# The Genocide loophole



## Vladd67 (Apr 8, 2008)

The Genocide loophole | Vladd’s view of the World
Aren't semantics wonderful


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## The Ace (Apr 8, 2008)

So it's genocide until it goes to court.  Mind you, Uncle Joe wasn't prejudiced, he'd murder anybody.


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## Ursa major (Apr 8, 2008)

I've never liked the phrase "for the greater good", even where it's use is relatively benign, as its use seems predicated on the removal of some or other basic right from a group of people.

As to the killing of the Ukrainian farmers, we could simply agree to all call it mass murder, Russian-style. Do you think the Duma would prefer that? And it's not as if they can completely avoid the charge of Soviet genocide, given the mass internal deportation of specific racial and language groups, many of whom failed to survive.


(With apologies to those offended by such black humour, might I suggest that the murder of the Russian aristocracy could fit under the title Gentricide. Sorry. )


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## Drachir (Apr 9, 2008)

The word genocide is frequently overused.  I have even heard people using it in relation to the war in Iraq, which no matter how much you might oppose it, is hardly an act of genocide.  As far as the so-called Ukrainian genocide it is worth noting that Stalin kiled millions of non-Ukrainians farmers as well.  There is little doubt, considering the type of person Stalin was, that if he had truly intended to murder all Ukrainians he would not have stopped at eight million.


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## Ursa major (Apr 9, 2008)

I think the problem is that the word "genocide" has become a shorthand term for "the worst possible crime that can be committed by a state/country". Unfortunately, it is defined in such a way that non-race-based crimes of the same scale are omitted. We are thus left with terms such as "mass murder" which, while accurate, cover anything from a single person who has killed perhaps dozens of people up to and including the behaviour of Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot (and, no doubt, others throughout history whose names are not so well known).


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