Gutfeld Claims Jews Had To Be "Useful" To Survive The Holocaust

Last week, when commenting on Florida's new education policy extolling the "benefits" of slavery, I stated, "I shudder to think how the Florida Board of Education plans to approach The Holocaust."

Well, earlier this evening, a friend drew my attention to Fox News' Greg Gutfeld getting a head start on the subject. Last night, on the Fox program The Five, the lone liberal panelist Jessica Tarlov objected to Florida teaching their children slavery was beneficial on the grounds the same could be done with The Holocaust. Gutfeld jumped in with both feet:

Did you ever read Man’s Search for Meaning? Vik Frankl talks about how you had to survive in a concentration camp by having skills. You had to be useful. Utility! Utility kept you alive!

Though Frankl survived the Holocaust, he minimized the complicity of the Nazis and would later become something of an apologist for Kurt Waldheim and Austrian neo-Nazi leader Jorg Haider. So, it's interesting that Gutfeld chooses to cite Frankl. 

Whether one chooses to claim slavery brings about benefits for African-Americans or claims that Jews had to be useful to survive the Holocaust, then one has also chosen to minimize these catastrophic events. The minimization comes in the form of either claiming the events themselves weren't so bad in the case of slavery because it had its benefits for African-Americans or by blaming Jewish victims of the Holocaust for not being useful. These are the first steps to legitimizing such discourse in society at large. Such discourse, left unchallenged, leads to either denial that these catastrophic events ever happened or provides justification for such evil. 

Gutfeld's remarks earned him a rebuke from White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates who stated:

Let’s get something straight that the American people understand full well and that is not complicated: there was nothing good about slavery; there was nothing good about the Holocaust. Full stop.

While I am in full agreement with the above, I suspect the likes Gutfeld will wear the Biden Administration's disdain as a badge of honor. Ditto for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Department of Education. The shuddering has begun.