Holy Innocents

Charlie Pierce on October 9, 2023:

I do not believe at least half of what is being posted here about the war. Part of it is Elmo's opening the floodgates to bullshit. But part of it goes to those people who were burbling about babies in Kuwait being pulled from incubators and yellowcake from Niger.

His skepticism was well warranted:

While we can confirm killings of innocent civilians in Kfar Aza and other parts of Israel at the hands of Hamas fighters, as of this writing we simply cannot confirm or deny that such beheadings occurred, given the IDF’s unwillingness to address our specific questions and the lack of substantiation from independent news organizations. At present, details are still emerging from communities affected in Israel, the death tolls are still being counted, and the manner of many deaths have not yet been confirmed. We will update this story once more information comes to light.

It’s not that it didn’t happen. It’s just that, as of yet, there is no evidence for it.

Does it matter?

Well, speaking for Americans, we heard almost weekly about school shootings (which seem to have stopped. Not, I think, because every school in America is a high-security facility hardened against attack. For one thing, there simply hasn’t been enough time to do that. For another, every school in the country doesn’t each have that kind of money.). After the shock and horror of Sandy Hook wore off, we soon started shrugging at subsequent such shootings. In Uvalde school children weren’t beheaded; they were vaporized. Matthew McConaghey described a young girl identified by her shoes. There was nothing left of her to identify besides those shoes.

Did that matter? 

Not really. We shrugged and went back to saying there’s nothing we can do about it, except people have a right of self-defense. Which led, or at least preceded, people shooting strangers at their front doors, simply because the homeowner was afraid.

We’re actually urging a more rational response in Israel and Gaza than that.

So, does it matter if babies were, or were not, beheaded?

The alleged beheadings have been a focus of media attention, appearing in headlines and viral posts, and have been repeated by politicians at the highest levels of government. When Biden made the claim, he called in the same statement for additional military support for Israel, aiding an army that has already carried out retaliatory attacks against civilians in Gaza—a region that faces a humanitarian crisis after relentless bombardment from Israel. 

People should be wary of claims that echo Islamophobic rhetoric, or statements that compare the violence in Kfar Aza to “ISIS-style” killings — i.e., beheadings that have taken place in a different context and were committed by a different group. Such rumors that emphasize specific, unverified acts of brutality against infants and that attempt to connect them to patterns of violence carried out by unconnected Islamist groups have the potential to become dangerous propaganda.

Yes. 

Because truth matters. And in some small things we can actually know the truth. And that matters.