The Gulag of Our Time

Steve Donohue at A Republic, Madam, If You Can Keep It has a great piece on reckless comparisons:

"While the Nazi comparison is always reliable, there are other acceptable analogies for those looking to make a point. Over time, comparisons to Russia under Stalin have become acceptable, although still rarer than the run-of-the-mill Nazi reference. Maybe that’s why I noticed when Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International, piously determined that 'Guantanamo has become the gulag of our time'. After all, the confidence that Khan has that average Joe Bushvoter would know what the gulag was- or so-called gulag, as CNN online so-felicitously phrases the work/death camps- is remarkable. After all, to proclaim that 'Guantanamo is our generation’s concentration camps' would have been just as historically coherent, and she would have even been able to get through to those historically-dense red staters. And since Bush is seen by many as the reincarnation of Hitler and a rebirth in neo-fascism, the reference would have worked on so many levels."

Read the rest.

This page is from the original Don't Let Me Stop You blog. We have moved to a new site: Visit DLMSY on WordPress.

Return to main page of Don't Let Me Stop You