Group narcissism: The fury over retired NBA star Ray Allen's trip to Auschwitz

[C C]

Former NBA Star Ray Allen Visits Holocaust History In Auschwitz : NPR
http://www.npr.org/2017/08/05/541844688/...-auschwitz

EXCERPT: [...] SMITH: Many questions, many reflections, many unexpected emotions - that's what Ray Allen says this journey drummed up in him. The one thing he did not expect? Criticism. When Ray returned home and posted about his trip on social media, some people blasted back. They didn't like the fact that he seemed to be raising awareness for what had happened in Poland to Jews and not using that time or energy to support people in the black community. You got quite a few really strong reactions to your visit to Auschwitz. Not all of them were positive. Why do you think there was that response?

ALLEN: Because, again, the way, you know, we get thrust into these situations in the first place is because people can't see past their own color, past their own hate. And the reason that I brought that up was because people are looking at this as a color issue. You know, you want to talk about this issue and say, well, why are we still talking about this? And why is, you know, why are you supporting Jewish people? And my response has been consistent every time is that this is not about Jewish people. This is about people. You know, just because that's their religion, look at what was done to them. You know, this is a lesson for us in all walks of life.

And there's so many different atrocities that have taken place. This is just the atrocity that we are speaking about right now. We can talk about the genocide all over the world, you know, that's taking place in so many different countries, but we just happen to be talking about the Holocaust. I've studied slavery just the same. And this is slavery just the same. I'm speaking on behalf of people, people who can't speak for themselves, you know, atrocities. You know, teaching kids now - we got kids in school now that don't know what the Holocaust is, you know, but yet, they'll know - they know what a bully is. Bullies turn into dictators. Dictators end up bullying. You know, we can't have that in this world that we live in. We know too much. [...]

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[Secular Sanity]

Pretty good!

Viktor Frankl said, so, let us be alert—alert in a twofold case.

Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of.

And since Hiroshima we know what is at stake.

He said that it was easy for outsiders to get the wrong conception of camp life, a conception mingled with sentiment and pity. Little does he know of the hard fight for existence that raged among the prisoners.

I’m sure you’ve read it before, C C, but do you remember him saying that he was drawing up a kind of balance sheet of pleasures, and found that he had only experienced two pleasurable moments? One, after a hard day of work when he was assigned to the food line of a cook who was the only cook that didn’t look at the men’s faces when he was filling the bowls. He distributed the soup and its contents equally.

But he said that it was not for him to pass judgement on those prisoners who put their own people above everyone else. Who can throw a stone at a man who favors his friends under such circumstances when—sooner or later—it’s a question of life or death? No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same.

[RainbowUnicorn]

he says "you know" a lot.
which is ironic considering the subject & point he is making.
Great to see someone challenging the small minded bigotted greedy selfishness that parades about as some qwasi liberal idealism.