Something I have learned in the past few years is that people love to say they are being persecuted when they are faced with a minor inconvenience or a social responsibility. For example, people complain of “cancel culture” when they are fired from their job for calling people racial slurs on video. The last thing likely to cross the mind of someone who has decided they are a victim of a non-issue is that maybe they are at fault. To be completely clear, I am not talking about groups of people who face actual systemic oppression in the world. I categorize those complaining about these non-issues as people who have never been faced with oppression in their life, who are not shown repercussions for their selfish, hateful and/or ignorant actions, or who are outraged by the idea of equality.
Who can ignore the ridiculous “war on Christmas” rhetoric and the people so agitated and appalled by hearing the words “happy holidays.” Starbucks had a cup with no religious imagery and people took to the internet with sob stories about how they can’t enjoy their six dollar coffee without an illustration of the birth of Christ on the cup. Modern moves towards being more inclusive, and therefore generally more respectful towards people who may not celebrate Christmas have been viewed as direct attacks on the Christian faith. The unrealistic fear that the Left is aiming to destroy or ban Christmas and religion from the public perspective is strange considering the vast majority of people in power in the United States are of the Christian faith. As of last year, more than 88 percent of Congress describe themselves as Christian. The next largest group is Jewish individuals who only make up 6.2 percent of Congress. Pretty much all U.S. Presidents have been Christian, the vast majority of those being Episcopalian or Presbyterian. Additionally, the instances of actual anti-Christian hate are few and far between. In 2020 the three religions most commonly targeted in hate crimes were Judaism, Islam and Sikhism. The notion of “the war on Christianity” is indicative of the problem that many right-wing Christians do not view equality of religion as equality, they view it as oppression when they are no longer the only group being recognized.
This phenomenon was also seen during the legalization of same-sex marriage and the idea that same-sex marriage makes heterosexual marriage “less special.” When researching this topic I found scholarly papers arguing that same-sex marriage would hurt the institution of marriage for heterosexual couples. But the thing is, it seems like heterosexual couples were doing that already. 2 percent of heterosexual couples divorce each year as compared to the approximately 1 percent of same-sex couples. There are likely many examples of privileged individuals fearing that losing some of their privilege is the same as oppression, but I want to focus on one specific nauseating instance of faux-persecution.
The most horrifying instances of persecution complexes are when people make comparisons to actual instances of persecution and targeted violence to explain the oppression they believe they are experiencing. The amount of Holocaust comparisons I have seen online is nauseating. People are utilizing emotion drawn from the mass-murder and ethnic cleansing that occurred during the Nazi regime for their own selfish political purposes.
Politicians and far-right Facebook users alike have been using this specific comparison for months in an attempt to condemn mask and vaccine mandates, likening vaccine cards to religious identification materials used to ostracize and attack Jewish communities. They have been comparing mask mandates and labeling the un-vaccinated as such, as similar to the Star of David badges labeling Jewish people. Not only does this widespread comparison prove modern conservatives’ serious lack of critical thinking and reasoning abilities but also proves that they will use anything to push their point no matter how morally corrupt it may be. Famous anti-Semite Majorie Taylor Greene has made this comparison multiple times on Twitter, writing in a now deleted tweet, “Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazi’s forced Jewish people to wear a gold star.” She also likened the House of Representatives’ COVID-19 safety requirements to a time where people were “put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany” in another now deleted tweet.
Other, luckily less public figures, have made similar comments. This past summer, Maine Republican lawmaker Heidi Sampson made a comment comparing COVID-19 vaccines to the atrocities committed by Dr. Josef Mengele. Sampson stated at a rally after the governor announced a vaccine mandate for healthcare workers “do I need to remind you of the late 1930s and into the ’40s in Germany and the experiments with Josef Mengele? What was it? A shot? These were crimes against humanity.”
I have been absolutely appalled at what the world has come to in the past few years, and I am only twenty, so there is a lot of time for it to get worse. What makes me truly concerned is the lack of empathy and social awareness seen in extreme right-wing rhetoric. It’s as if American politics has become entirely satirized to the point where political satire isn’t funny anymore. Politicians get away with spewing hateful, antisemitic claims for their own agendas and right-wing news is silent. But, as soon as a private corporation makes animated chocolate people less sexy? It’s over!
