Thread by @curtis_yarvin

GM are you ready for some Content. Special welcome to New Yorker readers. It’s Wednesday but this Wednesday won’t be like the others.

I would like to experiment on your brain. A very special History—made from just one Wikipedia page.

You will be the same, but better. Thread

It’s the Wikipedia page titled “Rheinweisenlager.”

DON’T read it until after the experiment. We’ll be using only screenshots. Elon won’t let me link.

Also it just messes with the procedure. (Don’t worry I’ve treated many IRL. All still living)

Let’s dive right into the top of the page:

Yes okay very cool. America built and operated concentration camps. In the lives of those now living.

Also you’ve never heard of it.

Don’t spill your coffee Beatrice. We just getting started here

Actually I want to zoom in on what are actually the most sus words on this page

“Between one and two million.”

Some error bars you got there friend!

We don’t know exactly what this means—but we sense, somewhere behind the primary and secondary sources behind this innocent Wikipedia page—perhaps, not a lust for precision, but an *aversion* to it—

So we have: the loaded word “concentration camp,” and some sus fuzzy numbers.

Who cares numbers can be fuzzy. And lol “concentration camp!” A concentration camp is not a death camp. The US put Japanese civilians in CCs in California—such as Manzanar. Death rate, 5/1000/year

On the other hand… you’ve heard about Japanese internment camps. It fits the narrative. “Concentration camps,” while technically accurate, is also emotionally misleading—par for the course. Manzanar was basically just a gated housing project in the middle of nowhere

But you haven’t heard about the Rheinweisenlager. Have you?

Maybe keep reading. Usually History is harder than this. This is special treat, soft shelled crab for your delectation

Okay so what exactly were the death rates in the Rheinweisenlager? In the same units, deaths per 1000 per year?

These are all young men, so we’d expect lower rates. But they just lost a war…

We’ll use four Historical methods: Qualitative, Quantitative, Vibes, and Scholarship

Qualitatively, we’d like to start with the evidence of our own eyes. Do we have any authentic pictures of the event?

Gosh golly, we do—right there on the Wikipedia page. That’s a US Army helmet too.

Looks like Woodstock tbh. The Stones just setting up to play

Let’s zoom in on these Nazi hippies to see what we can observe of the facilities here at Camp Altamont.

Actually there don’t appear to be any facilities. How odd

Also we can see why the numbers are fuzzy. It’s not clear that these people *have* been counted.

Rather, they seem to have been herded into a field and surrounded by men with guns. Our Empire of Love: origin story

Say what you want about the Nazis. At least they could count

Now, continuing with our hermeneutic critique of Wikipedia, let’s look at the qualitative reports of contemporary observers. I assure you this is History at its finest and most accessible.

So how did the Red Cross feel about this? Something something Geneva Conventions?

So it turns out the highly respected Geneva Accords have a secret “lol no cuz too hard” clause.

You’ll encounter this excuse often as you dig into this material. Keep in mind: it means “too hard” for a giant army that just won a world war and now has nothing to do

But surely the Red Cross at least visited and wrote a report and stuff.

Oh I see

So did anyone observe these conditions firsthand? Do we have descriptions, comparisons, etc?

Bear in mind: (1) Andersonville was DURING the war, not after it; (2) it was run by Confederates, who were (a) losing the war, and (b) like basically like, Nazis anyway

So like, so far, it seems to be pretty much what you thought: Fyre Festival ‘45, but with more barbed wire. Here’s some close ups from Wikipedia.

Not sure why the ladies are in there. Maybe they are all “Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS.” Probably released first tho, May is early

Now let’s move from the qualitative to the qualitative.

What would you expect deaths per person per year to be? Assume access to food, water (yes, water!) is provided with the level of care you’d expect from the pictures and descriptions. At least it’s summer

I’d go 50% a year

So what were the actual numbers? Let’s look at the Data.

Ah but here we have a pleasant surprise! We have been barking up the wrong tree. This cheap Fox News history can only yield subjective results. It dissolves on contact with Facts

Facts: 3-4 per 1000, in a half year. 0.2%

Isn’t that amazing? This is a lower death rate than Manzanar, which actually had, like, housing. It’s like, the death rate of Passaic, New Jersey.

These are young fighters hardened by the brutal Nazi regime. Exercise keeps them fit and prevents intestinal disease. Or something

Zoom in on that word “official.” The “official” death rate.

One word can say a lot. Whoever wrote that word had doubt in his heart. He was not sure he was typing the truth.

So instead of “death rate,” he wrote “official death rate.”

You have to listen for these little noises

So, sitting here 80 years later in our great global Empire of Love, let’s recap.

What does this look like?

It looks like a bureaucratic murder of hundreds of thousands of people, successfully covered up, AND still protected 80 years later—by the same institutions that did it

But we need our Vibe Check. If a thing really happened, it must fit the vibe

Was the New Deal regime able to cover stuff up? Nobody knew FDR used a wheelchair. Some Stalin shit right there.

Was the New Deal regime into killing Germans or letting Germans be killed? Oh buddy

For the killing-Germans vibe of 1946, read Freda Utley’s High Cost of Vengeance.

Or even JCS 1067, the occupation governance document. Or watch “Hitler Lives.” Weird genocidal vibe everywhere. Totally surreal

Why would America do this?

We retcon killing unarmed Germans, this or Dresden, during or after the war, as revenge for the Holocaust. But:

A: to the Nazis, the Holocaust was also revenge.

B: 1945 America had never heard of the Holocaust and did not think the war was about Jews

The real question is not about the past, but about the present.

How is this enormous crime—intentional mass killings—NOT quite covered up, but hidden almost in plain sight? The numbers may be cooked. Anyone can see the pictures and tell the story.

Am I the first? Of course not

The motivation of this war crime was obviously the complete political and military subjugation of Germany, especially prevention of postwar Werwolf or Freikorps activity.

Of which there was basically none. But maybe there would have been! Winning hearts and minds lol

You’ll note that when America is actually trying to win a counterinsurgency, rather than pretend to win, all this Empire of Love stuff goes out the window.

This is how it’s actually done:

Imagine journalists! Now, imagine journalists, “forced to dig holes in the earth by hand in which to sleep.”

Sorry. Shouldn’t fedpoast. Actually I promise we’ll be very loving. At least if I have anything to say about it.

Not at all sure I will tho

But the important question is: what about the phony numbers? Has anyone even looked into it? In the last 80 years?

Golly gee they have. I’ve read Bacque’s book. It seemed careful and good.

Of course, the Responsible Authorities disagree. “Mandy Rice-Davies applies.”

So what did we learn class?

That our Empire of Love is just an empire. Not magic or special. Better than some, worse than others. Not in 2025 what it was in 1945. But—

From a distance, the Overton window looks like it’s made of glass. Get close and you see it’s barbed wire

FIN

Some followups:

https://twitter.com/curtis_yarvin/status/1930547347760500850