They Should Be Reviled Again
Officially, of course, there aren’t Nazis anymore. Nazis were members of a German political party that took over their democratically elected government. Hitler, leader of the party since 1921, was appointed Chancellor of the country by its President, Paul von Hindenburg in 1933. Hitler then turned the country into a totalitarian regime called the Third Reich.
Today’s racist, genocidal groups are based on the Nazi policies. Now we call them White Supremacists, or White Nationalists, or even Neo-Nazi’s though there’s no difference between the old Nazis and the new ones. By any name you use, though, they’re called the biggest threat to the United States by the FBI.
I have right on my page description that I’m old. I was born not long after WWII. For those who are younger, that means that I was raised with the full horror of WWII displayed to me. Interviews with people who were victims of the death camps were part of my education. Interviews with the men and women who fought that war were common. I even talked to one old German soldier once when I was stationed in Germany. Even he expressed sorrow for the horrific time in his country’s history.
The extermination of whole classes and ethnicities and religions of people who didn’t fit into the master race narrative is just insane. But it’s not unthinkable because the United States apparently has a large segment of the population who think it’s just fine. This thought process, which I really thought had just a minority of believers, is a mystery to me. I truly thought we’d moved way beyond this. How did the evil our greatest generation fought with their blood, sweat, and tears, with their very lives, become so prevalent?
In the United States, according to Political Historian Heather Cox Richardson, it has a long history. I don’t want to go into the entire history of racism in the United States. For my own purposes, it really started taking off again with the election of Ronald Reagan. It was his administration that brought us the “Welfare Queen”. A fictional person, the Welfare Queen, black of course, was made out to be a mooch, living off of taxpayer dollars. The campaign did two things. It made white taxpayers angry about people in need “stealing” their money and it demonized people of color. It’s been a long drop since then.
Especially in the last five years, the popularity of these Nazi organizations: Proud Boys, KKK, Oath Keepers, and others, has skyrocketed. The entire business has been encouraged by those in power in our country and they’ve crawled out from under whatever rocks they were hiding under. These members are proud and active as you can see from the reports of attacks on blacks, Latinix, Asians, LGBTQ people and women.
It’s time for the rest of us to step up. First of all, having the government declare these organizations as terrorist organizations, whether international or national, would be a good step. Next, shut down anyone you hear voicing this racist garbage. That could cost you friends and family, but it needs to be done. Thirdly, as a nation, we need to make sure these haters understand that their views are unacceptable. Finally, we need to address the social and economic issues that make these people turn to hate. None of this is easy. It will be messy. The haters are going to push back. Like our grandfathers and great-grandfathers, we need to fight this evil. The sooner the better.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Party
https://www.facebook.com/100044557238708/videos/305456300460134
https://www.businessinsider.com/proud-boys-extremist-group-fbi-2018-11
