sense, is more about disappointment with the current regime than about potential violations of the Bill of Rights).
-Turretinfan
Comment by TurretinFan — May 9, 2007 @ 4:33 pm
Yes, symbols are worth fighting for, but we must not lose sight of the things which they stand for. To turn the flag controversy into merely political issue is doing just that.
What does the battle flag, the first national and the former Georgia state flag stand for? Many of those who fight to “save” these flags tend to define them in terms of what they are not - they are not racist, they are not sectarian, etc. Indeed, the only positive symbolism they have is historical; our fathers flew that flag. But if we do not stand for what our fathers did, the value of fighting for these symbols is negligible.
For our fathers, the flags stood for freedom from tyrants, freedom to pursue their agrarian way of life, and Christian civilization. When these values become the crux of the campaign to retain these symbols, I will join the battle.
Comment by MRB — May 9, 2007 @ 5:31 pm
The point of the satire was to condemn “holocaust denial” laws and hate crimes in general. I would be interested to know whether Mr. Phillips shares our concern on this matter.
Comment by MRB — May 9, 2007 @ 5:36 pm
Bravo!
Even this Yankee got the joke. Excellent satire; too bad the history-benumbed PS kids can’t even muster up enough brain cells in their ’skulls full of mush,’ to even GET the humor- Viagra Rush, oh ROTF!
Comment by Fr John — May 15, 2007 @ 8:30 am
Good news. A Spanish court overturned the conviction of a librarian who was found guilty “holocaust denial” and declared the law upon which his conviction was based unconstitutional.
Since the controlled Jewish media will probably not report on the decision. Here is an article in Spanish.
Comment by MRB — November 9, 2007 @ 9:52 am
Ted Pike explores what is behind the hate crime bill that was recently passed in the House of Representatives.
Comment by MRB — November 10, 2007 @ 11:25 pm