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Marjorie Taylor Greene Insists "Any Rational Jewish Person" Thinks Mask Mandates Are as Bad as the Holocaust
At least one congressman has called for her to resign.
A good rule of thumb that some but not all people are aware of is that when you're talking about the Holocaust, you probably shouldn't equate it with anything other than actual genocide. Is the thing you want to liken to the Holocaust a deliberate killing of millions of people from a specific nation, ethnic group, or religion with the aim of wiping those people off the planet? Congratulations, you can compare it to the Holocaust. If it's anything less, sorry, it's a no-go. Taxing the rich? Not actually similar to the Holocaust! Allegedly being mean to the 1 percent? Also not the Holocaust! Incredibly minor inconveniences that most people deal with without complaint? Amazingly enough, not on par with the Holocaust!
One person who you likely will not be surprised to learn is unaware of this rule is Marjorie Taylor Greene. Yes, the Georgia representative best known for endorsing batshit-crazy conspiracy theories like how Democrats are part of a Satan-worshipping cult that eats children, and starting her own about Jewish space lasers being responsible for the California wildfires, has pulled an ole "x is just like the systemic killing of 6 million people," with x in this scenario being the House of Representatives' mask mandate.
It started with an interview last week with the Christian Broadcasting Network, during which Greene, angry that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has maintained that lawmakers must wear masks on the floor, offered: "This woman is mentally ill. You know, we can look back at a time in history where people were told to wear a gold star, and they were definitely treated like second-class citizens, so much so that they were put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany. And this is exactly the type of abuse that Nancy Pelosi is talking about."
Just as an aside, let's take a moment to appreciate Marjorie Taylor Greene describing someone else as mentally ill. Moving on, as a secondary rule to not equating genocide with anything other than actual genocide, it should probably be written down somewhere, like on a sticky note in Greene's office, that at no time should one ever suggest that requiring people to wear masks—for their and others' safety!—is the same as sending them to concentration camps and gassing them alive. Is it completely insane that anyone needs to be reminded of that? Yes! Is Greene crazier than a shithouse mouse? Also yes!
Obviously those comments received widespread backlash, but rather than pause, reflect, and maybe even apologize for them—anathema to a professional troll like Greene—the congresswoman doubled down. "I stand by all of my statements; I said nothing wrong," she told CNN affiliate KPNX. She added: "I think any rational Jewish person didn't like what happened in Nazi Germany, and any rational Jewish person doesn't like what's happening with overbearing mask mandates and overbearing vaccine policies." Greene, of course, does not speak for Jews, because if she did she might know that saying they "didn't like what happened in Nazi Germany," as if talking about not liking how one's burger was cooked, is a very strange way to describe Jewish people's feeling about the Holocaust, among other things.
Greene's remarks were condemned by several of her colleagues, with Michigan rep. Peter Meijer telling CNN's Dana Bash, "First off, any comparisons to the Holocaust, it's beyond reprehensible. This is—I don't even have words to describe how disappointing it is to see this hyperbolic speech that, frankly, amps up and plays into a lot of the anti-Semitism that we've been seeing in our society today. Vicious attacks on the streets of New York and in Los Angeles," Meijer said. Rep. Liz Cheney, who was removed from her House Republican leadership post earlier this month, called the comments "evil lunacy." Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who has previously spoken out against Greene, tweeted, "Absolute sickness," alongside a clip of her statement.
On the Democratic side, Rep. Jim McGovern called for Greene to resign and demanded that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy respond, though McCarthy, who is seemingly happy to allow the Greenes and Trumps of the world to take over his party, does not appear to have gotten around to it yet.
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Bess Levin
Politics Correspondent
Bess Levin is a politics correspondent at Vanity Fair. An essential voice of our current tragicomedy, she is an incisive, hilarious daily narrator of the horrors that never seem to stop. If you need catharsis in these terrifying times—or even if you don't!—she is a must-read. You can follow her... Read more
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