Having visited the Holocaust museum in Washington DC - something I’d recommend everyone do if possible, though you’ll need a lot of time to recover emotionally - I know that the big thing that allowed all that to happen was dehumanization.
During my visit, I walked through one of the train cars used to transport Jews to the death camps. The plaque said how many people were crammed inside, but I couldn’t picture that many people in that tiny train car.
Then, I realized my problem. I was trying to fit PEOPLE. Even if the people I was trying to fit in the train car were imaginary, I was still treating them like people. I switched to trying to fit human shaped luggage and suddenly I had plenty of room.
So when Republicans dehumanize groups, for example, by calling LGBTQ people “child groomers,” then I recognize it as Step 1 in doing some really bad things to them. Once you’ve convinced enough of the public that a certain group of people aren’t really people, you can do anything to them.
It’s extremely scary and it’s happening here. We’re not at the “LGBTQ/Jews/political opponents sent to death camps” stage yet, but we’re on the path to that and need to turn around quickly. The further we go down the path, the harder it will be to get away from that horrible ending.
I wish more people on the left realized this. It’s been my experience that a lot of the left are insulated from just how big a threat the Nat-C’s really are. Most people lack the historical knowledge to see just how spooky the similarities between the rise of Nazi Germany and events in the US over the last few years. The Beer Hall Putsch and the response to it are frighteningly similar to January 6th.
Due to the rural/urban divide, even in red states, most of the left aren’t seeing or hearing how far off the deep end a big chunk of this country has gone. I’m a redneck, have a heavy southern accent, beard, truck and most of the other stereotypes. People just assume I’m conservative.
The shit strangers just say to me is unreal. “Putting the n*****s back in their place, only good democrat is a dead democrat, the Storm is coming and then they’ll see.”
The racism has gotten worse, or at least way more open, people didn’t used to be so openly racist even when they thought they were only talking to likeminded individuals. I almost never heard anti-Semitism until a few years ago, there are so few Jews in the south it just wasn’t much of a thing. Baptists tended to support Israel. Now they’re getting talking points from whatever Q-hole they’re feeding from and talk about Jewish conspiracies. I can only think of a couple of times I heard Jew-bashing. One was an actual Klan member and the other moved to the south as a teenager.
There’s always been anti-black racism, it’s the south, but BLM ripped the lid off. Claims that black men were punching white women in Wall-Mart in town and that the cops weren’t stopping it. Crazy shit.
And then there’s the queer community. If you have a queer kid, and you’re smart, you get that kid into an online school. The hatred is truly vicious and supported by the State.
We’re getting the fuck out in the summer of '24 and moving up to Yankee land. Figure it will be a lot safer there.
The path back becomes overgrown as soon as you traverse it as a society. We’ll need to steel ourselves and prepare to find out the worst of our countrymen. The effort to repeal this mental conditioning will be tenfold of what it was to get us here. It creates a vicious cycle and those consumed by it will not awaken until literal blood runs through figurative streets.
Having visited the Holocaust museum in Washington DC - something I’d recommend everyone do if possible, though you’ll need a lot of time to recover emotionally - I know that the big thing that allowed all that to happen was dehumanization.
During my visit, I walked through one of the train cars used to transport Jews to the death camps. The plaque said how many people were crammed inside, but I couldn’t picture that many people in that tiny train car.
Then, I realized my problem. I was trying to fit PEOPLE. Even if the people I was trying to fit in the train car were imaginary, I was still treating them like people. I switched to trying to fit human shaped luggage and suddenly I had plenty of room.
So when Republicans dehumanize groups, for example, by calling LGBTQ people “child groomers,” then I recognize it as Step 1 in doing some really bad things to them. Once you’ve convinced enough of the public that a certain group of people aren’t really people, you can do anything to them.
It’s extremely scary and it’s happening here. We’re not at the “LGBTQ/Jews/political opponents sent to death camps” stage yet, but we’re on the path to that and need to turn around quickly. The further we go down the path, the harder it will be to get away from that horrible ending.
I wish more people on the left realized this. It’s been my experience that a lot of the left are insulated from just how big a threat the Nat-C’s really are. Most people lack the historical knowledge to see just how spooky the similarities between the rise of Nazi Germany and events in the US over the last few years. The Beer Hall Putsch and the response to it are frighteningly similar to January 6th.
Due to the rural/urban divide, even in red states, most of the left aren’t seeing or hearing how far off the deep end a big chunk of this country has gone. I’m a redneck, have a heavy southern accent, beard, truck and most of the other stereotypes. People just assume I’m conservative.
The shit strangers just say to me is unreal. “Putting the n*****s back in their place, only good democrat is a dead democrat, the Storm is coming and then they’ll see.”
The racism has gotten worse, or at least way more open, people didn’t used to be so openly racist even when they thought they were only talking to likeminded individuals. I almost never heard anti-Semitism until a few years ago, there are so few Jews in the south it just wasn’t much of a thing. Baptists tended to support Israel. Now they’re getting talking points from whatever Q-hole they’re feeding from and talk about Jewish conspiracies. I can only think of a couple of times I heard Jew-bashing. One was an actual Klan member and the other moved to the south as a teenager.
There’s always been anti-black racism, it’s the south, but BLM ripped the lid off. Claims that black men were punching white women in Wall-Mart in town and that the cops weren’t stopping it. Crazy shit.
And then there’s the queer community. If you have a queer kid, and you’re smart, you get that kid into an online school. The hatred is truly vicious and supported by the State.
We’re getting the fuck out in the summer of '24 and moving up to Yankee land. Figure it will be a lot safer there.
The path back becomes overgrown as soon as you traverse it as a society. We’ll need to steel ourselves and prepare to find out the worst of our countrymen. The effort to repeal this mental conditioning will be tenfold of what it was to get us here. It creates a vicious cycle and those consumed by it will not awaken until literal blood runs through figurative streets.