Natalie asked, “Can you guess what Lufthansa is talking about here?” For a bonus point, can you guess what word, beginning with ‘N’, the German policeman is prohibiting here?
… Jewish passengers were confronted by a layer of armed police who stood between them and the departure gate. In a scene that conceivably would have won critical praise had it been staged in a dark historical comedy, one of the distressed passengers asked plaintively, “Why do you hate us?” as the officers grimly surveyed them. Then someone else said the word “N—” … one of the offended police officers began barking in a thick German accent, “Who said the ‘N’ word? Who was it?”
[Excerpted from this article, edited to omit some letters following ‘N’ lest these offend any German police readers, or sympathisers thereof.]
One can hardly blame a German policeman for speaking “with a thick German accent”, and in Germany, it is a crime to call a police officer that word. Prudent Germans who wish to use the word without consequences are better advised to apply it to Donald Trump, or to call Israel a ‘N— state’. And prudent Jews who find themselves in Germany were reminded three years ago by the (perhaps unfortunately termed) ‘German anti-semitism commissioner’ to avoid looking Jewish – advice these “visibly Jewish” Lufthansa passengers had completely failed to heed.
I guess one take-away from this is that, next time anyone make a fuss about “the ‘N’ word”, they’ll need (and frequently deserve!) to be asked, “Which one?” Commenters are welcome to add any other take-aways that occur to them.
That rather says it all, doesn’t it?
`Don’t call us that even if we are behaving in that way or you will be punished.’
Check this out…
Yes, the word that cannot be said cannot even be uttered even when using it is to explain why it is offensive.
I feel we’ve been here before…
… and just wait until Biggus Dickus finds out…
Well if the police weren’t behaving like Nazis for enforcing Lufthansa’s anti-semitic group punishment then the Jews wouldn’t have called them “Nazis”. Which they did.
I’m surprised the police didn’t tell the Jewish group to take a train to their destination. That would have made the incident more historically correct.
It’s always entertaining when the most powerful people claim the victimhood mantle. The only good point is that this sort of idiocy is what will eventually defuse victimhood as a sword.
I’d say the airport staff were pretty dumb. In Singapore, the airport staff would have handed out disposable masks to the passengers and instructed them to wear them, with a (masked) smile and a polite warning that their departure would be delayed if they remained recalcitrant. Even if they were jewish? Doesn’t matter.
Jewish, muslim, buddhist, atheist, whatever. Step in Sg, follow the rules. Another example – bring prohibited drugs in over a certain mass, it’s the gallows for you.
Over here, conformity is very strong. The people who tried to resist masks were publicly shamed and in some cases charged with offenses throughout this two year period.
I tried to be more tactical about it – pretend to drink water, in exercise clothes etc, but I mostly went along. Not worth the aggravation and could affect my wife’s occupation in healthcare.
Sigh.
Don’t tell him, Pike!
They are nannys and proud to be nannys, but they hate people pointing that out.
You just can’t make this stuff up. 😉
Life imitates art?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAS0Yn0dDk0