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Welcome back to Myths & Mischief! This is your Lovable Lord of Lore, today’s mischievous myth is about the erosion of the American moral high ground.

 

When most people think of genocide, they think of the extermination of Jews during the Holocaust, or possibly genocides that have taken place in African nations like Rwanda, Darfur, Somalia, or Burundi. After the American president’s comments about eliminating an entire civilization while claiming to have the moral high ground, these remarks call into question; What is America’s past and its relationships with genocides of yesteryear?

 

Warning: Some of the images may be disturbing as they depict sick or imprisoned people.

 

The rise of the Colonies:

 

Genocide in America didn’t start with the Americans; it started with the Europeans and was continued by the Americans as the country was founded. While disease is estimated to have killed about 95% of the Native American population before they were in direct contact with white people, the spread of disease was also intentional through contaminated blankets, linens, handkerchiefs, and even a flag-draped barrel of rum, infected with the disease smallpox at Fort Pitt in 1763, as well as other locations. Measles, influenza, yellow fever, typhus, diphtheria, typhoid, mumps, cholera, etc. also contributed to these deaths but were spread through less intentional means. The colonists saw this as Manifest Destiny, which they believed was God’s way of providing them with land.

 

“Resistance is futile”: -Star Trek

 

In addition to disease, Native Americans were killed en masse by forces with superior firepower, often due to hyperbolic portrayals as they were demonized by publications throughout the colonies and in Europe. Their food sources such as buffalo were wiped out, their horses were stolen or killed, and they were routinely evicted from their homes. Where they had once owned two continents, they were reduced to an area that is now Oklahoma. Once that became a state, the survivors were forced to live on reservations just like in every other state. Culturally, the Native children were forced to assimilate and attempts were made to erase their culture.

Japanese Internment:

 

While interning Japanese Americans was not genocide, thousands of people lost their homes and property because their ancestors lived in a place that had attacked America, instigating American involvement in World War II. Although restorations were offered under the Clinton administration, their way of life and their possessions were lost in a the only country that they had known.

 

Supporting the Holocaust:

 

 

While the American government opposed the Germans in World War II, American companies like IBM had record profits as they made the German genocide far more efficient with the Hollerith tabulating machine. They were used to track Jewish populations as well as other “undesirables” such as Gypsies and handicapped people from their identification to their transportation and eventually to their demise. Jewish people were tattooed with identification numbers linked to IBM systems so they could be tracked. It also enabled them to identify everyone that was at least 1/16th Jewish. IBM would enter a country and take a census before the German invasion so people could be identified and tracked. IBM even had employees in the death camps. They assisted with the Nuremberg trials, so in turn they were never held accountable for their participation in the Holocaust.

 

Separate was not equal, but nothing was equal regarding race in America:

 

 

The genocide of African Americans in the Southern United States was so commonplace that Black people were hanged in the middle of town in broad daylight. Children were encouraged to watch these events and people took pictures, postcards and pieces of the victims as souvenirs home with them including charred hair, body parts, and rope. Entire towns were wiped out and when African Americans had become economically viable in Tulsa, Oklahoma, known as “Black Wall Street,” it was burnt down. Presidents such as Woodrow Wilson praised the Ku Klux Klan and had them march in front of the Capitol.

 

“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”:– Robert Oppenheimer quoting from the Hindu scripture

 

 

As the only nation ever to use atomic bombs in conflict, the Americans killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese citizens. In Vietnam, towns such as Mỹ Lai were exterminated, including men, women, children, and the elderly. More recent examples of such war crimes can be found in the murders of people in boats committed in international waters —though these incidences  cannot be classified as genocide.

 

More Recent Atrocity:

 

Then there are times when the United States has supported the genocides of other countries. The most recent example is the conflict in Gaza, where the Israelis leveled entire cities.

 

“We, here in America, hold in our hands the hope of the world, the fate of the coming years”– Teddy Roosevelt

 

Despite all of these examples, America was portrayed as holding the moral high ground. They defeated fascism. They used just force to help oppressed people. They were a beacon of hope for the rest of the world. They stopped aggressive countries from attempting to snatch more land and resources. They intervened when terrorists tried to inflict harm on innocent people. In general, they made people believe that the world was becoming a more just and safe place. People had won unalienable rights: among them, voting, freedom, life, the ability to make choices with their own bodies, and the pursuit of happiness. That is something even the Pope would endorse.

 

Hope standing on the Precipice:

 

 

With this new round of threats and its separation from North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), is the United States letting greed and arrogance corrupt its policies that have drawn international support since its conception? By threatening genocide, while alienating their allies, is he collapse of the United States’ global impact imminent? Are they opening the nation up to a new way of living, one which looks to function under a fascist regime that invades other countries for resources while threatening their existence? Will other countries attempt to thwart these measures? If so, how is that a better world? It seems more and more likely that the United States has become the very terrorists they profess to despise. The United States has always toed the line with morality, being the most damaging and the most helpful country. With the removal of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the increase in hostile acts, that balance is off. The United States is becoming a country that acts like the fascist villains of World War II. If they are no longer a beacon of hope, and have instead become another empire focused on warmongering, how will its citizenry react? The scarier question is: would the American people even notice?

 

That’s it for this week’s installment, this is your Lord of the Lore signing off.

 

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