I don’t disagree that bigotry and marginalization can and do lead to genocide. But they are not themselves genocide. It’s just a semantic thing, not a way to excuse bigotry. To the extent that this argument appears to excuse bigotry, it just underscores my point that the broadening of the definition of genocide stems from a desire to find appropriately strident language to describe bigotry and murder that is not genocide by the original definition.
Genocides that don’t include an attempt to exterminate a genetic line are not genocide. They’re something else; maybe something just as bad, maybe something worse, but something else.
I’d say we agree more than we disagree. But that we should probably agree to disagree on this point. The legal definition, which is what people are largely going to go by. Only lists specific categories. Fair enough. I’m going to stick by the categories not being absolute. That the targeting of people just for who they are, for persecution and elimination is the important part. Whether or not they’re in one of the predefined categories, doesn’t change that for me. And that does not dilute downplay or minimize what genocide is. Because genocide isn’t the categories listed there, it’s the actions that have historically taken against those categories in the past.
I don’t disagree that bigotry and marginalization can and do lead to genocide. But they are not themselves genocide. It’s just a semantic thing, not a way to excuse bigotry. To the extent that this argument appears to excuse bigotry, it just underscores my point that the broadening of the definition of genocide stems from a desire to find appropriately strident language to describe bigotry and murder that is not genocide by the original definition.
Genocides that don’t include an attempt to exterminate a genetic line are not genocide. They’re something else; maybe something just as bad, maybe something worse, but something else.
I’d say we agree more than we disagree. But that we should probably agree to disagree on this point. The legal definition, which is what people are largely going to go by. Only lists specific categories. Fair enough. I’m going to stick by the categories not being absolute. That the targeting of people just for who they are, for persecution and elimination is the important part. Whether or not they’re in one of the predefined categories, doesn’t change that for me. And that does not dilute downplay or minimize what genocide is. Because genocide isn’t the categories listed there, it’s the actions that have historically taken against those categories in the past.