A little thread on the concept of genocide.

Almost all of the world's nations ratified or acceded to the Genocide Convention adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. Passed in the aftermath of the Holocaust carried out by Nazi Germany, it defined and outlawed things similar to it.

The convention is a political document. About 10 years ago, I read a book about it, and remember that during the discussions, the Soviet Union and People's Poland voted one way, and the United States and anti-Communist Latin Americans another way. It is not a moral absolute.

On the one hand, there have been mass killings in the 20th century that don't cleanly fit into the convention definition of genocide. The Khmer Rouge didn't intend to literally kill all Cambodians; the 1/4 that they did kill were just the eggs that they broke to make an omelet.

A goal of Ukrainian foreign policy since the days of Viktor Yushchenko is to make the world recognize the Holodomor as genocide. It was a monstrous crime that killed millions, but it wasn't genocide by the convention definition, since it didn't aim to kill all Ukrainians.

By the convention definition, killing all educated people isn't genocide; killing all wealthy peasants isn't genocide; killing all supporters of a left-wing political party isn't genocide; killing all homosexuals or epileptics isn't genocide.

On the other hand, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed that murders of indigenous Canadian women, which are overwhelmingly committed by indigenous Canadian men, amount to genocide.

Surely, the convention fails to define things similar to the Holocaust: it misses some things similar to the Holocaust, such as what happened in Cambodia and Ukraine, and it marks some things utterly dissimilar to the Holocaust, such as what is happening in Canada.

And, surely, the children's fantasy writer who must not be named isn't aiming to commit anything similar to the Holocaust: https://twitter.com/chasestrangio/status/1287367457213161473

I really want this term to be retired. If something is evil, just call it evil. If something is murder, just call it murder. Don't use an emotionally charged term that doesn't even live up to its purpose.