YouTuber polemic and hyperreal persona: Crusades and Inquisition good? Jewish overreaction and Christian bad apples? (Baudrillard, 59)
A YouTuber Pax Tube titled his video “why the inquisition was awesome actually”. Other history says otherwise. Is his point valid? Does Christian rejuvenation exempt the persecutions?
Pax Tube calls it awesome and then proceeds to number three to five thousand persecutions but this is apparently in actuality only 2.7% of cases. Any regime that persecutes thousands of people is not awesome. No matter the percentages. Somehow even with exaggerated formats, it was a targeted persona that relied on ridding those that disagreed with the church. Whether Germany was worse does not change the impact nor reduce its liability. Claims found on Quora of those pushing the burden on German propaganda may have some historical relevance but it does not mitigate the assault on medieval Jewry. The same goes for his seeming joy concerning the crusades. Killing innocent villagers of a different faith is not justified. The bloodbath that ensued in Jewish villages is itself a demeaning episode for the church. The irony in calling something awesome with the intent of removing a certain ethnicity from the floor is truly not an awesome thing unless apologists are attempting to dismiss intentional outlets. Awesome means electrifying and homogenous not rising at the cost of another.
Ironically, Pax Tube never mentions the Jewish cost. Nor is there a mention through thousands of comments on his video of the Jewish suffering that occurred. The “nuance” that is praised seems to be at the expense of the victims. The victims are nameless just consequences of an unfortunate accident. To be frank this a lot more frightening. The issue with the inquisition is not so much the witch-hunting but the heresy-hunting that included Jews. Jews were exceptionally targeted for their lacking Christianity. Forced to convert or die. Such targeting is not a good start. This was not unique to Spain nor does rank amongst the brutality of later persecutions but still horrid. Germany expelled Jews in 1280 and killed 6 million during the Holocaust. Numerically, Germany is on another level. The inquisition does play a more prominent role in the memory of Judaism for good reason beyond the propaganda. The near centuries of Jewish flourishing came to a complete halt with the persecutions. It would be as if England expelled all their Jews once again. The monarchy was fine with the Jews so much so that Isabella condemned her husband King Ferdinand for submitting to the inquisitors. Though this may only further anti-semitic prose of regal aid to Jews.
Already acknowledging its forceable problem. Maybe it is not the worst of the worst but it was pretty awful. So the persecutions weren’t as high. Yet the expulsion was massive. Jews who had flourished for centuries were forced to pack up and ship out. It wasn’t just against Jews but they were a main target. Any current apologist who affirms the need to cleanse the nation of religious diversity is at best amoral and worse immoral. Saying for their time, it wasn’t bad, yes it was. Arguing that state
morality was somehow normative even if genuine was conventional. Either the argument is that their morality was good for their time so current apologists would argue that such an occurrence today would be problematic making it retroactively immoral or upholding a potentiality today would heavily undermine an objective morality that a Christian who kills a Jew in the street shouldn’t be charged. The lack of personal accountability permitted people to act viciously whether for christ or a private vendetta. Intent was never measured. Though a clerk who met with Eichmann said that he repented in his last days so he will be saved but the murdered Jews at his hand have no salvation. Quite the twisted ethical clause. There is salvation for the scum of the earth but not innocents.
Contrary to popular belief, the inquisition was rejected by multiple outlets. Officials barring their cities from its advancements. Their hand was forced when the army arrived and conquered their land. With their hands tied they could not overcome the inquisitors' force. While the monarchs used it to their advantage by demonstrating their power, the church also gained veracity through it. Villages were quite loyal to their homes. Many saw this institution ideal as a front. As a projection and an imposition. Many saw this as awful and refused to agree to it. Yet through fear and coercion, the people turned on each other. A diabolical plot to contaminate social cohesion. A way of undermining the webbed collective into insiders and outsiders. Jews had always been isolated. Prior to the inquisition, riots did shoe them aside and hurl their anger at the innocent Jews. Yet through it all towns stuck together. With prevailing fear and potential punishments, villagers sought an easy road to erase the scum in their vicinities. Dissenters were quickly brought in line and manipulated to hurt their friends even more. The inquisition was not receptive but was shoved on the public in order to capitalise on its goals.
Expelling Jews is terrible but those who stayed and converted remained targets. In the past, converts were afforded the luxuries of Christianity. Yet the inquisition changed the image. It is here that the nazi ideology finds its parallel. Not in quantity but in methodology. The inquisition continued to persecute conversos. Jews who gave up their Judaism were attacked as fake Christians. Acting as full religious catholics was not acceptable anymore. A speck of Jewish heritage was sufficiently fraudulent Christianity. For a religion that prospered on conversion, this was quite a reversal. Mass incarcerations at the behest of possible innocence. Potential guilty freed was too much to bear. This was the first generational assault. To demonstrate their allegiance to the church and forgo persecution they turned on their Jewish brethren. Becoming rabid anti-semites. Jews were ousted even quicker to display their faith in the church. At the same time these conversos were never accepted. Despite their allegiance they were outsiders. Coined new christians and thus outsiders even put on trial for their breath of life. Nothing could change their legacy. They were Jews and forever will be Jews. Many conversos immigrated to the new world to escape persecution. Realising that converting would not save them maybe travelling across the ocean could be their salvation. In a sense, there was no protection nor salvation for converts, the old defensive models became ingrained ontological assaults.
Yet the worst disaster was the denunciation act. The Edith of Grace was imposed to route the heresy. Pressing commoners to turn on their neighbours. Cooperate with authorities to receive a lesser punishment. Yet such cooperation could be their downfall. The coercive tactics were not well received and people went into hiding or denied these claims. Terror formed the catalyst of denouncing. The Edith of Faith that followed instituted with the inquisition entrenched in society. Focusing on social elevation or good graces they denounced hoping for a validated purpose. Opportunism greatly affected the growth in denunciations. While both were effective it reveals a greater threat that of social upheaval. The inquisition decided to undermine the public with its own infighting. First through coercive means and then by voluntary compensation. No punishment nor responsibility. Denunciations were basically shot of a canon. At times extremely off but at the expense of revenge or a grudge. Outside the Jewish fray, Christian neighbours assaulted one another in the hopes of generating more buzz to their own prestige. In a sense, this institutional metric put the whole country into disarray. A consistent theme of corrupt elites shifting the burden to culture wars over their own menacing actions. Such moral upside to have countrymen fighting one another for social climbing and prideful enjoyment.
Pax Tube’s conclusion is that Inquisitors were not perfect and even the wrongdoing doesn’t denounce the truth of christianity. It solely demonstrates man’s sinful nature. Those who attack the inquisition dislike the christian religion. While some of this can be posed against exaggerated claims, none of the aforementioned claims can be debunked. While the truth of christianity is based in metaphysical uncertainty and faith alone, the events of Jewish suffering during the inquisition are hard facts and real terror. He is correct life was tough but was even tougher when countrymen incited by the state attacked others for having different beliefs. It wasn’t as if these beliefs emerged out of nowhere. The reason for conversos was due to the constant attacks and lack of protection by the state. Some conversos were legitimate but still were assailed for their Jewish heritage. It wasn’t imperfection but evil. The magnitude of evil is regulated not to the quantity of deaths but quality of evil. No one believes Alexander the Great to be a nefarious man even though his kill count is super high because he did it under the auspices of war. A respectable even if quite immoral standard. Yet to punish citizens for diverse beliefs. Beliefs the state has upheld for centuries is a different mechanism. Persecuting people for their fate has a lot of Nazi propaganda spilt all over it.
Vindicating the church of this travesty is difficult. It was a combination of religious and political power to rid variety. The idea itself of vanquishing diverse religious beliefs is itself an immoral issue. The history of religious monism and religious persecution is foremost a christian invention. Jews have been the main target for their spite. Murdering them in droves for centuries over the death of Jesus. Faith in a story related centuries after the event. That faith has physically tragic consequences. The grand irony is the the push for spiritual purity at the expense of people’s livelihood. What does expelling people in those harsh times do to those people? What does incriminating saintly converts mean to authentic conversion? What does public denunciations manifest in social collapse? Whatever the well-intentioned ideals, the inquisition brought about a short-term horror and an eventual calamity.
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