Dare to Compare: Americanizing the Holocaust 

by Lilian Friedburg

This article discusses those who compare the treatment of the American Natives to the Holocaust of the Jews. Friedburg discusses the fact that those who try to make this comparison are often shunned in the intellectual world. She discusses the fact that those that make the treatment of the American Indians sound innocent and understandable, those that say they it was a regrettable but necessary consequence of the rising of the next great country, are published and popularized. Those that try to do the some with the holocaust however, are met with scorn and loathing. Those scholars that try to create an explanation for the way the Nazi soldiers acted, and make them out as good men just following orders, face a brick wall of vehemence. he then shows that America is, to put it simply, in denial. She show that we not only killed more innocent people that the Nazis did, we also killed a greater percentage. We even used the same language to excuse ourselves. In both cases, those being exterminated were made out to be less than human. They were smeared and down talked until they became a race that must be destroyed to make space for the better race. The only real difference between the two situations is that we were successful, which is why the United States is not seen under the shadow of genocide. Ours was erased by historians. It was explained away, made understandable, and warped to the point that hardly anyone knows what actually happened. 

This article is perfect for my paper because it is exactly what I wil be talking about. Not only does it reveal many of the facts that are hardly heard, back them up in a scholarly way, and show similarities between the two genocides, it also leads me to many new sources. Since it spends much of its time debunking common false beliefs, I will use this article to help me predict many counter-arguments to my paper, and answer them before they are brought up.

Argument

Lacie seems to believe that as citizens of the United States, we pay the government in taxes to keep us safe. We pay those in power to give huge companies regulations to prevent them from becoming corrupt. Even with these safeguards in place however, the food industry has become corrupt. Sanitation has been tossed out the window for the extra buck. Nearly the entire system has been taken over by four companies who control everything. They control the farmers that produce the food, and thus they control what is produced, how it is produced, and who produces it. It is extremely disappointing to see that even after all the tax payer's dollars have gone to the government, these companies are getting away with what they are doing. These few people in power are simple business men, and are in it simply for the money. The animals that they have power over are treated cruelly, and hygiene is not respected in the least. Everything is done to make these CEOs the next quick buck. The animals are even being changed. Cows, which were originally grass grazers, have evolved to eat only corn. The entire system is set up to make the few people in power a lot of money. There is no other point to it. The taxpayer's dollar should have gone to fixing these loopholes in the system. The government has a responsibility to fix this.

As citizens of the United States of America, I do indeed believe that we pay taxes to the government in order to keep us safe. The government however, can only do so much to protect us from ourselves. Much of what is done in the food industry is necessary. The treatment of the animals keeps the cost down as more space is more money. Raising the animals at their normal rate takes more time, and as we all know time is money. Raising the animals to be their intended size would require more animals and provide less meat, which would as a result cost more. The taxpayer has brought this upon himself. The government can only do so much to control these companies, part of that responsibility lies with the people. By constantly buying the cheaper foods, the people have supported the companies that produce their food in the cheapest way possible. The government has done nothing wrong, the companies have only been supported, and thus all the responsibility lies on the citizen, the taxpayer. We don't have much variety in companies because we have supported and built up these companies that are in power. We have put them on the pedestals that they are standing on. They didn't go there by themselves, we encouraged them.

To compromise this issue, we all must make compromises. Perhaps yes the government ought to keep a tighter watch on sanitation and on animal cruelty policies. We as the buyers must keep a watch on what we are buying. We can not simply buy whatever is cheapest. Perhaps we ought to track the companies that we buy from.

The Holocaust of the Chickens

Goosebumps crawled up my spine as the corpses of chickens rolled before my eyes, dangling by their legs from grim looking hooks. I realize that they are just chickens, but I am currently studying the holocaust of the Jews, as well the annihilation of the American Indians, and I couldn't help but see the similarities flashing before my eyes. Yes I understand that they are just animals, and the levels of evil in question here are on entirely different scales. But nonetheless there seem to be undeniable parallels, the greatest of which seems to me to be the veiling of the truth. I always wondered why some people are vegetarians
because of animals cruelty. I've always heard these vague stories of how animals are mistreated, or raised in an unhealthy way, but never on the scale of what I saw in this documentary. Honestly it scares me. It scares me that people are so cruel, and it scares me that I might die if I keep eating what I'm eating. The truth is completely masked. Behind the pretty mask of these enormous food corporations hides a vicious yet sneaky beast. This beast hides the disgusting things it does, just as Hitler hid his actions from many and was not exposed until later, and just as most Americans are still not aware of the plight of the American Indians. Again allow me to emphasize that I realize that these two stories are completely different, but the similarities that they do hold terrify me. The highly mechanized way in which everything is done is the same in all three cases.These animals are not raised anymore, they are "grown." They are produced. They are born simply to be slaughtered in an inhumane way. They are grown as fast and as fat as they can be, pumped full of hormones, and then they are killed. We eat them. The thought of eating those little squawking animals inhabiting the dark houses, or the cows on those enormous cattle farms disgusts me.