YouTube Transcript:
Do mainstream media and Noam Chomsky get g*nocide wrong? w/ Melina Borčak

Now this question of genocide is
something that has become a huge topic
in the last year. Many people including
some scholars of genocide have said that
it looks like uh Israel is committing
genocide in Palestine. Um including Omar
Barov most recently on Swiss radio. Uh
there's many and there's also people who
disagree with that of course. Um so what
would you say people need to understand
about genocide? how that relates to
Shrebanita and how does that relate to
Gaza as well? Oh, I don't know where to
start. There's so many things to say
here. First of all, most people don't
even know what genocide is. What is
genocide? Well, it's not lots of
killing, but it's um to put it in like
the most simple terms from the UN um
genocide convention. Um it's one or more
acts committed with the intent to
exterminate a group of people. So it can
be killing but it can also be um like
forced sterilization
and it can also be creating
circumstances uh calculated to bring
about the physical destruction of the
group for example man man-made famines
or destroying the medical system
attacking hospitals stuff like this uh
and so on and so on. So there's like
list of things that can be methods of
genocide and this is very clear and this
is what people should understand because
we had for example um like we have now
the genocide against Ugers in China
where forced sterilization is the main
main genocide method and you don't have
to be like a genius or a biologist or
anything to understand that if you
sterilize almost every Uigur woman
there's not going to be another
generation of Ugers. Have they really
sterilized almost every we got woman?
They haven't. But that's the goal. But
you know, uh, journalists see, oh, I
don't see like a pile of dead bodies, so
that's not genocide. That's not how it
works. You can see a pile of dead
bodies. For example, the bombing of
Germany in World War II. Um, almost half
a million people were killed, but the
goal of the Allies was not to
exterminate the German nation. It was to
stop Hitler. And of course you can say
that maybe the bumping of Driston was
too intense or maybe this was too bad or
that was too bad and so on, but the
intent behind it was not to kill every
single German that exists anywhere. And
I think that's one of the tough points
about genocide, which is why people like
Dirk Moses are even skeptical of the
term, who's the editor of the genocide
journal, because it's not just about the
intent, it's about proving the intent.
And how can you do that? Which is
[ __ ] right? Yeah. I mean I think um
genocide is like way too gatekept way
too strict. So h I have to like roll
back a little bit. Um so genocide we
know the definition now. And who is
responsible for declaring that something
is or isn't genocide? People think it's
the courts. It's not the courts. The
only genocides that were ever declared
as such by international courts ever
were Rwanda, Bosnia, and
Cambodia starting in 99. So 25 years ago
with Rwanda. Like are you going to tell
me there was no genocide ever until 199
or 95 in that 94 in that case? Um and
the last one was Cambodia was proven in
2018. It happened in the 70s. What did
Cambodians do? Did they say, "Oh, some
[ __ ] happened here, but we don't know
because no court said, no court allowed
us like the white western man didn't
allow us to call it genocide." No, they
built the tool slang genocide memorial,
right? And then in 2018, after so many
decades, they finally proved it. But if
you went by international courts, then
you would have to deny every other
genocide ever, including the Holocaust,
including the Primos, including like
Primos was the killing of Roma and Cinti
people by the Nazis. Yes. Yeah. Which
some people also say is like a part of
the Holocaust. Um so like it's not the
job of courts because courts don't
[ __ ] do it in most cases. Um it's the
job of genocide scholars, genocide
experts. If they say this and this such
and such is a genocide, then that's what
it is. I mean, of course, there has to
be some type of like agreement,
consensus, you know, it's with
scientific stuff, it's always um a
measure like you have to find a balance.
There's always people who disagree just
like there's like climate scientists who
say that climate change isn't happening.
You know, you have genocide scholars who
deny the genocide of the Totsis in
Rwanda. You know, people like that
exist. And that's also a very clear case
because it happened so quickly. Um
there's also a bit of a tendency to deny
the Bosnian genocide on the left though,
isn't there? Yeah. Because people don't
have enough brain cells, so they get
their world views like in a package,
like on sale. You know, you buy one, you
get two for free. you buy hating the US,
you get loving Russia uh in the same
package. So, you know, that's tanks.
Tanks are the ones doing that. And it's
a shame. Well, you know, Nam Chosky, for
example. Yeah. [ __ ] him. Yeah. I mean,
he's on record for doubting at least
that what happened at Shrebbronita was
for for denying it. He also straight up
denied it several times. He also denied
the Cambodian genocide. He was actually
actively writing to editors of US media
while the genocide was going on to get
them to stop reporting on it and stop
calling it a genocide. That's so strange
because also he's um come out to say,
you know, point out that Paul Pot was
actually partially backed by the West
during this time. So yeah, but he was
also partially backed by Nam Chosky who
tried to downplay his [ __ ] Interesting.
I mean it's just the guy has built his
career like he's a linguist.
And people say, "Oh, you should be
grateful because he's talking about so
many things that other people don't talk
about." Other people do talk about it,
but they don't get listened to because
they're not an old white professor, even
if his professorship has nothing to do
with genocide, you know. But I got this
argument from Tanke saying, "Oh, you
should be grateful because he talked
about like East Teamer and shit." There
was people from East Teamer talking
about East Teamer as well. M just
because they don't get listened to
doesn't mean we have to keep pumping up
and like putting on a pedestal this old
white dude who did more damage than he
did good. It's a shame because I saw one
of my neighbors getting kidnapped in the
middle of the street in the middle of
the day being brought to Guantanamo
tortured for years without even getting
charged. I [ __ ] hate the government
of the US,
but I also [ __ ] hate other
governments who did [ __ ] I don't
need to reduce my brain to two brain
cells to think, "Fuck US imperialism.
[ __ ] what they did in Iraq. [ __ ] what
they did in Afghanistan. [ __ ] all the
drone bombings. [ __ ] Guantanamo and Abu
Grape. So now I'm going to love Russia
and China. And now I'm going to be like
NATO imperialism destroying Milosvich."
Yeah, [ __ ] me. I have noticed there is a
bit of a trend on among some of the left
who are would put a list of, you know, I
think things which are right to
criticize the invasion of Iraq,
Afghanistan, uh a number of others and
then and then they would put Serbia in
there as well, right? I think people
don't really understand actually what
was happening in Kosovo. I mean maybe
you can explain for that because a lot
of people hear NATO bombing of
Yugoslavia. They think Yugoslavia was
this socialist country. But of course at
that point it was not even Yugoslavia.
It was the rump state of Serbia and
Montenegro who were committing genocide
on neighbors through funding
ethnicbacked militias uh and through
their own like for example ina there
wasn't even militias it was um like
regular units of the Serbian Ministry of
Interior. Wow. Funded by the state under
direct control of Milosvich. Mhm. And so
then what what about Kosovo? was the
West. It was also the police of Serbia,
the police of Serbia and the Army of
Serbia. So, everybody's talking about
Black Lives Matter. We support Black
Lives Matter. Of course, we do. We
support it not only in the US but also
in Brazil and in other places where
black people get killed by the police uh
in like injust cases and we in Germany
and in Germany where uh it's black
people and also Muslims is also refugees
and also in a lot of cases people with
mental health issues that get uh killed
by the police um injustly or burned to
death even. Um, so we're against police
brutality anywhere it's happening. But
then in Kosovo where you have police
officers of the state, I mean Kosovo was
part of Serbia at the time. So you have
police of your own state coming to your
house raping your children, your young
daughters in front of your eyes, killing
people, raping people, torturing people,
uh building mass graves. you had like uh
like a truck full of the corpses of
Albanian civilians um um like have an
accident on the road and then like uh
slide into um like off the road and then
they discovered the corpses that were
being driven to Belgrade. Belgrade is
like there they have mass graves of
Albanians. People who are still today
searching to get even a single bone of
their loved ones so they can bury them
so they can have some closure but they
don't get it because the mass graves are
in Serbia
and they don't have access to it. I mean
Albanians of course were the uh ethnic
other ethnic group non-Serbian in Kosovo
and uh are mostly majority. I mean, we
have this on record also, not just in
Kosovo in Eastern Bosnia. We have this
on record that, for example, the [ __ ]
psychopath teachers that were beating my
mom and all her other like school kids
in elementary school were sent from
Belgrade. Um, they were sending people
from Serbia and from Montenegro, ethnic
Serbs, to go to uh eastern Bosnia to get
into positions of power and to change
the ethnic makeup. And they use it now
as an uh also we were like banned from
saying that we're Bosnjaks like you
mentioned before. Um and now they say,
"Oh, look at the census from before the
genocide or before the war." They say,
"Um, I don't see any Bosnjaks in that
census." And now you're saying Bosnjaks
were killed. But you don't see Bosnjaks
because we were not allowed to say that
we exist. like just in the 70s like 30
years after Yugoslavia started and even
more years if you count like the Kingdom
of Yugoslavia and so on um we got the
right to call ourselves Muslims.
Muslims is not what we are. I mean most
of us are Muslims but Muslims is also
like some random guy in Malaysia. Yeah.
Or Albanians as well. Oh, they they were
allowed to be an ethnic group, but the