# Shirley MacLaine explains the Holocaust **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 13, 2015, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shirley-maclaine-explains-the-holocaust/712539 "2015-02-13T04:46:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Fallen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@Fallen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fallen)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shirley-maclaine-explains-the-holocaust/712539/41 "2015-02-13T23:09:58Z")
I agree with Bricker, though more simply: she really didn’t think it through, and I gather presumes that everyone if harmed has done something terrible in a previous life. (I don’t know enough about the religion to know how it is certain that a particular person HAD a previous life.) 🙂 And I agree with Mince about the karmic exchange rates being off in the examples, but then I don’t know that such rates come with a statutory schedule. Shirley might focus more on the fact she’s (apparently, according to her daughter) a shitty mom, but maybe karmic teachings on doing your best in the current life were skipped … a weird play on “can’t see forest for peculiar trees.” ---
**Author:** ![Mince](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@Mince](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mince)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shirley-maclaine-explains-the-holocaust/712539/42 "2015-02-13T23:28:25Z")
> [@GrandWino](#): > > The Apartment is still one of the greatest movies ever made, so at least there’s that. The Apartment II: The Condo, was so, so better. ---
**Author:** ![Mince](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@Mince](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mince)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shirley-maclaine-explains-the-holocaust/712539/43 "2015-02-14T00:28:29Z")
> [@Fallen](#): > > …but then I don’t know that such rates come with a statutory schedule. Sure, ok. But do discriminating human beings really need a piece of parchment or an index to intruct them that stuffing human beings into a box and setting that box on fire or applying toxic gas is not the right thing to do? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shirley-maclaine-explains-the-holocaust/712539/44 "2015-02-14T01:03:40Z")
She’s old. She’ll be dead soon. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shirley-maclaine-explains-the-holocaust/712539/45 "2015-02-14T01:15:06Z")
I’m pretty sure that if you go to a Buddhist priest for grief counseling, he won’t tell you that you were probably an asshole in a previous life. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shirley-maclaine-explains-the-holocaust/712539/46 "2015-02-14T01:23:26Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > AIU New Age doctrine, the Holocaust victims were not even being punished, they were just acquiring new experiences essential to their spiritual evolution, and so were the Nazis. Yup. All part of the divine plan guided by love and a desire for self actualization via brutality and horror. The ends justify the means. I can’t stand that new age philosophy. I find the idea of eternal hell less offensive than that, because at least Christians will admit that hell is cruel. new agers try to make evil sound like it is ok. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shirley-maclaine-explains-the-holocaust/712539/47 "2015-02-14T01:28:22Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > Is there a faith out there that believes there is just one soul that lives every life, that travels through time so it can be reincarnated into everybody who has ever lived? That’s the ultimate fair theology, and one that would urge people to treat each other better. That sounds like a cool philosophy. Are there any religions that accept evolution, accept the evil/unfairness that comes from biology and natural selection, and that still promote the best in humans (empathy, compassion, science)? The closest I can come up with is Jainism, and I think that one is iffy on hitting those marks. Secular humanism too I guess, but that isn’t a religion. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shirley-maclaine-explains-the-holocaust/712539/48 "2015-02-14T01:34:09Z")
Hey, what do you get if you play country music backwards? You get your job back, you get your wife back, you get your truck back . . . But, what do you get if you play New Age music backwards? You get New Age music! ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shirley-maclaine-explains-the-holocaust/712539/49 "2015-02-14T04:15:07Z")
As God is my witness, I thought Shirley MacLaine was dead. ---
**Author:** ![purplehearingaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@purplehearingaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehearingaid)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shirley-maclaine-explains-the-holocaust/712539/50 "2015-02-14T04:34:19Z")
OMG ! I did not hear this ! I will not being watching that Anti Semitic bitch anymore ! ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shirley-maclaine-explains-the-holocaust/712539/51 "2015-02-14T05:18:18Z")
> [@purplehearingaid](#): > > OMG ! I did not hear this ! I will not being watching that Anti Semitic bitch anymore ! Now, now, you can be a complete idiot without being an antisemite. She was even shitty to the Nazis in her statement. What kind of horrible shit could you have done in a past life that perpetrating or suffering from genocide somehow fixes it or gets you to that place where you can reach a higher plane? My vote is for unbelievably stupid and trying to figure out things she’s not prepared to understand, not hatred toward any particular group. Dumber than Jenny McCarthy? NFL presents “You Make The Call!” ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shirley-maclaine-explains-the-holocaust/712539/52 "2015-02-14T09:29:28Z")
She gets her spiritual instruction from [Ramtha, via J.Z.Knight](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Z._Knight), quite a piece of work. ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shirley-maclaine-explains-the-holocaust/712539/53 "2015-02-14T09:52:17Z")
:eek: Only now - through this thread - did I realise that Shirley MacLaine, classic old Hollywood starlet, and Shirley MacLaine, kooky New Age guru, are actually… One and the same person. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shirley-maclaine-explains-the-holocaust/712539/54 "2015-02-14T12:31:10Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > the common Christian belief that good people like Gandhi will be tortured for eternity because they had the bad luck to born into a non-Christian family and had the further misfortune to hear about Christianity but didn’t convert. (No, I’m not saying every Christian believes that, calm down) The majority don’t, so you have a strange definition of “common”. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shirley-maclaine-explains-the-holocaust/712539/55 "2015-02-14T13:53:31Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Sooo… learning how to turn human skin into lampshades is an experience necessary to spiritual evolution? Seems to match normal Christian thought. “God has a plan for everyone” is a common enough trope, quickly followed by how mysterious he is and you can’t know what he’s thinking. Maybe some people are here to be bad examples. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shirley-maclaine-explains-the-holocaust/712539/56 "2015-02-14T20:50:02Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > The majority don’t, so you have a strange definition of “common”. If you have stats to show how many believe that and how many don’t please share. I was stating what my personal experience with Christians was. ---
**Author:** ![BlindTyger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/46a35a/32.png) [@BlindTyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlindTyger)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shirley-maclaine-explains-the-holocaust/712539/57 "2015-02-14T20:52:27Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > OK then how about they come back and spend the next[500 years as a clam](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ming_%28clam%29) before their allowed to reincarnate again. Well, if my inexplicable memories are right, I fucked too many groupies in my past life and have spent 95% of my current one single. Talk about karma. Oh, and I missed the 70’s and 80’s. Damn. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shirley-maclaine-explains-the-holocaust/712539/58 "2015-02-14T22:28:42Z")
I love the idea of karma, it lets me go around treating people like shit and just assume that they deserve it. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shirley-maclaine-explains-the-holocaust/712539/59 "2015-02-14T22:53:13Z")
> [@Darth\_Panda](#): > > I love the idea of karma, it lets me go around treating people like shit and just assume that they deserve it. Okay, I’m stealing that line :). ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shirley-maclaine-explains-the-holocaust/712539/60 "2015-02-15T00:14:27Z")
Karma isn’t about what you “deserve” so all this outrage is pretty ignorantly misplaced. Just sayin. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shirley-maclaine-explains-the-holocaust/712539.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shirley-maclaine-explains-the-holocaust/712539.md?page=4)