I wonder if the Jewish space lasers are more powerful than the Muslamic Ray Guns:
Sadly, these sort of opinions do not exclude you from gaining actual power:
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One thing that people today are missing is the link to Romanticism in the Wagnerian meaning. Hitler called on peoples love for country; the inspiration of heroism and, especially important, heroic death; pride in ethnicity and belonging to an elite group.
These are all positive feelings. Dehumanizing Jews was a secondary feature. They had been targeted as a scapegoat population to give the masses a focus. Remember, millions of non Jews were also killed by the third reich for not being part of the elite group.
Many of the believers really believe they are the elite group, nobly doing everything in their power to save the country. They fear change, are convinced that society is a limited resource they are being squeezed out of, and haven’t been given the intellectual tools to see the falseness of the narrative they are being fed.
To see someone be unable to find the flaws in this crap is painful. I hope we can extricate ourselves from peril without actual warfare.
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Not really, no. Loving the fatherland MEANT dehumanizing those who they see as “defiling” it by the “crime” of living where “they don’t belong.” It’s a key feature of modern ethno-nationalism, that everyone should be where they “belong.” You don’t get one without the other.
Many of whom were targeted because they were not German or they betrayed Germany in some way (by being LGBQT+, being married to a non-ethnic German, by being a communist, etc, etc).
The Jewish people were the primary target because they were seen as the primary “polluter” of German purity and the architects of the “suppression” of the German people.
And that’s based on the attempts to end second class citizenship for non-white people. They see that non-whites have been gaining rights and have been improving their lot and they believe that it’s at their expense. They are saving the “white” race.
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i mean in some sense it is.
a lot of white cis hetro people are perfectly fine with people who are black or gay or what have you… so long as they perfectly conform to american christian-oriented culture.
if you don’t flaunt being gay by talking about it, or kissing in public, or trying to get married, or raise a family, or doing anything that might be stereotypically gay - go be gay, that’s okay
it’s also okay to be black, just talk like american whites ( in whatever regionalism that means ), don’t listen to certain kinds of music, don’t let anyone see your natural hair, don’t wear certain types of clothes, make the same kinds of racist jokes about black related culture that white people make, and everything’s fine ( just don’t ask for similar pay or anything. that’s a step too far )
living in a multicultural county ( with a very loose meaning of culture here ) means having to see a lot of “non white” stuff. and who wants to deal with all that?
i see this even at my work with classim. a lot of well meaning well educated ostensibly open minded people can not get themselves out of tone policing and feeling bullied by plain speaking working class white coworkers - and then you add race into that and there are explosions.
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It really is more about the demands for equality, though. Much of the civil rights movement was of course driven from the Black pulpit, was organized by the Black Christian church, was carried out by deeply devout people - but that didn’t stop so-called White Christians from beating them senseless and bombing churches.
There are also plenty of Christian churches that actively supported marriage equality, too.
Not really, I don’t think. That’s a lie they tell us and themselves so they can keep denying people rights.
Which is, of course, an erasure of Black American culture, which they very much want to appropriate. But when it comes down to it, even that was never an assurance of protection against the worst of white supremacy.
That’s how they see it, for sure. It’s their belief that “white” culture is inherently superior, as it’s made by “inherently” superior people.
Sure. But the same elite class will gladly welcome them as fellow whites if it gets them what they want.
Yep.
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I mean, racism and xenophobia is okay, as long as it doesn’t go too far! /s
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But they think they are saving it out of love, not out of hatred. We see this as hate for others, they see it as love for their group. They cannot imagine expanding their tribe to include others.
A common response to “that belief is racist” is “I have friends from that group, I’m not racist!” They can cope with individuals being acceptable, but the group itself is still a threat.
Their action are reprehensible. The result of their beliefs is unconscionable. But the way they see those beliefs and actions is not “I hate the other” but “I love my tribe.” To ignore that Romanticism is dangerous. It doesn’t accept or condone the beliefs, but it makes it possible to see why some people embrace them.
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Pride isn’t a positive feeling? Remember, this is seen through the lens of Romanticism. Glory! Valor! Honor! Being a hero! Facing death with Bravery and Manliness!
We still promote those ideas (except maybe the manliness) in our superhero worship and in our military.
This is why their idea of war has no concept of hardship for themselves, or possibility of them losing. The surprise when no one inside the Capitol joined the mob was genuine. They thought the right-wingers inside would help them. They though trump himself would lead their charge, mounted on a tank with two machine guns ablaze.
To tell someone “but you are a bad person” will not get them to change.
if we call something “positive”—multiple times—people are going to think we’re in favor of it
maybe this is not the right way to frame the analysis
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it could be. i feel like there is a thing of the “black friend” or the “gay friend” - where it’s like, oh those one or two people i know are perfectly okay it’s all the other people that are the problem. with no idea how much work their friend is doing to edit themselves in their presence.
it’s different i think at the top, with the televangelists and republican politicians who are leveraging the hate into power. im just talking regular everyday whites. but both of those groups will have to give up power, and they will have to give up prestige and influence.
we can’t get an equitable society without that.
the poultice is that a diverse society is a robust and enriched society. but that’s not interesting to some significant percentage of americans.
totally. white culture, and capitalism, wants to dip into those things exactly in the way of @knoxblox watching people move into white enclaves in mexico ( or of british tourists only eating british food from british restaurants when abroad ) - they want control over when and how much of it they have to see and get involved with.
i almost think the political spectrum could be defined by how much people are okay with letting go of my way or the highway style unity
[eta: with sort of middle of the road conservatives being like don’t make me see it] and with the far right willing to use lies, coercion, and force to achieve uniformity
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Not if someone is so consumed by such ‘pride’ that they feel it’s somehow “okay” to abuse, torture and exterminate others who are different.
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"Look, as long as everybody acts like they’re
nobody gets hurt, OK?"
Excuse me while I go puke…
(I know that’s not your opinion, @gatto )
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“But different means lesser, therefore it’s OK!”
I absolutely agree. Fuck “pride” in that context.
It’s never OK. Not even once.
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We could go for a bioological, reductionist approach:
Replace “These are all positive feelings” with “these are all associated with enhanced dopamiine production.”
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I mean, “racism makes racists feel good” was a thing we knew already
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Damn sure doesn’t make it “good”! I don’t care how many people are into it.
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I thought “pride” was a sin anyway
Maybe that’s just a Catholic thing
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More of a suspicion. We’ll know it when we can successfully engineer an anti-fascist society.
If the flags are all different colours then the march is OK.
If they match…
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