⚠️ Hate Propaganda: The Language Before the Pogrom

The law is often an ass, according to Mr Bumble in Dickens’ Oliver Twist. But even asses occasionally stumble onto the truth.

“Hate propaganda” is not just an ugly synonym for anti-Semitism. It is a crime, written into the Criminal Code s.318, because history carved it into human flesh.

Hate propaganda always operates in the same manner. It takes a man, a neighbour, a colleague, and dissolves him into a category — a they. It dehumanises, depersonalises, and prepares the mob for the moment when “they” can be attacked without conscience. The transition from word to weapon is as natural as gravity.

History is a morgue filled with its echoes:

• Germany: before Dachau and Auschwitz, there was Der Stürmer. Before the trains, there were cartoons of Jews as rats, and physicians in white coats proving their “disease.” Before the fire, there was the word.

• Rwanda: before the genocide, Radio Mille Collines blared through the hills, calling Tutsis “cockroaches.” By the time the machetes were unsheathed,…