Transcript::If you walk beside them, you are a Nazi

So, I have been pondering for days, trying to make sense of it all.  Anger only partly in check.  Some days I can think, I hope objectively. Others not so much.  And lest we make a mistake, yes I am talking to Charlottesville and its aftermath.  And to be clear, it's not "just" Charlottesville.

Charlottesville is "a prescient warning that passiveness is indefensible. Confederate monuments are powerful symbols cloaked in antebellum familial pride, honor and heritage. Their very presence, however, conditions silence and emboldens ideologies that stain the pages of America's history."[6]

First off, and this bears repeating.  Please don't assume I (or anyone in a similiar circumstance) have no right to be upset by what transpired.  Besides being a human being I have extended (now passed) family and friends who where victims of the first Nazi fruitcake. So yes, I get a wee bit upset when I see fucknuts waving the swastika, walking armed down the streets of America. Enough said.

This is not about erasing history.  This is not about re-writing history in an Orwellian way. It is about hate.  To say, "Every country’s history has a dark spot in it."  Is ignoring the obvious, we have not as a nation gotten past the ideology that is commemorated in those statues.  We have not "made strides toward becoming better." If that were the case, then why are there Nazis marching in the streets?  I can only assume by your apologia, that you agree with their ideology and that makes you no better than them.

You cannot in one breath say you stand against the Nazis of WWII, then in the next breath stand with today's Nazis.  The underlying ideology is the same.  The degradation and dehumanizing of fellow citizens as inferior.

“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”

No records are being destroyed or falsified.  No books are being rewritten.  What is happening, people are beginning to see our history for what it truly is.  Unlike you, I do not need some fucking monument to remember.  I remember Viet Nam, I remember Watergate, I remember some of the race riots (I have been to Watts (LA), I have been to 12th St in Detroit, and I have walked through the East Side neighborhoods in Buffalo that still to this day bare the scars of 1967). While I was only 3 when RFK and MLK were assassinated, I remember the tension even in my own home.  I even remember the outcry and angst that ensued, in the late 70s, when a black family moved into our neighborhood.  A very educated and successful family.

If you want to talk about rewriting history, let's talk about the history of the Confederate States of America and the seven decades of Jim Crow segregation and oppression that followed the Reconstruction era.  Let's talk about how the Confederacy was established upon the premise of white supremacy and that the South fought the Civil War to preserve its slave labor. Let's talk about how the Confederate flag was used extensively by the Ku Klux Klan as it waged a campaign of terror against African Americans during the civil rights movement and that segregationists raised it in defense of Jim Crow.  As the SPLC notes, "This deeply rooted but false narrative is the result of many decades of revisionism in the lore and even textbooks of the South that sought to create a more acceptable version of the region’s past. The Confederate monuments and other symbols that dot the South are very much a part of that effort."[1]

To the question of "why now" and the concern of Orwellian, revisionist history posed by a fellow podcaster, he received this reply, "Honestly - it was always a problem. We are noticing it now because the people hurt by the statues are finally being heard, and because divisive rhetoric is helpful to the right, so it's getting media attention in a very provocative way."

Second, While my heart applauds the vigilante vandalism and citizen removal of confederate statues and other symbols. I can not condone it.  That is not how this country is supposed to work and it makes us no better than the Nazi swine we oppose. 

Yes our system is a bit dinged up right now, and we have an prepubescent dicktator in charge.  Acting in any manner that resembles the current regime only feeds into their narrative. And by their, I mean Bannon (who has since resigned), Miller, Sessions and Gorka. Pense has his own agenda we also need to be leery of, but that is another story.

With those two points made, I will add this, whether you're a neo-confederate flag waving pussy that has to walk through the streets of America displaying your limp dick or you are part of the white supremacy movement or whatever you want to call it.  You are now all Nazis; you believe in the inherent inferiority of minorities. The day you decided to walk side by side, you did not Unite the Right, you united the Reich.  You can not disown that association not matter how hard you whine and cry.  I had family who fought asshole like you, and guess what you lost then, you will lose now.

Edmund Burke once said,

Whilst men are linked together, they easily and speedily communicate the alarm of any evil design. They are enabled to fathom it with common counsel, and to oppose it with united strength. Whereas, when they lie dispersed, without concert, order, or discipline, communication is uncertain, counsel difficult, and resistance impracticable. Where men are not acquainted with each other’s principles, nor experienced in each other’s talents, nor at all practised in their mutual habitudes and dispositions by joint efforts in business; no personal confidence, no friendship, no common interest, subsisting among them; it is evidently impossible that they can act a public part with uniformity, perseverance, or efficacy. In a connection, the most inconsiderable man, by adding to the weight of the whole, has his value, and his use; out of it, the greatest talents are wholly unserviceable to the public. *No man, who is not inflamed by vain-glory into enthusiasm, can flatter himself that his single, unsupported, desultory, unsystematic endeavours, are of power to defeat the subtle designs and united cabals of ambitious citizens. When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.[2]

Summarized, "The Only Thing Necessary for the Triumph of Evil is that Good Men Do Nothing."[3] 

And just to be clear, the US as a whole is not blameless for what has transpired throughout the course of history.

Third, I have lost count of how many articles/op ed pieces I have read.  I know it's well over 500 and may be closing in on 1000.  I have tried but have failed miserably to read from both sides, but the drek that is attempting to justify last weekends actions is just terrible. Sorry to say there is NO justification for racism or the subjugation of another human because of their religion or skin color.

We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides. It has been going on for a long time in our country — not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. It has been going on for a long, long time. It has no place in America. [4]

I'm pretty sure y'all know who those words can be attributed to.

So riddle me this,,,

How can it be that in 2017, POTUS could not or would not bring himself to condemn Americans who
marched under the flag of the Third Reich?  While President Trump has since revised his statement, his first still
remains.  Sadly it is now part of our history.

The world is a complicated place. There are rarely simple, black and white answers to the problems that confront us. But sometimes, every once in a while, there are. And this is one such moment. If the President of the United States cannot condemn individuals who march under the flag of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, how can he possibly claim to represent America, its values, and all of its citizens? In perhaps the easiest test of his young presidency, Donald Trump has failed, and failed miserably.[5]

Fourth, Make no mistake, Charlottesville had nothing to do with preserving heritage but everything to do with hate. The rally was not about statues, and it wasn't really about free speech; it was about white supremacy.

This is about hate. It is about those who promote and venerate and exonerate hate, and those who fight against it.

And lest ye think I am against free speech, I am all for dumb asses spouting their shit.  But don't think for a minute that I and many others will not push back against such speech.  Just like you, I can say what is on my mind. I will say what is on my mind.

What we call "hate speech" is protected under the First Amendment.  What is not, murder.  Nor is "punching a Nazi".  My tolerance though ends when under the guise of "free speech" or "preserving our heritage" armed NAZIS march the streets of America.  I will say again, there is no justification for dehumanizing or subjugating another human being.

The Nazis, whether armed with rifles or clownishly clad in khakis, stand against our values —they stand for the proposition that some of us are less American than others by birth, and that America must be "preserved" to the tastes of a particular narrow ethnic prejudice. Nazis attacking and threatening our fellow Americans threaten not just their immediate targets but the foundations of everything we've built.

One final point,,,

Although this is a no brainer, it needs to be said: Maria Chappelle-Nadal, you area disgrace.  While I vehemently disagree with our current administration and think those aligned with the Nazis should be removed from office in the proper manner.  Calling for the assassination of our President is beyond despicable. I really don't know what to say!

And quit calling them alt right, call them for what they are NAZIS.
_____
As a we bit of an addendum, one point I was going to "stress" was that Nazi ideology was not socialism.  While that is my stance, I have discovered it's not so clear cut as I once thought.

One comment that has me pondering my position, ",,,slavery is the best and most common form of socialism." A statement attributed to George Fitzhugh.  While much more reading needs to be undertaken by self, it got me thinking when said comment included the following,

Socialism and fascism aren't "total opposites" any more than Crips and Bloods or Republicans and Democrats. They are fraternal twins, two ideologies with differences at the margins, but both with a core belief in the ascendancy of the collective over the individual.[7]

To add to the mix, we then have this statement, ",,,just because a government intervenes in a market, doesn't automatically make it "socialist". If that's the case, you may as well argue that every freaken monarchy and empire in the history of mankind were "socialist". Were the Pharoahs socialist? Was Genghis Khan socialist? Was Alexander the Great socialist? Were the Tudors socialist?"[8]

1] https://www.splcenter.org/20160421/whose-heritage-public-symbols-confederacy
2] Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents 82-83 (1770) in: Select Works
of Edmund Burke, vol. 1, p. 146 (Liberty Fund ed. 1999).
3] It is important to note that the summarized version often attributed to Burke may not be
accurate.  While not germain to this dicussion, just something to keep in mind. QI explains
more fully. quoteinvestigator.com/2010/12/04/good-men-do/
4] POTUS statement
5] http://www.rawstory.com/2017/08/a-professor-of-german-history-explains-the-true-horror-of-
trumps-response-to-charlottesville/
6] https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2017/08/18/dallas-overcome-confederate-battle-
symbols-removing-quietly
7] https://www.facebook.com/SkepticalLibertarian/posts/1820422724642195?comment_id=1820437584640709&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R9%22%7D
8] https://www.facebook.com/SkepticalLibertarian/posts/1820422724642195?comment_id=1820442867973514&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R9%22%7D

Three-year-old ultra-Orthodox Jewish children told 'the non-Jews' are 'evil' in worksheet produced by London school - Education News - Education - The Independent

Call me skeptical but something sounds a bit fishy, but it's fascinating as well.

The document refers to Nazis only as “goyim” – a term for non-Jews some people argue is offensive.

Emily Green, who used to teach at the same Beis Rochel girls’ secondary school, now chairs the Gesher EU organisation which supports ultra-Orthodox Jews who want to leave the community.

"It's not uncommon to be taught non-Jewish people are evil in ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools. It is part of the prayers, teaching, their whole ethos,” she said.

Describing it as a form of “indoctrination”, Ms Green added:  “Psychologically, you become so afraid of the world out there after being taught how dangerous and bad and evil non-Jews are, that it makes it harder to leave.”
,,,
A spokesperson for Beis Rochel said that the worksheets would be amended and apologised for any offence. However they argued the phrase “goyim” was not offensive and accusations that they were indoctrinating children were “without basis”. “The language we used was not in any way intended to cause offence, now this has been brought to our attention, we will endeavour to use more precise language in the future.”

But then you have this, which is a plausible explanation,

But according to PR executive Shimon Cohen, speaking on behalf of the school, the newpaper failed to understand the fact that, in context, the term goyim explicitly meant Nazis.

He said: “The leaflet that the Independent refers to was handed out on the 21 Kislev, when the Satmar Jews celebrate the rescue of their founding rabbi from Bergen-Belsen.

“The questions were only talking about the specific event, but there is no Yiddish word for Nazis. The suggestion that children are being taught that non-Jews are evil is nonsense and simply false. They are being taught that Nazis are evil.”

Three-year-old ultra-Orthodox Jewish children told 'the non-Jews' are 'evil' in worksheet produced by London school - Education News - Education - The Independent

WWII 70 years later: Preserving the truth at Auschwitz

Among the artifacts at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, at the site of the most notorious Nazi concentration camps of World War II, are 110,000 shoes, 3,800 suitcases, 246 tallits (Jewish prayer shawls), 8,000 letters from prisoners and reams of documents from the SS, Adolf Hitler’s terrifying paramilitary force.

The sheer size of the archive that documents how 1.1 million people perished there during the Holocaust forces the museum’s keepers to at least try to distance themselves emotionally from their work.

“We usually treat these buildings or blocks just like we would treat any other preservation objects,” says Agnieszka Tanistra, acting head of the museum’s preservation department. “It’s a job to be done.”

Yet even seven decades after the camps were liberated by Soviet troops, it’s still impossible to fully maintain that distance.
,,,


Within the worldwide community of Holocaust scholars, some wonder whether the preservation efforts are worth it. At great expense and effort, the museum has transformed a horrible place into a popular tourist destination. They question whether visitors can understand the depth of the suffering that occurred there.

“Is there a case for abandoning the site and letting nature take its course?” says Robert Jan Van Pelt, an architectural historian and Holocaust scholar at the University of Waterloo in Canada. “There is, and there isn’t. I continue to argue with myself on that.”


Museum officials believe the effort to remember is what matters. As the last survivors of Auschwitz and Birkenau die, the museum recounts their experiences for the tens of thousands of visitors who pass through the camps every week.

WWII 70 years later: Preserving the truth at Auschwitz

Former Auschwitz medic arrested in Germany | World news | theguardian.com

Growing up I remember many news stories about the "capture" and trials. I remember the numbers on my "aunt's" wrist. As a senior in college, John Demjanjuk's prosecution was just beginning, a case I had followed up until his death in 2012. I remember the numbers stamped on the wrist of a waitress at one of my favorite eating haunts. Slowly the trials began to fade. We all got older victims, perpetrators, witnesses and those with an interest in seeing justice done. So many have gotten away, but yet,,,

German police have arrested a former Nazi medic who served at the Auschwitz death camp on multiple charges of aiding and abetting murder.

[,,,]
The arrest followed a recommendation from the German office investigating Nazi war crimes to bring charges. It was the latest in a series of arrests since Germany launched a renewed drive to bring to justice the last surviving perpetrators of the Holocaust.

For more than 60 years German courts prosecuted Nazi war criminals only if evidence showed they had personally committed atrocities. But in 2011 a Munich court sentenced John Demjanjuk to five years in prison for complicity in the extermination of Jews at the Sobibor camp, establishing that all former camp guards could be tried.

"There cannot be a statute of limitation for crimes against humanity, and mass murderers must continue to live in fear of the long arm of the law," Lauder said.

Former Auschwitz medic arrested in Germany | World news | theguardian.com

See also: 
Nearly 70 Years Later, a New Round of Auschwitz Prosecutions

A different angle on the story from above. The Guardian article focused on one arrest, this piece talks of a list of 50 former guards who worked at the Auschwitz.

They worked as guards at the Holocaust’s most notorious death camp, and nearly seven decades later they may finally be brought to account before a court of law.

Germany’s Central Office for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes has prepared a list of 50 former guards who worked at the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland and are still alive, said Kurt Schrimm, the head of the office.

Staff members searched old court records and Holocaust-related documents looking for names, and even traveled to Poland last year to try to augment their lists. One checked the names of the Auschwitz guards against databases to determine which were still alive.

The next step is ruling out those who were already tried, either by the occupation authorities or the German legal system. “We have to determine now whether or not these 50 people that we found on this list can be legally prosecuted,” Mr. Schrimm said Wednesday in a telephone interview.

The list includes names that have been known to his office since the Auschwitz trials in the ’60s as well as recent additions made last year, Mr. Schrimm said.

88-year-old charged in Nazi-era massacre - Yahoo News

An act of war or a war crime? Is there a difference? Does the fact that Werner C. was only 19 have any bearing on his guilt or innocence. Does the fact that he was SS have any bearing?

Stuff I ponder anytime I see stories such as these. But I am biased,,,

German authorities said Wednesday they have charged an 88-year-old former member of an SS armored division with 25 counts of murder over allegations that he took part in the largest civilian massacre in Nazi-occupied France.

Cologne state court spokesman Achim Hengstenberg said suspect Werner C., whose last name wasn't given in accordance with German privacy laws, was also charged with hundreds of counts of accessory to murder in connection with the 1944 slaughter in Oradour-sur-Glane in southwestern France.

Dortmund prosecutors allege that the suspect shot 25 men as part of a firing squad, and then helped as troops blockaded and then set fire to a church, in which dozens of women and children were burned alive.

In total 642 men, women and children were killed



88-year-old charged in Nazi-era massacre - Yahoo News

Anti-gay US activist tells his radio listeners the Nazi Party began in a gay bar in Munich | Gay Star News

Fischer needs to get his head out of revisionist heaven and read something other than Scott Lively's book The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party, a book which has been thoroughly debunked and refuted by historian's. All one needs to do is read Richard Plant's The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals to understand the homophobia within the Nazi Party and the victimization of homosexuals as a whole.

What is astounding, he is repeating the same bullshit rhetoric he did back in 2011:

But none of these GOP hopefuls have challenged Fischer, who insists that Adolf Hitler and many of his storm troopers were gay. "So it was homosexual thugs that helped Hitler to form the Nazi Party," Fischer told a radio audience in June, adding that the party began "in a gay bar in Munich."

The truth is precisely the opposite, as historians such as Geoffrey Giles and William Spurlin have shown. Rather than coddling or encouraging gays, the Nazis banned homosexual activity as early as 1935. The following year, they established a "Central Office for Combating Abortion and Homosexuality."

Like the termination of pregnancies, the Nazis maintained, homosexuality would harm the health of the "Volk" -- that is, of the German people. Gays "undermine the natural will to life by propagating an aversion to marriage and the family," one Nazi author wrote in 1938.

Other Nazis worried that gays lacked the masculine virtues to defend the nation during wartime. "The new Germany has no use for criminals and weaklings, perverts and inverts, but requires instead straightforward and sincere manly souls," one propagandist wrote, "and so we must combat homosexuality with the means available to us -- education, observation, the law, the police, and the courts."

And so they did. Between 1933 and 1945, the Nazis arrested roughly 100,000 men as homosexuals. Most convicted gays were sent to prison; between 5,000 and 15,000 were interned in concentration camps, where they wore pink triangles to signify their supposed crime.

Zimmerman goes on to say:

"One should not tolerate homosexuality," Hitler told his aide, Joseph Goebbels. "The National Socialist state must be a manly state."

Before Hitler came to power, ironically, German socialists and communists tried to demean the Nazis by suggesting they were gay. The idea was picked up by the U.S. military during World War II, when American propaganda posters showed blond Nazi soldiers winking at each other.

And today, it's mouthed by the likes of Bryan Fischer. Seventy years ago we used anti-gay prejudice to discredit Nazism. Now Fischer is trying to use our hatred of Nazism to discredit gays.

Anti-gay US activist tells his radio listeners the Nazi Party began in a gay bar in Munich | Gay Star News

Documents reveal Bank of England sold stolen gold for Nazis - Home News - UK - The Independent

The Bank of England's involvement in the sale of gold stolen by Nazis following the invasion of Czechoslovakia has been revealed in newly released documents.

Archived material released by the BoE details how the gold bars were sold on behalf of Germany's central bank, the Reichsbank, in 1939, after being seized during the Nazi invasion, despite the fact that British government had frozen all Czech assets being held in London at the time.

The BoE documents have been made public following the first stage of the digitalisation of the bank's archive.

Documents reveal Bank of England sold stolen gold for Nazis - Home News - UK - The Independent

Republicans Elect Skinhead In Pennsylvania; Let’s Recognize Who Supports Nazi Beliefs (VIDEO) | Addicting Info

Thhis is fricked up to no end,,, Republicans Elect Skinhead In Pennsylvania; Let’s Recognize Who Supports Nazi Beliefs (VIDEO) | Addicting Info