First posted May 2016
In 1918 the American Eugenics Movement proposed extreme poverty as a means of executing undesirables and mental defectives.
Eugenicists called it Lethal Neglect or Lethal Selection
“Selection by death may result either from inadequate food supply, or from some other lethal reason. ” Review of Applied Eugenics, By Paul Popenoe and Roswell H. Johnson, Eugenical News (vol. 4)
Nazi Germany was the most extreme expression of a global movement started by wealthy Americans in the late 1800’s.
The American Eugenics Movement provided the template for Nazi Germany.
The use of the Warsaw Ghetto in Nazi occupied Poland meets the criteria for mass murder by Lethal Neglect.
“On October 12, 1940, the Germans decreed the establishment of a ghetto in Warsaw. The decree required all Jewish residents of Warsaw to move into a designated area, which German authorities sealed off from the rest of the city in November 1940. The ghetto was enclosed by a wall that was over 10 feet high, topped with barbed wire, and closely guarded to prevent movement between the ghetto and the rest of Warsaw. The population of the ghetto, increased by Jews compelled to move in from nearby towns, was estimated to be over 400,000 Jews. German authorities forced ghetto residents to live in an area of 1.3 square miles, with an average of 7.2 persons per room. ” Holocaust Encyclopedia
Nothing was allowed through the wall; no water, no food, no medical care and no way out.
The Nazi’s took daily photographs of the residents to document their decline.
In January 1942, nearly 6,000 people – and perhaps 100,000 people, 1939 to 1942 – died of starvation and disease in the ghetto. The Warsaw Ghetto, 1940-3
The American Eugenics movement was such a powerful global movement that “Nazis on trial at Nuremberg after World War II cited American Eugenics programs as a defense of their policies and mentioned Buck v. Bell in their testimony.
This brings us to today:
After 40 years of the passive neglect of the mentally ill the GOP is openly embracing policies that will cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.
Oct 5, 2017 – Republicans let health insurance expire for 9 million American children.
Oct 12, 2017 Trump signs new executive order to sabotage the ACA
Former KKK wizard David Duke, for example, has been proclaiming on Twitter that Trump’s election and cabinet picks are the first steps toward “taking America back” — that is, taking America “back” from anyone who isn’t descended from fair-skinned Europeans. In white nationalist ideology, only white Americans have a true right to the country — and the rights that go along with citizenship, like voting. Think Progress
“For almost three generations people, in some cases, have been given handouts,” Johnston said. “They have been ‘enabled’ so much that their paradigm in life is simply being given the stuff of life, however meager.”
“What you see is a setting for a life of misery is life to them never-the-less,” he continued. “No one has the guts to just let them wither and die. No one who wants votes is willing to call a spade a spade. As long as the Dems can get their votes the enabling will continue. The Republicans need their votes and dare not cut the fiscal tether. It is really a political Catch-22.” Indiana Republican John Johnston
Indiana Republican: ‘No One Has the Guts’ to Let the Poor ‘Wither and Die’
(c) Rob Goldstein 2016-2017 all rights reserved
Art by Rob Goldstein 