The Right Side

My grandfather was part of an Antifa organization. It was called the Canadian Army when he was in World War 2 and fought the fascists and the Nazis in Europe for the freedom of the world. When did being anti-fascist become a bad thing?

Here's a helpful guide by my friend Melanie, if you are still not sure which side to be on.

Clarifying, in case anyone you know is, um, confused? A helpful rule of thumb I borrowed from a friend.

Huge numbers of our population believe in a complete alternate reality. Alternate facts as it were.

But just as intensely as I believe they are deluded, they think I am the one who is deluded. Maybe I am. So how can I be confident in my perception? It can be quite difficult.

But, I have found that in times of political confusion, particularly when emotions are running high and creating tunnel vision, the presence of Nazis can be an extremely helpful indicator.

If I am attending a local demonstration or event and I see Nazis… neo-Nazis, casual Nazis, master race Nazis, or the latest-whatever-uber-mythology-Nazis, I figure out which side they are on. And if they are on my side of the demonstration? I am on the wrong side.

It is tough to argue moral equivalence when I am standing next to a Nazi. Look to my right. Is there a guy wearing a 6MWE (6 million wasn’t enough) t-shirt? I am on the wrong side. Look to my left. If that guy is wearing a Camp Auschwitz t-shirt? Wrong side.

Are speakers being applauded for referring to things that Hitler got right? Wrong side.

Team-spirit face paint and hat with animal horns? This is actually an unclear indicator that could mean anything, but safest to keep my distance from that guy anyway, even at a football game.

However, I can always, always, always rely on the presence of Nazis as a guiding light through a fog of disinformation. Some things are relative, and politics can absolutely have its opposing sides and grey areas.

But evil and good are absolute. As are the lessons of history. So, just look for the Nazis, and make your own decisions.

Patriotism or Fanaticism

I among many of my fellow Canadians were frozen to the news on Wednesday afternoon as reports came of a mob storming the U.S. Capitol building.  But it was not surprising.  The signs had been building for months, with grievance and calls-to-arms posts all over social media.  My first impression was that either the Capitol Police were woefully underprepared, or they were complicit, as quickly shown by videos of officers calmly removing barriers and walking away, allowing insurrectionists past the perimeter.

After the fact, what I call the Holy Book meme is making the rounds again. The top photo is of a young woman carrying a Bible and a gun against a backdrop of an American flag. The bottom photo is of a young woman carrying a Qur'an and a gun against a backdrop of ISIL flags. The caption reads: "Is it just me, or is Republican Christianity starting to look a lot like extremist Islam?"

I've never really understood the correlation between guns and holy books, because the two should not go together.  But many religions are studies in hypocrisy.  They instruct believers to love their fellows, but at the same time, anyone who does not believe like them is to be eliminated.

Religion, by its very definition, is extremist, exclusionary, and hostile to competition.  The entire history of Christianity is marred by extremist behaviour: the Crusades, the Catholic persecution of the Huguenots, the Irish Troubles, and many more.  All monotheism is flawed in this way.  This is why I am not a religious person.

When one looks at the online profiles of many Trump supporters, they tend to espouse devout Christianity.  They somehow righteously feel persecuted, or feel that it's "God's will" and use that as an excuse to behave and think as they do.  They'll be "saved" if they behave in that manner, regardless if it happens to be against the law of the land.

Many politicians know how to exploit this.  Take the disaffected, the shunned, those on the fringes of society, the angry, the isolated those that don't "belong" and give them a banner to join together under, a sense of camaraderie or belonging.  Then exploit their grievances, foster their anger, and point them toward a target.  The attack on the U.S. Capitol was the result.

The absolute mockery and hypocrisy of someone carrying a "Jesus Saves" sign as they rushed up the steps to the Capitol proved that these people are the new ISIL, on home territory.  They should be treated as such.

It has been pointed out that if Wednesday's mob had been a BLM protest, there would have been a bloodbath.  Instead, the mostly white male insurrectionists were able to breach the seat of a democratically elected government, vandalize the place, and take chummy photos with the police officers inside.  All while members of said government were cowering in fear under their desks.

In the past we've seen similar events in other countries and thought that it couldn't happen here.

Yes, it CAN and HAS happened here.  Which is why we need to be more vigilant and less divisive.

Dramatics

It seems that my 2021 is beginning on a bit of a sour note.

I found out this morning that I'd been blocked by and/or lambasted by several people for simply asking questions about an alleged incident of "drama" that occurred on a favourite content creator's platform.  Said incident had caused several other mutual friends to abandon the platform in disgust and say things like "they'll get it when people start abandoning the platform in droves".

I did not witness the incident in question, which is why I asked about it.  If one can't understand the underlying issue, one can't take steps to not repeat the same mistakes.

Now I understand that some people don't want to discuss such things on their public feed.  I also understand that everyone has their own viewpoint of certain things.  But to block or ignore the issue entirely is not the way to solve things.  Since when has asking questions become grounds for censure?  It's not like this is top-secret info we're talking about.

My original query on a fan page for said content creator was seen by numerous people, but the only person who deigned to reply wrote "I thought we weren't supposed to have drama here? I'm out."  This prompted me to delete the message and ask to be contacted privately about the issue.

I will guess that part of it is that most people don't know the whole story and don't want to answer for fear of making things worse.  But those who do know the whole story aren't talking, which isn't any better.

"Drama" in whatever form exists everywhere and we have to learn how to deal with it in a healthy and effective manner.  We can't wear rose coloured glasses all the time.  That's not how the world works.  Denying hardship doesn't make you a better person.