[Written September 13, 2011]
I happen to have a German surname, like many Americans – Germans are the single largest immigrant group in the United States. I have never been to German, don’t understand German, don’t aspire to be German, don’t particularly care for German food, don’t drink beer, think polka music is amusing…. I’m no more a German than Black Skinned descendents of slaves are Africans.
Monday, Glenn went off on a really disturbing rant, with Pat Gray stoking the fire. Things are getting very dangerous in Europe. They were getting ready to play an emotional speech given by someone in the government about what Germany should do – and Glenn and Pat played off each other and agreed that the German language sounds evil. They then played the clip with echo and reverb, trying to make it sound like a Hitler speech, and generally were stoking the flames of hatred against Germans, something my parents had to deal with first hand during World War II. Americans of German, Italian, and Japanese origin were viewed with suspicion, and in many cases rounded up in detention camps.
They then threw out the cliche for no particular reason – “If Germany had won World War II, we would all be speaking German today”.
About 10 years ago, I had my first visceral reaction to that statement, probably also from Glenn Beck, but maybe Michael Savage.. Beside being a hypothetical (could Germany really have invaded the United States?), there is no basis in fact. Germany had no history of trying to wipe out native languages. Even if Germany conquered the United States and forced everyone to learn German, why is the language part what matters?
Like any occupied country, the people who can speak the language of the occupier will tend to prosper, creating a ruling elite. The Republics within the Soviet Union had a core of people from Russia who spoke Russian they coordinated the government activities using people who understood who speak the native languages.
Generally the last thing an occupier wants to do is teach the conquered people the language of the conqueror.