"For every hero like Sophie Scholl, there were 1000 cowards willing to betray Anne Frank...."
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Americans have always been smug in our own self-assurance that "it can't happen here".
We look to Germany in the 30s and 40s as some sort of contaminated petri dish, as if one of the most culturally advanced nations on earth suddenly becoming enthralled with a screeching grievance-addicted leader and embracing fascism was the equivalent of a neighborhood kid driving his Big-Wheel across our path as we were backing out of the driveway. The fact that Hitler and his quite willing henchmen, with the enthusiastic support of an uncomfortable number of German citizens, brought the world to the brink seems unimaginable in today's world of Tik-Tok puppy videos, drone-strikes, and war-time Vogue photo-shoots. Even now, nobody has even been able to adequately explain how one man turned a nation into a cult of (preferable blue-eyed) killers. Mostly because it seemed so frighteningly easy.
But again, such cultish control over hearts and minds could NEVER happen here.
Because ‘Murica!
Except for when it did between 1861 and 1865, when white supremacy and having the biggest dick went hand in hand and 620,000 Americans died. But all that has sorta blended together into Old Glory and the Stars and Bars and today's Jeb Stuart lookalikes get that faraway look when watching Ken Burns, like they just had to sit through a 47 minute Syd Barret guitar solo during an early Pink Floyd gig, complete with acid-drenched light show. When they come out of the lost-cause vortex most of 'em are convinced the South won the war. If they didn't, why are Lynyrd Skynyrd still together despite everybody in the band being dead? And why isn’t the car in the “Dukes of Hazard” called the “General Grant”? You can't answer those, can you?
But never mind that. We've come so far since that war that a map of the Confederacy looks exactly the same as Steve Kornacki's red state touch screen, so it's not like anybody died in vain or anything.
Hitler is just the easiest example to name in the strongman game. Low hanging nazi fruit. There are countless others, and I have no idea if our current history classes even mention any of them. Mussolini. Mao. Marcos. Mugabe. Amin. Pinochet. Pol Pot. Milosevic. Hussein. Bagosora. Putin. That current dwarf in North Korea. I forget how to spell his name. Stripped of their medals and their trappings, they form a chorus line of swaggering, cartoonish fools. Today it's hard to tell the difference between a Mussolini film clip and a Marx Brothers movie, for instance. Yet each ruled with an iron hand given to them by their own people. The brass went along. Armies went along. Law enforcement went along. The courts went along. And the people followed. And yea, you can say "well if they didn't they would have been punished"......but that's only possible if somebody is willing to step up and do the punishing. And somebody always seems to be willing. The so-called "masses" have proven themselves to be incredibly pliable over the last few generations, willing to eat endless cake from hucksters as long as somebody to blame is identified and left to hunt down.
For every hero like Sophie Scholl, there were 1000 cowards willing to betray Anne Frank.
In that vein, I offer this.
Just this week a sitting United States Congresswoman stood up in front of her constituents and said the following....
Thank god for air conditioning. Let’s talk about refrigerators. I personally like my refrigerator. I know you all like yours. What about washing machines and dryers? Lord please God don’t make me scrub clothes in a bucket and have to hang them out on a line when we switch over to wind turbines and solar panels. I’m gonna be really pissed off about that. I mean, how absurd is this? I like the lights on. I wanna stay up later at night. I don’t wanna have to go to bed when the sun sets. It’s so silly! I mean, all of this is absolutely insane.
The crowd's reaction?
Revulsion? Maniacal laughter? Fruit tossing? Conjuring up the ghost of Robespierre?
Au Contraire.
They cheered.
And this is why we can't have nice things.
It would not be politically correct to say that a frighteningly large percentage of you are morons. Complete dolts. Dumb as shrubbery. This might sound harsh so I won’t say it. What I will say is that most in this group DO worship a man who was confused by a group handshake. You ARE willing to shred the constitution for a man baffled by the vagaries of a water bottle. You might be giving people the wrong idea. A man who has been exhorting you to lock up Hilary Clinton for her handing of classified documents was caught red-handed with fucking boxes of……classified documents. And yet…..
Well, never mind.
Liz Cheney is out. Sarah Palin is in. Dr Oz is bemoaning the price of crudités at “Wegners”. Steady as she goes.
Iceberg dead ahead.
In a bit…
—tf