Mychajliw and Genocide

There are eight stages of genocide, according to “Genocide Watch.” Among them are “us vs. them” classification of preferred and targeted groups and symbolization of the targeted group through imposition (e.g., yellow star) and the exploitation of stereotypes or unique cultural attributes.

We focus here on “dehumanization”

In this stage, the perpetrating power begins to equate the targeted group or groups to sub-human status. Members of groups are likened to animals, vermin, insects, and/or diseases. Dehumanization allows average people to overcome the normal human revulsion against murder. At this stage, hate propaganda is in print and other media are used to vilify the victim group. To combat dehumanization, incitement to genocide should not be confused with protected speech. This rhetoric is harmful and can lead to the killing of hundreds of thousands. Local and international leaders should condemn the use of hate speech and make it culturally unacceptable.

Just this week, Stefan Mychajliw thought it necessary within the context of a *checks notes* town supervisor race to play around a bit with some dehumanizing genocidal language. For a guy who once made a big deal about his family’s travails through the Holomodor and emigration westward and then northward, it would ordinarily be counterintuitive for him to take on the language of genocide perpetration. Yet, believe it or not, here we are.

It is not enough to ignore Mychajliw’s incitement. It is important to highlight it and to condemn it for what it is.

India Walton. AOC. Radical socialist Randy Hoak. Three comrades endorsed by the Working Families Party. Their mission: defund police and raise taxes in NYS $94 billion. They want to infest Buffalo and Hamburg. Their candidate survey: “how will you CO-GOVERN with WFP?” Co-govern? pic.twitter.com/OGROboe15n

— Stefan Mychajliw (@StefanMychajliw) October 26, 2021

Hamburg homeowners: want your property values to plummet? Want the value of your home to sink like a rock? Radical socialist Randy Hoak will infest Hamburg by building low income apartments in your neighborhood. Here’s a direct quote from his Working Families Party questionnaire. pic.twitter.com/LXBvoU3qKo

— Stefan Mychajliw (@StefanMychajliw) October 25, 2021

Those are two tweets sent from Mychajliw’s official, verified Twitter account (I urge you to report them to Twitter for targeted hate speech against a group) within a day of each other. Mychajliw is attacking his opponent for suggesting that it would be good to re-evaluate zoning regulations in the town to allow for more multi-family housing. Mychajliw’s reaction to this is literally to call this an “infestation”.

One does not talk about an influx of people as an “infestation” unless one intends to dehumanize those people in such a way as to direct hatred at them. After all, whom do you call for an “infestation”?

The exterminator.

This is not hyperbole. This is a local Republican who once had aspirations to serve as County Executive or in Congress suggesting that a zoning change to allow for minority or low-income people to move into a town is an “infestation”.

Mychajliw’s antics cannot be chalked up to culture warrior banter anymore. This isn’t funny. This isn’t something to take lightly or to disregard. It cannot be stressed strongly enough that we have here a local prominent Republican running for office who refers to entire classes of people – poor, minorities, immigrants, refugees – you name it – as parasites or vermin.

The next time Mychajliw sells you some story about how his grandpappy went AWOL from the Wehrmacht, ask him why he feels comfortable using Nazi terminology to describe his fellow Americans who happen to be less white or less well-off than he.

In his risibly facile Op-Ed, Mychajliw wrote,

What I have is a love for the promise of America, and a loathing for those who seek to destroy it.

Mychajliw should look in the mirror, and loathe what he sees glaring back at him.