HonestReporting (@honestreporting)
Published on May 21, 2026
Two nuclear bombs were dropped on Japan during World War II, and no one has ever called that a genocide. Because it wasn’t.
On his Making Sense podcast, philosopher, neuroscientist, and author Sam Harris @samharrisorg explains what genocide is: the deliberate destruction of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. It is defined by intent. It is an eradication project.
But today, human rights organizations have shifted the meaning in order to use it to call the war in Gaza a genocide. As Harris puts it: “This confusion has been engineered by people who know what they’re doing.”
We can guess at why.