social.sokoll.com
Freeman John Dyson... R.I.P., the Free Man
15 December 1923 – 28 February 2020
Freeman John Dyson was an English-born American theoretical physicist and mathematician known for his work in quantum electrodynamics, solid-state physics, astronomy and nuclear engineering. He was professor emeritus in the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, a member of the Board of Visitors of Ralston College and a member of the Board of Sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.MORE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Dyson
Dyson originated several concepts that bear his name, such as Dyson's transform, a fundamental technique in additive number theory, which he developed as part of his proof of Mann's theorem; the Dyson tree, a hypothetical genetically-engineered plant capable of growing in a comet; the Dyson series, a perturbative series where each term is represented by Feynman diagrams; the Dyson sphere, a thought experiment that attempts to explain how a space-faring civilization would meet its energy requirements with a hypothetical megastructure that completely encompasses a star and captures a large percentage of its power output; and Dyson's eternal intelligence, a means by which an immortal society of intelligent beings in an open universe could escape the prospect of the heat death of the universe by extending subjective time to infinity while expending only a finite amount of energy.
Dyson believed global warming is caused by increased carbon dioxide through burning fossil fuels but that some of the effects of this are favourable and not taken into account by climate scientists, such as increased agricultural yield. He was skeptical about the simulation models used to predict climate change, arguing that political efforts to reduce causes of climate change distract from other global problems that should take priority.
Dyson died after a fall, at a hospital near Princeton, New Jersey, on 28 February 2020 at age 96.
ConceptsPhoto: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license
- Biotechnology and genetic engineering
- The Origin of Life
- Dyson sphere
- Dyson tree
- Space colonies
- Space exploration
- Dyson's eternal intelligence
- Dyson's transform
- Dyson series
- Quantum physics and prime numbers
- Rank of a partition
- Crank of a partition
- Astrochicken
#Dyson #biotechnology #genetic #engineering #intelligence #quantum #physics #mathematic #electrodynamics #solid-state #astronom #nuclear #engineering #RIP #news #photo #USA #climate #change #science
Freeman John Dyson was an English-born American theoretical physicist and mathematician known for his work in quantum electrodynamics, solid-state physics, astronomy and nuclear engineering. He was professor emeritus in the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, a member of the Board of Visitors of Ralston College and a member of the Board of Sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.MORE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Dyson
Dyson originated several concepts that bear his name, such as Dyson's transform, a fundamental technique in additive number theory, which he developed as part of his proof of Mann's theorem; the Dyson tree, a hypothetical genetically-engineered plant capable of growing in a comet; the Dyson series, a perturbative series where each term is represented by Feynman diagrams; the Dyson sphere, a thought experiment that attempts to explain how a space-faring civilization would meet its energy requirements with a hypothetical megastructure that completely encompasses a star and captures a large percentage of its power output; and Dyson's eternal intelligence, a means by which an immortal society of intelligent beings in an open universe could escape the prospect of the heat death of the universe by extending subjective time to infinity while expending only a finite amount of energy.
Dyson believed global warming is caused by increased carbon dioxide through burning fossil fuels but that some of the effects of this are favourable and not taken into account by climate scientists, such as increased agricultural yield. He was skeptical about the simulation models used to predict climate change, arguing that political efforts to reduce causes of climate change distract from other global problems that should take priority.
Dyson died after a fall, at a hospital near Princeton, New Jersey, on 28 February 2020 at age 96.
Die USA verlangen seine Auslieferung, weil er auf seiner Plattform Wikileaks Dokumente veröffentlicht hat, die Handlungen des US-Militärs aufdeckten, die möglicherweise Kriegsverbrechen darstellen.www.amnesty.de
Der US-amerikanische Verteidigungsminister Mark Esper ist heute in der kanadischen Hauptstadt Ottawa durch einen iranischen Drohnenangriff getötet worden. Man habe die Welt von einem gefährlichen Terroristen befreit, teilte die iranische Regierung kurz nach der tödlichen Attacke mit.www.der-postillon.com
British studies is on the decline in America, as students face new economic and global realities.www.bbc.co.uk
Britain will be seeking to reboot productivity and redefine its place in a rapidly-changing worldwww.theguardian.com
Nach der Tötung des iranischen Generals Soleimani auf irakischem Boden fordert das Parlament in Bagdad den Abzug aller ausländischen Soldaten aus dem Land. Der Einsatz der von den USA geführten Anti-IS-Koalition müsse beendet werden.www.spiegel.de
1953: Irans gestohlene Demokratie
#Iran #USA #Teheran #Soleimani1953: Irans gestohlene Demokratie | DW | 16.06.2017
Vor fast 65 Jahren stürzte die CIA Irans parlamentarisch legitimierten Premier Mossadegh. Erst jetzt veröffentlichte das US-Außenministerium Dokumente, die das gesamte Ausmaß der US-Verwicklungen in den Putsch zeigen.www.dw.com
Vor fast 65 Jahren stürzte die CIA Irans parlamentarisch legitimierten Premier Mossadegh. Erst jetzt veröffentlichte das US-Außenministerium Dokumente, die das gesamte Ausmaß der US-Verwicklungen in den Putsch zeigen.www.dw.com
Fake-News-Alarm bei Deutschlands zweitgrößter Tageszeitung BILD! Auf Bild.de erschien heute Morgen die Schlagzeile "US-Militär tötet schlimmsten Terror-Kommandeur der Welt". Doch wie eine Gegenrecherche des Postillon ergab, ist der derzeit amtierende US-Präsident Donald Trump nach wie vor am Leben.www.der-postillon.com
Im Konflikt zwischen den USA und Iran ist Kassim Soleimani, Kommandeur von Teherans Quds-Brigaden, bei einem US-Raketenangriff in Bagdad getötet worden. Irans geistliches Oberhaupt Ayatollah Ali Chamenei schwört Rache.www.spiegel.de
Firmen, die die PKW-Maut hätten eintreiben sollen, fordern eine halbe Milliarde Euro vom Bund. Das wäre ein Viertel des zugesagten Gewinns.taz.de
Schon einmal hat der Datenschützer Max Schrems ein EU-Abkommen zum Kippen gebracht. Jetzt steht er wieder vor dem EuGH. Erneut geht es um Datenübertragungen in die USA.www.zeit.de
Donald #Trump|s nichtsnutziger Sohn hat dem miesen Ruf seines Vaters alle Ehre gemacht: Er ist bei einem Aufenthalt in der #Mongolei ohne jede Genehmigung jagen gegagen (nennt man auch “Wilderei”) und hat dabei auch noch ein unter Artenschutz stehendes Tier geschossen. Exakt so haben sich auch Kolonialherren und reisende europäische Oberschichtler früher in den Kolonien in Afrika aufgeführt.
https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/natur/donald-trump-junior-soll-in-der-mongolei-bedrohtes-schaf-geschossen-haben-a-1300896.html #NWOnews #USA #Trumpete #Drumpf #Drumpfbacke #Trumpeltier #TierschutzMedienbericht: Sohn von Donald Trump erlegt vom Aussterben bedrohten Bock in der Mongolei - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Wissenschaft
Donald Trump Jr. gilt als großer Fan der Großwildjagd. Nun soll der Sohn des US-Präsidenten in der Mongolei ein gefährdetes Schaf getötet haben - die Abschussgenehmigung besorgte er sich demnach erst im Nachhinein.www.spiegel.de
Donald Trump Jr. gilt als großer Fan der Großwildjagd. Nun soll der Sohn des US-Präsidenten in der Mongolei ein gefährdetes Schaf getötet haben - die Abschussgenehmigung besorgte er sich demnach erst im Nachhinein.www.spiegel.de
Editorial: Donald Trump has made clear he wants a post-Brexit Britain to let US tech companies and big pharma access medical recordswww.theguardian.com
The general election will be the point of no return for the UK in the current phase of its decline, and the US is heading in the same directionwww.independent.co.uk
Kritik an Microsoft-Produkten im Digitalpakt
Microsofts Freude über den Digitalpakt
Eigentlich sollte der Digitalpakt dazu dienen, die Bildungschancen unserer Kinder zu verbessern. Doch wofür das Geld, immerhin 5 Milliarden Euro, ausgegeben wird, das ist Ländersache. Es könnte aber bundesweite Empfehlungen geben, z.B. auch wofür man das Geld nicht ausgeben sollte.
Microsoft Office 365 an Schulen ist unzulässig! war so eine Empfehlung des hessischen Datenschutzbeauftragten. Ein einstimmiger Chor aller Landesdatenschutzbeauftragten wäre hilfreich gewesen. Nun hat zumindest das Forum InformatikerInnen für Frieden und gesellschaftliche Verantwortung (FIfF) bundesweit protestiert, weil über den Digitalpakt Schule oft Software Lockvogel-Angebote von Microsoft genutzt werden.
Microsoft bietet vielen Schulen eine "kostenlose" Lizenz von Office 365 Education in der Vertragsvariante A1 an. Aber erst ab Abopreisen von bis zu 5,90 Euro pro Monat und Nutzer wird diese Software konfigurierbar und das kann keine Schule bezahlen. In der Lockvogelvariante A1 verstößt die Software aber gegen die DSGVO, wie Hessens Datenschutzbeauftragter bemängelt hat
Noch kritischer ist die Ankündigung von Microsoft ab dem 14. Januar 2020 für die Betriebssysteme auf den Servern 2008 und 2008 R2 den Support einzustellen. Die dort laufende Software soll zu Cloud Azure migrieren. Damit werden alle Daten in die USA transferiert, was wiederum ein Verstoß gegen die DSGVO darstellt. Inhalts- und Verbindungsdaten können dann ohne Wissen oder Genehmigung der Nutzer auch an Schulen weiter gesammelt und per US-Gesetz an die NSA weitergegeben werden.
Im letzten Mai hatte man noch gelobt, dass eine Verwaltungsvereinbarung zu dem Pakt "gemeinsame Server- und Dienstlösungen" vorsieht, bei denen "prioritär Open-Source-Angebote" heranzuziehen sind. Was ist daraus geworden?
Auch in Österreich ist die Situation ähnlich: Die Regierung mietet für zig Millionen Euro im Jahr Office365 für die Schüler obwohl das quelloffene und kostenlose Libre Office eigentlich besser ist.
Wer HUAWEI beim 5G Ausbau ausschließen will, sollte auch auf US-Produkte an Schulen verzichten - vor allem, wenn dass auch noch günstiger ist.
Mehr dazu bei https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Digitalpakt-Schule-Informatiker-kritisieren-Einsatz-von-Microsoft-Produkten-4603602.html
und https://www.heise.de/forum/heise-online/News-Kommentare/Digitalpakt-Schule-Informatiker-kritisieren-Einsatz-von-Microsoft-Produkten/Wie-es-bei-uns-in-Oesterreich-ist/posting-35716791/show/
und unsere Artikel zu MS Office https://www.aktion-freiheitstattangst.org/cgi-bin/searchart.pl?suche=Office&sel=meta
und https://www.aktion-freiheitstattangst.org/de/articles/7098-20191206-kritik-an-microsoft-produkten-im-digitalpakt.htm
#Digitalpakt #MicrosoftOffice365 #DSGVO #DSB #Hessen #Deutschland-Cloud #Schüler #Verbraucherdatenschutz #Datenschutz #Datensicherheit #DE-Mail #Ergonomie #Datenpannen #sozialeNetzwerke #Microsoft #Apple #Google #Scoring #Datenweitergabe #USA #PrivacyShield
Und da sag noch einer, Donald Trump habe kein Herz für seine mexikanischen Nachbarn. Nur wenige Stunden, nachdem die US-Regierung die völkerrechtswidrige israelische Siedlungspolitik in den Palästinenser-Gebieten als legal eingestuft hat, haben sich Hunderttausende Mexikaner aufgemacht, um den Süden der USA zu besiedeln.www.der-postillon.com
‘A monstrous interference,” Farage told Fox News Thursday. “I’d rather he stayed in Washington, frankly, if that’s what he’s going to do.”And:
“You wouldn’t expect the British Prime Minister to intervene in your presidential election, you wouldn’t expect the Prime Minister to endorse one candidate or another. Perhaps he’s another one of those people who doesn’t understand what [the EU] is,” Farage said.
London Mayor Boris Johnson -- who was born in New York and has expressed strong support for the UK-U.S. relationship -- accused Obama of hypocrisy.#Brexit #UK #EU #politics #USA #Trump #Obama #NigelFarage #BorisJohnson #interference
"I just think it's paradoxical that the United States, which wouldn't dream of allowing the slightest infringement of its own sovereignty, should be lecturing other countries about the need to enmesh themselves ever deeper in a federal superstate," Johnson said Tuesday.
President Obama looks set to wade into the contentious debate in the United Kingdom over whether or not the nation should remain a member of the European Union, ahead of a major vote – and some Brits are angry at the president’s intrusion into a delicate UK issue.www.foxnews.com
Amazon.com-Tower
Bizim Kiez Beitrag (Facebook):
In Berlin soll ein Amazon.com-Tower entstehen. In 28 der geplanten 35 Stockwerke eines Hochhaus-Neubaus von #EDGE Technologies an der Warschauer Brücke sollen ab 2024 tausende Entwickler*innen für das umstrittene Unternehmen arbeiten.
Das Vorhaben passt in eine Reihe von Ansiedlungen der Tech-Industrie im städtischen Raum, die wir in den letzten Jahren kritisch begleitet - und vereinzelt auch verhindert - haben: Zalando (jetzt Lieferando.de) im Cuvry Campus, Google Campus, FULL NODE bzw. Spielfeld Digital Hub Skalitzer Str. 187, Factory Berlin Görlitzer Park, Zalando -City Friedrichshain, Google -Tucholskystraße,... Während bei uns dieser WebTech-Urbanismus erst im Kommen ist (warmherzig begrüßt von Wirtschaftsvertreterinnen und Politikerinnen, nicht zuletzt von Wirtschaftssenatorin Ramona Pop), schafft seine voll entwickelte Form in der US-Stadt Seattle bizarre soziale Verhältnisse:
„Und doch sind umfunktionierte Autos ein vertrautes Bild im King County rund um Seattle, einem der reichsten Bezirke der #USA. 12.112 Menschen waren hier im vergangenen Jahr obdachlos. Nur in den städtischen Großräumen New York und Los Angeles gab es mehr Menschen ohne Dach über den Kopf. Wer durch die Innenstadt von Seattle fährt, stößt fast an jeder Straßenecke auf Obdachlose. Diejenigen, die immerhin noch ein Auto haben, nutzen das als Unterkunft. Laut der Seattle Times leben derzeit knapp 2.100 Einwohner des King County in ihren Fahrzeugen. Doch warum nimmt ausgerechnet im wohlhabenden Seattle* die Obdachlosigkeit solche Ausmaße an? Grund dafür dürfte vor allem der Tech-Boom sein.“
Soll das die Vision für die Zukunft unserer Stadt sein?Zeit online*: Seattle: Drei Kinder, zwei Autos, keine Wohnung...
#amazontower #mediaspree #amazon #gentrifizierung #edgetowerSeattle: Drei Kinder, zwei Autos, keine Wohnung
Wegen horrender Mieten werden in Seattle sogar Menschen mit Jobs obdachlos. Sie leben mit ihren Kindern im Auto. Eigentlich, dachten sie, gehören sie zur Mittelschicht.www.zeit.de
Wegen horrender Mieten werden in Seattle sogar Menschen mit Jobs obdachlos. Sie leben mit ihren Kindern im Auto. Eigentlich, dachten sie, gehören sie zur Mittelschicht.www.zeit.de
Das Abkommen gefällt ihnen nicht - aber Alternativen haben die Kurden in Nordsyrien nach eigenen Angaben keine: Von den USA verlassen und der Türkei bedrängt, bitten sie Damaskus um Hilfe. Auch Russland mischt offenbar mit.www.spiegel.de
Wer bekommt Geld von Google? Der Konzern hat eine Liste mit Begünstigten veröffentlicht. Darauf steht auch eine Gruppe, die US-Präsident Donald Trump zum Austritt aus dem Pariser Klimaabkommen aufgefordert hat.www.spiegel.de
Boris Johnson will meet US President Donald Trump at the G7 summit in France on Sunday.www.bbc.co.uk
Donald Trump soll mehrfach erfolglos Interesse bekundet haben, die strategisch wichtige Insel Grönland von Dänemark abzukaufen. Dennoch könnte auf dem rohstoffreichen Gebiet in Arktisnähe bald die US-Flagge wehen, denn laut dem amerikanischen Geheimdienst CIA wurden nun Massenvernichtungswaffen auf Grönland entdeckt.www.der-postillon.com
What if there’s not a conspiracy behind everything? What if it’s just arseholes getting lucky?medium.com
Donald Trump’s negotiators have signalled that the next prime minister’s hopes of a post-Brexit trade deal with the United States rest on his willingness to fall in line with tough American policies against the Chinese telecoms giant Huawei.www.telegraph.co.uk
Don't Look Away
The reality of concentration camps in the USA is undeniable. Quibbling about the nature of those camps is a distinction without a real difference. Make no mistake, ignoring their existence or "explaining" the difference to those of WWII is to condone the sequence of events that will (not "might") result in the very sorts of practices that took place during WWII.
Denying that concentration camps are in operation, NOW, means you condone the very behavior you are denying exists.reshare from @Violante de RojasThe time is NOW
Hot takes on AOC saying that the United States government is operating concentration camps:
WARNING: This post contains references to gruesome human rights violations. It is not for everyone.
76 people in a cell designed for 12.
155 people in a cell designed for 35.
41 in a cell for 8.
Don’t look away.
900 people total, or or more than seven times the 125-person capacity of the El Paso Del Norte immigration processing center.
If it weren’t for the white boxes shielding the faces of dozens of men and women stuffed into the overcrowded cell, it would be difficult to count the people in the photograph, since their overlapping limbs make it impossible to see where one body ends and another begins.
Standing room only cells, where people are held for weeks. Limited access to showers and clean clothes, resulting in those held wearing soiled clothing “for days or weeks.”
People standing on toilets just to find air to breathe. 24 deaths while in ICE custody.
Johana Mediana Léon, 25 years old. Transgender. Passed away four days after release from custody after complaining of chest pains.
Mergensana Amar, 40 years old. Removed from life support after committing suicide in custody.
Efrain De La Rosa, 40 years old. Committed suicide in custody by self-inflicted strangulation.
Roxana Hernandez, 33 years old. Transgender. Passed away in custody after experiencing cardiac arrest.
300,000-500,000 individuals per year in custody. Acting ICE director Mark Morgan’s response? Plans to increase large scale raids.
Don’t look away.
They’re not “centers.” They’re not “facilities.” They’re not “processing areas.” Let’s call them what they are.
The United States government is operating concentration camps. And we must act.
Memos surfaced by journalist Ken Klippenstein revealed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s failure to provide medical care was responsible for suicides and other deaths of detainees. These followed another report that showed that thousands of detainees are being brutally held in isolation cells just for being transgender or mentally ill.
Two weeks ago, the Trump administration cut funding for classes, recreation and legal aid at detention centers holding minors — which were likened to “summer camps” by a senior ICE official last year. And there was the revelation that months after being torn from their parents’ arms, 37 children were locked in vans for up to 39 hours in the parking lot of a detention center outside Port Isabel, Texas. In the last year, at least seven migrant children have died in federal custody.
Don’t look away.
It’s certainly been helpful for the Trump Administration that nobody has called them concentration camps until this week, when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez came under great fire for doing so.
It may well be a testament to the media machine that is the Trump administration. Look away! He wore an ill-fitting tuxedo to meet the Queen! Look away! He won’t acknowledge that the Central Park Five are exonerated! Look away! He fired pollsters for giving him numbers that he didn’t like!
Don’t look away.
It’s helpful to the President that the media covers these human rights abuses intermittently instead of as what they actually are: proof of a racist administration, unchecked by the law. It’s helpful that there’s so much else to look at right now. But more than anything else, it’s helpful that the places where these people are being tortured and left to die are hidden. They’re locked away from the eyes of journalists and concerned members of the public. They’re misleadingly named.
That’s what a concentration camp is. And the immediate outrage to AOC calling them that is the right response. Hearing that the government is running concentration camps is something one should feel scrupulous towards. A concentration camp isn’t the same as a death camp. We don’t have those yet. But when Hitler ran his, they started as the former, extending to the latter.
Don’t look away.
Hannah Arendt, imprisoned by the Gestapo and interned in a French camp, wrote about the levels of concentration camps. Extermination camps were the most extreme; others were just about getting “undesirable elements … out of the way.” All had one thing in common: “The human masses sealed off in them are treated as if they no longer existed, as if what happened to them were no longer of interest to anybody, as if they were already dead.”
Is that not what we were doing?
I hesitate to speak for my own ancestry, for my family members killed at Neuengamme camp along with more than 43,000 others. But I can’t hesitate long enough to sway my thinking away from confirming what AOC already said.
It’s easy to think of the Holocaust only in terms of the final outcome. But there was a beginning.
Don’t look away. It started with fear mongering. It started with ghettoization. It started with hidden camps. Then, the pogroms. Then, the extermination camps.
Mass detention isn’t new. But this president has made it a centerpiece of his rhetoric and his agenda. He’s perfected the extreme language that dehumanizes immigrants. At a rally in Florida last month, Trump was bemoaning migrants’ legal protections when someone in the audience suggested they should be shot. The president laughed and made a joke.
Through overcrowding and dehumanization, concentration camps became self-fulfilling prophecies. The culture of abuse leads to frustration and violence, thus “justifying” their incarceration after the fact. Other citizens become desensitized to the dehumanization of a group of people and thus implicitly give approval for concentration camps by our lack of pushback.
Do you see it?
It’s happening now.
Don’t look away.
Source: https://joshua-rush.tumblr.com/post/185717391604/hot-takes-on-aoc-saying-that-the-united-states
#concentration #camp #usa
Don't Look Away
The reality of concentration camps in the USA is undeniable. Quibbling about the nature of those camps is a distinction without a real difference. Make no mistake, ignoring their existence or "explaining" the difference to those of WWII is to condone the sequence of events that will (not "might") result in the very sorts of practices that took place during WWII.
Denying that concentration camps are in operation, NOW, means you condone the very behavior you are denying exists.reshare from @Violante de RojasThe time is NOW
Hot takes on AOC saying that the United States government is operating concentration camps:
WARNING: This post contains references to gruesome human rights violations. It is not for everyone.
76 people in a cell designed for 12.
155 people in a cell designed for 35.
41 in a cell for 8.
Don’t look away.
900 people total, or or more than seven times the 125-person capacity of the El Paso Del Norte immigration processing center.
If it weren’t for the white boxes shielding the faces of dozens of men and women stuffed into the overcrowded cell, it would be difficult to count the people in the photograph, since their overlapping limbs make it impossible to see where one body ends and another begins.
Standing room only cells, where people are held for weeks. Limited access to showers and clean clothes, resulting in those held wearing soiled clothing “for days or weeks.”
People standing on toilets just to find air to breathe. 24 deaths while in ICE custody.
Johana Mediana Léon, 25 years old. Transgender. Passed away four days after release from custody after complaining of chest pains.
Mergensana Amar, 40 years old. Removed from life support after committing suicide in custody.
Efrain De La Rosa, 40 years old. Committed suicide in custody by self-inflicted strangulation.
Roxana Hernandez, 33 years old. Transgender. Passed away in custody after experiencing cardiac arrest.
300,000-500,000 individuals per year in custody. Acting ICE director Mark Morgan’s response? Plans to increase large scale raids.
Don’t look away.
They’re not “centers.” They’re not “facilities.” They’re not “processing areas.” Let’s call them what they are.
The United States government is operating concentration camps. And we must act.
Memos surfaced by journalist Ken Klippenstein revealed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s failure to provide medical care was responsible for suicides and other deaths of detainees. These followed another report that showed that thousands of detainees are being brutally held in isolation cells just for being transgender or mentally ill.
Two weeks ago, the Trump administration cut funding for classes, recreation and legal aid at detention centers holding minors — which were likened to “summer camps” by a senior ICE official last year. And there was the revelation that months after being torn from their parents’ arms, 37 children were locked in vans for up to 39 hours in the parking lot of a detention center outside Port Isabel, Texas. In the last year, at least seven migrant children have died in federal custody.
Don’t look away.
It’s certainly been helpful for the Trump Administration that nobody has called them concentration camps until this week, when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez came under great fire for doing so.
It may well be a testament to the media machine that is the Trump administration. Look away! He wore an ill-fitting tuxedo to meet the Queen! Look away! He won’t acknowledge that the Central Park Five are exonerated! Look away! He fired pollsters for giving him numbers that he didn’t like!
Don’t look away.
It’s helpful to the President that the media covers these human rights abuses intermittently instead of as what they actually are: proof of a racist administration, unchecked by the law. It’s helpful that there’s so much else to look at right now. But more than anything else, it’s helpful that the places where these people are being tortured and left to die are hidden. They’re locked away from the eyes of journalists and concerned members of the public. They’re misleadingly named.
That’s what a concentration camp is. And the immediate outrage to AOC calling them that is the right response. Hearing that the government is running concentration camps is something one should feel scrupulous towards. A concentration camp isn’t the same as a death camp. We don’t have those yet. But when Hitler ran his, they started as the former, extending to the latter.
Don’t look away.
Hannah Arendt, imprisoned by the Gestapo and interned in a French camp, wrote about the levels of concentration camps. Extermination camps were the most extreme; others were just about getting “undesirable elements … out of the way.” All had one thing in common: “The human masses sealed off in them are treated as if they no longer existed, as if what happened to them were no longer of interest to anybody, as if they were already dead.”
Is that not what we were doing?
I hesitate to speak for my own ancestry, for my family members killed at Neuengamme camp along with more than 43,000 others. But I can’t hesitate long enough to sway my thinking away from confirming what AOC already said.
It’s easy to think of the Holocaust only in terms of the final outcome. But there was a beginning.
Don’t look away. It started with fear mongering. It started with ghettoization. It started with hidden camps. Then, the pogroms. Then, the extermination camps.
Mass detention isn’t new. But this president has made it a centerpiece of his rhetoric and his agenda. He’s perfected the extreme language that dehumanizes immigrants. At a rally in Florida last month, Trump was bemoaning migrants’ legal protections when someone in the audience suggested they should be shot. The president laughed and made a joke.
Through overcrowding and dehumanization, concentration camps became self-fulfilling prophecies. The culture of abuse leads to frustration and violence, thus “justifying” their incarceration after the fact. Other citizens become desensitized to the dehumanization of a group of people and thus implicitly give approval for concentration camps by our lack of pushback.
Do you see it?
It’s happening now.
Don’t look away.
Source: https://joshua-rush.tumblr.com/post/185717391604/hot-takes-on-aoc-saying-that-the-united-states
#concentration #camp #usa
