# Writing an essay **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 4, 2025, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-an-essay/1012542 "2025-01-04T05:16:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jemma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e495f1/32.png) [@Jemma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jemma)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-an-essay/1012542/1 "2025-01-04T05:16:04Z")
I am writing an essay about the dehumanization of Jewish people during the Holocaust. Does the sentence “treated Jews like a virus that contaminated the meaning of humanity” sound weird? ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-an-essay/1012542/2 "2025-01-04T05:19:20Z")
Yes. What’s the entire sentence? ---
**Author:** ![Jemma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e495f1/32.png) [@Jemma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jemma)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-an-essay/1012542/3 "2025-01-04T05:22:04Z")
To be honest, that’s all I needed to hear. I’ll find a way to rephrase it properl ---
**Author:** ![Jemma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e495f1/32.png) [@Jemma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jemma)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-an-essay/1012542/4 "2025-01-04T05:24:06Z")
Thanks ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-an-essay/1012542/5 "2025-01-04T05:24:37Z")
Given that the Nazi propaganda depicted Jews as vermin maybe that word ties in better? ---
**Author:** ![Jemma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e495f1/32.png) [@Jemma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jemma)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-an-essay/1012542/6 "2025-01-04T05:24:39Z")
❤ very helpful ---
**Author:** ![Jemma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e495f1/32.png) [@Jemma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jemma)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-an-essay/1012542/7 "2025-01-04T05:26:24Z")
Yes, that works. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-an-essay/1012542/8 "2025-01-04T05:30:56Z")
Strike that, what you really want is _parasite_, > **[Jewish parasite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_parasite)** > > The "Jewish parasite" is a notion that dates back to the Age of Enlightenment.\[citation needed\] It is based on the notion that the Jews of the diaspora are incapable of forming their own states and would therefore attack and exploit states and peoples. The stereotype is often associated with the accusation of usury and the separation of productive capital and financial capital ("High Finance"). > In the Nazi period, it served to legitimize the persecution of Jews up to the Holocaust.\[citation need... ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-an-essay/1012542/9 "2025-01-04T05:32:55Z")
Agreed. And I think, as vermin, they “contaminated the lifeblood of humanity”. It sounds odd to say “the meaning of humanity” here. At least to my ears. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-an-essay/1012542/10 "2025-01-04T05:34:32Z")
Great notes. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-an-essay/1012542/11 "2025-01-04T05:38:41Z")
> [@Jemma](#): > > Does the sentence “treated Jews like a virus that contaminated the meaning of humanity” sound weird? The weird part of the sentence is “the meaning of”. Meanings don’t get contaminated by viruses. That makes it a badly mixed metaphor. But “treated Jews like a virus that contaminated humanity” flows a lot better and probably expresses what you’re after a lot more clearly. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-an-essay/1012542/12 "2025-01-04T05:39:11Z")
> [@Bear\_Nenno](#): > > they “contaminated the lifeblood of humanity”. It sounds odd to say “the meaning of humanity” here. At least to my ears. I see I’m not the first. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-an-essay/1012542/13 "2025-01-04T05:44:07Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > Meanings don’t get contaminated by viruses. That makes it a badly mixed metaphor. Yea, that was my hang-up as well. I was also thinking, “tainted the purity of humanity” or something like that as well. But after reading your sentence, I agree that simply just “humanity” works well. ---
**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:** [January 4, 2025, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-an-essay/1012542/14 "2025-01-04T06:36:00Z")
Instead of saying the nasty thing and assuming that the reader understands that’s not your own belief, quote a nasty person saying what they themselves believed. The Nazis made a propaganda film “The Eternal Jew” that’s full of them telling on themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Patx2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/73ab20/32.png) [@Patx2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patx2)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2025, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-an-essay/1012542/15 "2025-01-05T03:09:09Z")
You need a subject for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Patx2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/73ab20/32.png) [@Patx2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patx2)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2025, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-an-essay/1012542/16 "2025-01-05T03:10:22Z")
Sorry, to be clearer, I meant you’re sentence needs a subject, you already have a topic. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2025, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-an-essay/1012542/17 "2025-01-05T03:38:35Z")
Yes, wierd. Viruses don’t ‘contaminate’, they ‘infect’ or ‘spread’. And not ‘the meaning of humanity’ – ‘the body of humanity’ might be effective for such a medical metaphor.