Hitler Youth and Covid Fascism
10 CommentsEvil is purchased, then and now, by our cowardice..
I considered putting today’s review on my personal blog, but it touches on history, and human evil, so keenly I think it belongs here, where we discuss history quite a bit. This morning’s news brings the story of four babies who died under Australia’s Covid totalitarianism, because their government’s lock-down prevented the babies from being transported to hospitals where they could be cared for.
Imagine a state of collective fear so paralyzing you can’t do the right thing — put the baby in an ambulance and break the petty tyrant’s travel ban. Imagine old, godless, obese political leaders so afraid of their own diabetes, hypertension and mortality they are willing to mask five year olds and cancel your daughter’s wedding? As we’ve seen through this crisis, most of this class breaks their own pointless rules whenever they please, but why should they care? They own the enforcing authority, and you pay their salaries even if they won’t let you get back to work.
If you aren’t angry, you really should be.
Most tyranny, after all, is rooted in two kinds of fear, the personal fears of the tyrant-bully and the citizen’s fear of the collective cruelty the tyrant inspires. Herod fears the Christ child so he kills all the children. Oppose Herod and you risk the wrath of his hired mob and aspiring sycophants.
A 2020 film, Final Account, brings this point painfully home. Luke Holland assembles a number of aging German citizens who were first hand observers, and participants, in the holocaust. Their complicity runs along a spectrum — from teenage girls attracted to the Hitler Youth’s outdoor socializing all the way up to SS first lieutenants, who helped run the killing machine at places like Dachau.
We forget, historically, what united these people: abject fear. The Nazi propaganda machine relentlessly depicted the Jew as a foreign threat, a molester of children, an enemy of the homeland. The common refrain among those closest to the actual killing was a contention that if they didn’t stamp out the Jews, the Jews would stamp out them.
In retrospect, of course, this fear looks utterly moronic, and that may account for the weird mix of excuses you hear in these interviews. It’s a bit like listening to someone who cheered on the burning down of a house, with a family inside, so as to kill a puppy mistaken for a rat. The utter scale of the response is so outrageous, it makes the participants look both evil and slow-witted. Very, very few of these former Hitler Youth had the self-reflection to simply state the truth: “I knew it was wrong, but I was afraid of the mob, and eventually I just talked myself into embracing the mob’s lie as the truth.”
The excuses, in fact, take many forms, including the frigidly legal: one old SS Guard refused to condemn Hitler, or his ideology, on the grounds that he would be condemning himself in the process as well. I found it difficult, listening to this old man, deciding whether he really knew what he believed anymore at all. Most of the minds in this film were still spry, but I couldn’t tell if a lifetime of apologizing for evil, or age, had left them befuddled.
There are so many excuses…
“I didn’t really know what was happening.”
“I was just a bookkeeper.”
“We didn’t even stop to think about it.”
“How could human beings do that to each other?” but never “why didn’t we stop ourselves from doing that to them?”
For people who obviously appeared uncomfortable about their complicity in looting other people’s property, ratting out neighbors, completing the payroll for Germans but just logging the hours for slaves, they also freely admitted to wild youthful excitement about their uniforms and Hitler Youth festivities. They could still sing the songs and recall the marches and their first brown shirt and dark trousers — purchased, ironically, from a Jewish shop.
This brings to mind a Stanford friend of mine who spoke of his father being in the Hitler Youth. “Dad said it was a lot of fun. Outdoor sports, campfires, that kind of thing.” This strikes me as a kind of artful, heritage-saving dodge, something like, “yes, there were concentration camps, but my family was just there for the great picnics.” The friend in question is a conventional American political progressive, a liberal, and the thing that chills me about this memory is how much evil is accomplished by playing it safe with the mob. “Put your finger in the wind, boy, and count the votes. Stand with the super majority if you can, even if they are bayoneting babies.”
One of Luke Holland’s subjects brought out a picture of a Jewish grandmother, almost by way of humanizing himself. How were we to take this? “See, I was a potential victim too?” “I’m not ALL German?” “Do you see how properly conflicted I am all these years later?”
The conversations about all of this, after the fact, are never quite satisfying because even the reasonably penitent are making their confessions after a crushing defeat and after years of paradigm-shifting. Their vile old ideas are no longer palatable but how are we to believe someone who once embraced them once with such zeal? Are the ideas they hold today simply a reflection of today’s expectations or have they ever really come to Jesus?
The only way, in fact, you can stand against a mob is to remember the mob doesn’t write the truth. God does.
And if you don’t think there are very uncomfortable parallels with what we’re seeing in Covid public policy, you need to re-calibrate your Holocaust-trivialization meter. The best way to make sure we learn absolutely nothing from history is to ignore its warnings. Yes, we are not being put on cattle cars. Yet. But even Hitler didn’t build the camps the day after assuming power. The fear, and the cruelty, and scourging were ramped up over time. I would rather be guilty of making rash comparisons early on, than waiting in a camp later, praying for the Allies to arrive.
So those of you who believe in lock-downs, will you come for me when I try to run my business here on the farm? Will you rat me out? Those of you who have taken the vaccine, and support vaccine passports, will you consign me to untouchable status? Will you be happy when I can’t buy food, use public transportation, or cross state borders?
We all like to think we would protect the unjustly accused, but I’ve come to believe bravery is as rare as gold.
Tags: Australia, Covid, Final Account, Holocaust, ReviewCategorised in: News
This post was written by Jim Riley
10 Comments
Some great thoughts here. Something for everyone to consider where they honestly stand.
I have read stupidity before, but this is next level right here.
Comparing a minor inconvenience to limit the spread of a disease to Hitler and the Holocaust is down right disgusting
You don’t have to worry if I would come for you or put you on an untouchable list, your idiocy will end your business long before a Covid protocol will ever impact you.
So were the parents of those Australian babies who died because they couldn’t be transported subjects of a “minor inconvenience?” You would make a perfect Nazi.
Reading Proudly Vaccinated’s (seriously?) reply, I was thinking the same thing. This person would have happily run the “showers”, and would have thought they were worthy of commendation for it.
Jim, you laid your argument down well, and the parallels are indisputable.
Thanks. The “minor inconvenience” argument has to spring from some sort of mental impairment. People have lost homes, businesses, friends to suicide, delayed cancer care and these twits actually call all of that “a minor inconvenience.”
Exactly right. And for what? There is no statistically discernable difference between places that do not suffer under a “minor inconvenience” and those that do in terms of infection rate. So why are we being “inconvenienced”? Might it have more to do with control than with anything having to do with a virus?
Meanwhile, incoherent Biden is announcing FURTHER RESTRICTIONS. Did you hear Psaki state that the only ones that will be affected are those who aren’t vaccinated? Has it really become us against them? If so, they have become successful. Once they separate us, they have nothing to fear because we won’t unite. United, if you pay attention, we become powerful. Good is rare…but unity is what our forefathers had. They understood that we need a nation who has things in common, hence why we do t sound like the British. We have a different accent. Also, why we have out own flag…our own way of doing things. This fosters unity, patriotism. If we sing America the Beautiful together…and play it at games…we feel that unity, we’re alike, that patriotism. So, of course they desire to destroy that, to destroy our history…that unites us, so they can further divide us and hence, rewrite history and bring about something we would never have allowed. Authoritarianism is what we are living under. I was berated for not being vaccinated recently at a hotel because I did not accept hand sanitizer. She said, “Oh, so you’re a Christian.” I told her Christianity had nothing to do with not desiring to use sanitizer, but rather preferring to keep my own immune system strong by using soap and water instead. She told me she was vaccinated to protect her family and people around her and I told her that my family didn’t want me to be vaccinated to protect me because the vaccine was so bee and and it was potentially causing shedding which would endanger others. We have different reasons for why we do what we do and that’s America. It’s okay to think and live differently. Colllective thinking is dangerous. Have you see the video of the Australian women being beaten for going into a mall to shop without a vaccine passport? It’s not far-fetched that this can happen here. We have popular people saying we should not be allowed to be treated in hospital ICU’s. But, it’s okay to smoke and use them, be obese or have HIV and use them. Those are greater health threats…people will die from, but Covid with a low mortality rate makes us hate each other and agree with this? We are not each other’s enemies, we are each others protectors. We protect each other’s rights, our autonomy and we agree that it’s okay to make different choices. Why is there a need to get multiple vaccines if I remedying and HCQ work so well??! I took Ivermectin and within 48 I was well! With the meds the vaccines are unnecessary. The danger of dying from the vaccine are completely eliminated, so what do they do? CVS and Walgreens are now refusing to fill the Ivermectin and HCQ prescriptions. The same pharmacy…I got mine at. Why? So that they can push the vaccines? Why? I do t know, but it may be why Bill Gates said that vaccines would work at depopulating the world if they did a good job. Have you seen that video? He said, health care, vaccinations and reproductive health would work to depopulate the world. If I look him up on you-tube all I see now are documentaries about how he’s trying to save the world. Which is it? The bottom line is…he finds a way to make money through mass production kept at a low cost to produce to make the most profit. Vaccines are perfect. Everyone gets them. One thing I’ve learned about him is he doesn’t see history like we do. From 0 to 2021 as a time line. No, he sees it as 2021-2031. That’s how he works. I. His mind all of this is all planned out. While we think “plandemic,” being planned. We’re missing that we’re only seeing to 2021. He’s wayyyyy ahead of us. They have much more planned. Watch his biographies and you’ll begin to understand that this is just the beginning. He doesn’t think like you. He studies to manipulate society into his preconceived way of how it must be in his mind and not how it should be. God Bless You with eyes that see. Gold is rare, unity is powerful. Let’s not fight, but learn from each other. If you have something to teach us, let’s talk about it and not accuse one another. Do t allow the dialectic to die.
This is such crap lol To seriously compare wearing masks and taking a simple vaccine to the freakin Holocaust? How messed up are you?? And your liberal friend told you a story and of course you made him out to be thrme devil lol anything to further push your crazy agenda lol just stop being part of the problem and be a TRUE Christian and start thinking about other people. It’s really not asking that much. Your local hospital staff will also thank you.
Perhaps you have reading comprehension issues, or perhaps you haven’t conducted any research? The response to a virus with an incredibly low case fatality rate has included lock-downs that have destroyed thousands of small businesses across the country. That means people without employment and financial ruin for many who have spent their lives building organizations they hoped they could pass on to their children. You don’t care. The brown shirts didn’t care either when they destroyed and barricaded Jewish-owned businesses. They are now proposing vaccine passports and vaccine confirmation for even interstate travel. There are people with deeply held religious beliefs and a scientific basis for rejecting the vaccine, but people like you would make sure they can’t buy food, can’t rent an apartment, can’t go to a movie, can’t live. Don’t talk to me about being a TRUE Christian. You aren’t qualified.
Meanwhile, incoherent Biden is announcing FURTHER RESTRICTIONS. Did you hear Psaki state that the only ones that will be affected are those who aren’t vaccinated? Has it really become us against them? If so, they have become successful. Once they separate us, they have nothing to fear because we won’t unite. United, if you pay attention, we become powerful. Good is rare…but unity is what our forefathers had. They understood that we need a nation who has things in common, hence why we do t sound like the British. We have a different accent. Also, why we have out own flag…our own way of doing things. This fosters unity, patriotism. If we sing America the Beautiful together…and play it at games…we feel that unity, we’re alike, that patriotism. So, of course they desire to destroy that, to destroy our history…that unites us, so they can further divide us and hence, rewrite history and bring about something we would never have allowed. Authoritarianism is what we are living under. I was berated for not being vaccinated recently at a hotel because I did not accept hand sanitizer. She said, “Oh, so you’re a Christian.” I told her Christianity had nothing to do with not desiring to use sanitizer, but rather preferring to keep my own immune system strong by using soap and water instead. She told me she was vaccinated to protect her family and people around her and I told her that my family didn’t want me to be vaccinated to protect me because the vaccine was so bee and and it was potentially causing shedding which would endanger others. We have different reasons for why we do what we do and that’s America. It’s okay to think and live differently. Colllective thinking is dangerous. Have you see the video of the Australian women being beaten for going into a mall to shop without a vaccine passport? It’s not far-fetched that this can happen here. We have popular people saying we should not be allowed to be treated in hospital ICU’s. But, it’s okay to smoke and use them, be obese or have HIV and use them. Those are greater health threats…people will die from, but Covid with a low mortality rate makes us hate each other and agree with this? We are not each other’s enemies, we are each others protectors. We protect each other’s rights, our autonomy and we agree that it’s okay to make different choices. Why is there a need to get multiple vaccines if I remedying and HCQ work so well??! I took Ivermectin and within 48 I was well! With the meds the vaccines are unnecessary. The danger of dying from the vaccine are completely eliminated, so what do they do? CVS and Walgreens are now refusing to fill the Ivermectin and HCQ prescriptions. The same pharmacy…I got mine at. Why? So that they can push the vaccines? Why? I do t know, but it may be why Bill Gates said that vaccines would work at depopulating the world if they did a good job. Have you seen that video? He said, health care, vaccinations and reproductive health would work to depopulate the world. If I look him up on you-tube all I see now are documentaries about how he’s trying to save the world. Which is it? The bottom line is…he finds a way to make money through mass production kept at a low cost to produce to make the most profit. Vaccines are perfect. Everyone gets them. One thing I’ve learned about him is he doesn’t see history like we do. From 0 to 2021 as a time line. No, he sees it as 2021-2031. That’s how he works. I. His mind all of this is all planned out. While we think “plandemic,” being planned. We’re missing that we’re only seeing to 2021. He’s wayyyyy ahead of us. They have much more planned. Watch his biographies and you’ll begin to understand that this is just the beginning. He doesn’t think like you. He studies to manipulate society into his preconceived way of how it must be in his mind and not how it should be. God Bless You with eyes that see. Gold is rare, unity is powerful. Let’s not fight, but learn from each other. If you have something to teach us, let’s talk about it and not accuse one another. Do t allow the dialectic to die.