Posts
Krieger
Warns "Nazi Fears & 'Hate Speech' Hysteria Are Being
Amplified To Attack Civil
Liberties"
Liberties"
Liberty Blitzkrieg,
17 August, 2017
It
doesn’t take courage to denounce Nazism. Moreover, it appears many
of the people incessantly proclaiming how anti-Nazi they are, happen
to be the same folks who have the most to answer for when it comes to
all sorts of transgressions against the world over the past couple of
decades.
That
said, I’ll give my my quick two cents on the Nazi, white
supremacist hysteria currently being amplified by the corporate
media.
The
general proclivity to obsess about how one’s group, whether it be a
nation, political tribe, or race/religion is superior to all others
represents such a immature and unconscious way of seeing the world,
it’s really is hard for me to believe so many people still see
reality through such a lens. This type of thinking tends to attract
very insecure people. People who cannot look at themselves
individually and be proud of the person they see. As such, they
scurry around looking for a group with an established superiority
myth which they can then latch themselves onto in order to feel
better about themselves.
The
good news when it comes to Nazism/white supremacy, at least here in
the U.S., is that most people appear to be at least conscious enough
not to fall for the most basic and primal type of tribalism — i.e.,
finding a race-based superiority cult attractive. In contrast, the
more nuanced superiority cults, such as those based on mindless
nationalism or political identity, are far more entrenched here at
home, and present a much greater danger to our future.
Before
some of you lose it, I wrote “mindless” nationalism for a reason.
I think it’s completely normal and healthy for everyone to love and
appreciate their own national/regional culture, this is not what I’m
referring to. I’m talking about the hordes of mindless automatons
who simply fly the American flag and constantly profess their
super-sized patriotism, while being completely unaware of the
multitude of evil and anti-American actions being done both at home
and abroad in their names. It doesn’t seem to matter to these type
that their government is acting in total opposition to the
Constitution they ostensibly claim to uphold. These people might be
less shallow than an self-professed Nazi, but they are far more
dangerous to decent, ethical Americans at home, and billions of
innocent people abroad. Political party tribalists represent a
similar threat, as I’ve discussed on many occasions.
To
summarize, Nazism has become almost as discredited as slavery within
the minds of most humans. Meaning, it’s such a patently grotesque,
childish and unconscious ideology, it can and will only attract very
small pockets of people. In fact, given the rampant corruption,
wealth inequality and societal decay we’re experiencing in these
United States, I’m somewhat encouraged that the movement is as
small and insignificant as it is. Of course, I could be wrong about
all of this (we’ll have to see how things unfold if the empire
collapses chaotically), but that’s how I see it at the moment.
Should that ever change, of course I will fight Nazism, or anything
similar with all my energy. In contrast, I think other forms of
mindless tribalism, political and nationalistic, are far more likely
to cause major disasters in the years ahead.
If
I’m right about what I wrote above, why is the corporate media
acting so hysterically in response to this small collection of
hateful misfits? Let me share a few tweets I wrote yesterday to start
the conversations.
Two things corporate media consistently does.
1) Scare people
2) Convince them to give up liberties to fight the enemy du jour.
Two
things corporate media consistently does.
You
can probably tell where I’m going with this. Namely, a lot of
really terrible people are trying to reinvent themselves by hyping up
the Nazi threat. I’ve discussed this dangerous phenomenon in recent
posts, but it’s important enough to keep hammering home. The
examples are pretty much everywhere you look. Here’s a particularly
shameless example I came across earlier today:
You once said that starving 500,000+ Iraqi kids to death was "worth it".
You don't have the moral high ground--on racism or anything else.
Sarah’s
not exaggerating. Here’s the exact quote Madeline Albright made on
60 Minutes:
Lesley
Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq: We have heard that a half
million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died
in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?
Secretary
of State Madeleine Albright: I think this is a very hard choice, but
the price—we think the price is worth it.
—60
Minutes (5/12/96)
Lesson
number one. Don’t let terrible people get away with moral preening
about some relatively insignificant Nazi threat when these are the
very same people who have run this country and much of the world into
the toilet bowl.
Lesson
number two. Don’t allow authoritarians to manipulate your emotions
about white supremacy (or any other threat for that matter) as an
excuse to take away cherished civil liberties. These types have been
selling us on giving away our rights since 9/11, and they continue to
use any threat they can to take away those that remain. Free speech
is the holy grail for tyrants, and anyone who suggests we give up
speech to protect ourselves presents a threat to us all. I came
across two examples of this today in the normal course of my reading.
First,
an attorney who works for UCLA named K-Sue Park, wrote an op-ed
published in The New York Times titled, The A.C.L.U. Needs to Rethink
Free Speech. It’s one of the most incoherent, authoritarian pieces
I’ve read in a while and, although a painful read, you should
definitely check it out. It doesn’t take much logic to recognize
that her call for the government to decide which speech is acceptable
and which is not, is actually far more dangerous to society than a
few hundred Nazis getting together in Virginia, irrespective of the
terrible loss of life.
Another
example of this authoritarian impulse was penned by Leonid Bershidsky
in his Bloomberg article, Facebook and Twitter Are Too Big to Allow
Fake Users. To be fair, this article was written before the
Charlottesville attack, so I would not characterize him as using the
attack to push this narrative, but it’s a wildly dangerous view
nonetheless. He writes:
Social
networks should be obliged to ban anonymous accounts. If they refuse
to do so voluntarily, government regulators should force the issue.
This
is a completely unhinged response to the problems of “trolling,
fake news and cyberbullying,” which he identifies. It’s the
equivalent of taking a nuclear bomb to a knife fight. As someone who
spends a great deal of time on Twitter, I can tell you that some of
the most insightful and humorous accounts I follow are anonymous.
This makes total sense because most people have jobs, and people with
jobs can be easily fired or ostracized. Not because they’re writing
pro-Nazi tweets, but because everything is essentially political
these days, and if your boss happens to be a member of a different
political tribe, it could affect your career. Did we already forget
what happened to James Damore?
If
social media companies suddenly banned anonymous accounts, the entire
internet and discourse on it would instantly become 90% less
interesting, creative and dynamic. Much of the promise of the web
would be crippled by such a policy, and humanity would be far worse
off for it.
Such
a policy would crush political speech online, and limit it largely to
those who create political content professionally. I could see why
people in power would want to do this, but I can’t grasp how anyone
else could be so naive to support such a agenda.
As
Patrick Chovanec (who lived and worked in China), so insightfully
tweeted:
I think internet anonymity has big downsides. But forcing "real name registration" is something China's government does to suppress dissent.
Ultimately,
we need to recognize that fear is our biggest enemy. The corporate
media tries to keep us in a constant state of fear, because it’s in
a state of fear where we are most vulnerable and hence easily
manipulated. Don’t succumb to fear. Stand strong, be courageous and
don’t every give up liberties because some pundit tells you it’s
what you need to do to fight whatever enemy they happen to be hyping
at the moment.
Finally,
let’s finish with a classic clip from the late Bill Hicks, who I
consider to be an American prophet. He said it much better than I
ever could.
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