The word Nazi is bandied about frequently and is often (incorrectly) used to insult a person, an idea or a philosophy somebody strongly disagrees with. Both Democrats and Republicans have hurled the insult at each other at some point. After the 2016 Presidential election, it became commonplace to see Donald Trump compared to Hitler and most Americans now simply dismiss this as 21st-century political warfare. Neither side actually believes the other are real Nazis; more often than not it is used for pure shock value. Picture it as the new F-bomb of politics, if you will.
Rather than simply dismissing the word, I thought perhaps we ought to look at some characteristics of Nazism and see which side more closely resembles the Nazi Hallmarks of governing. Let's begin with some of Hitler's basic ideas about how a country should be run.
One of the tactics the Nazis used was to control the media. They knew controlling movie, newspaper and radio content (there was no television or internet at that time) was so important that their message should dominate. Upon Hitler's rise to power, German media almost immediately began regurgitating Nazi propaganda. How does this compare with today?
In America, it is no secret that the news media and Hollywood predominantly leans left. The liberal message clearly dominates the majority of what we see and hear every day. The few conservative media outlets pale in comparison to the number of left-leaning outlets. News reporters aren't Huntley and Brinkley anymore; they're editorial reporters with a slanted narrative of whole lies and half-truths they want to persuade people with. They don't want to just tell you what happened, they want to tell you what to think about what happened. CNN and MSNBC are clearly tainted beyond the point of no return. ABC, CBS and NBC are not too far behind. They have marginalized themselves with their words, their imagined-conspiracy news and their patently transparent and vapid reporters. I'd go as far as to say the media in America today is corrupt in their everyday slanting of the news, pretty much like Hitler's media was. Or maybe keeping spicy news quiet like Reuters did as they sat on a story for two years that would have hurt Democrat Senate-candidate Beto O'Rourke (he lost anyway) is an acceptable trade (to them) to make in their quest to sell unfair and unbalanced "news."
With very few exceptions, Hollywood is one big rats nest of liberalism. Late-night TV shows like the 2 Jimmy's, Rachael Madcow, SNL and The View regularly display their hatred of the America they loathe. Unhappy with the upset result of an election they abetted in rigging, they assail those they disagree with in the worst of terms. If the world were flat, they would have fallen off the left side long ago.
Control of internet content is still debatable. It's kind of like the wild west right now, but make no mistake about it: Liberals largely own social media sites (Facebook and Twitter, ie) and they simply delete content they don't like and/or put the authors in limbo (Facebook jail or Twitter account deletion). This is the modern version of Nazi book-burning - simply eradicate what somebody sitting in front of a computer screen deems inappropriate. There are things that should not be on the internet (child porn, for example) and we deal with those using law enforcement. That excepted, political social media isn't in Nazi territory - yet. But the censorship of thought emulates one of the major signatures of Nazism that most likely will only get worse.
Conclusion: Similar to the Nazi control of the media, the left dominates what gets disseminated as news in 21st-century America. They do parrot the liberal slant in reporting. Need more convincing? Just look at their take on the Mueller report. Even though it exonerated Trump, they refuse to get the message or apologize for wasting 2 years of our time on a nothing-burger. They still scrape the bottom of the barrel trying to prove their point. Just look how many times CNN and MSNBC put sleaze-lawyer Michael Avenatti on TV as some sort of go-to person. (~250 appearances before he was arrested and relegated to the junk heap).
Another of the tactics the Nazis employed was controlling education. They knew that early and repeated doses of propaganda were more likely to engender lifetime support to keep their regime functioning. How does this compare to education in America now?
You'd have to be deaf, dumb and blind to not realize schools in America lean left. Liberal education starts in the local school system and by the time a young person enters a college or university, it progresses into wholesale brain-washing. Professors are overwhelmingly liberal and students have to adapt to get past them. By graduation time, the job is complete. Liberal Arts degrees are aptly named because if you earn one, you will likely be liberal. Benjamin Franklin, using the alias Silence Dogood warned us of the dangers of higher education in his fourth essay printed in 1722. Of course we need doctors, architects, lawyers, engineers and other specialty-skilled people. But we don't need more people with debt-laden generic liberal arts degrees. These people come out of college with a different perspective and are soon shocked into the cold-hard realities of the world, which often disillusions them when they have to find employment and pay off (often, 6 figure) student debt. Many of these people would have done far better with trade jobs.
Conclusion: Much like the Nazi regime did, the left dominates the educational system and has for many decades now.
Hitler also knew that an armed citizenry was dangerous to absolute control. He implemented gun control and sold it to the German population as a good thing in that they would be safer without guns. He wasted no time in disarming those he deemed dangerous to him. Soon after, he ramped up his pogrom, started WW2 and we all know how the story ended. In America, we are governed by the US Constitution, and our forefathers wasted no time in adapting the first 10 Amendments which we recognize as the Bill of Rights. Does anybody wonder why they put the right to own guns right after the right to free speech, religion and press? Because it was that important to them. They had just finished fighting a war against tyranny and weren't real fond of the idea of doing it right away again. They weren't worried about deer uprisings, they were worried about bad government and the ability of the citizenry to be able to fight it ... with guns, if it came down to that again.
So how do liberals and conservatives view gun control now? Almost along party lines, with some exceptions. Liberals are always calling for more gun laws (thinly veiled confiscation schemes, as per Senator Feinstein who said if she could grab them all, she would). Conservatives are the ones defending the constitutional right of keeping arms.
There is some real irony in this one. It is absolutely moronic for liberal protesters to say Donald Trump is Hitler while demanding he disarm the American populace. And, of course, this is why the Supreme Court is so important in defending our rights. It falls upon the conservative members of the court to defend the 2nd Amendment, because it is patently obvious the liberal members won't. It is no coincidence the liberal media signs on to the idea of more gun laws, and further, use their resources to advance the idea of disarming the citizenry. Big media is, of course, mostly owned by liberals.
Conclusion: Like Hitler, liberals want to remove guns from private ownership in America. Conservatives don't.
The worst plank of Hitler's Nazi government was, of course antisemitic murder. For reasons we may never fully understand, Hitler hated Jews to an extreme. The Third Reich governed for 12 years, but Hitler began well before his 1933 rise to power. His struggle as outlined in Mein Kampf began in the 1920s and he never went out of his way to hide his anti-Semitic feelings. When he seized control, he implemented his plan of Jewish genocide piece by piece. But where did it begin? With anti-Semitic words, of course.
How does this compare in 21st-century America? Are anti-Semitic words being spoken by anybody of prominence or power today?
The answer is, of course, yes. When Jesse Jackson uses terms like Hymietown, when Al Sharpton inflames a tense racial situation over the killing (by blacks) of a young Rabbinical student by saying If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house ... These are outrageously anti-Semitic remarks. When Ilhan Omar made anti-Semitic comments about Israel, the house Democrats couldn't even muster up the votes to condemn her remarks and instead came out with a watered-down generic resolution that meant nothing. When AOC opened her mouth and stuck her foot in it about Israel, it's another indication she's not Jewish-friendly. When Rashida Tlaib says the holocaust gives her a calming effect, it's pretty clear what she means: She hates Jews. These people are, by the way, all prominent Democrats. Conservative Republicans are aghast at the tone and intent of these words and say so at every practical chance. In Obama's last term, he was not known for his good relations with Israel (maybe because he meddled in Israeli elections?), and Hillary Clinton wasn't very Israel-friendly either. When Trump won, Israeli PM Netenyahu was elated when he said Donald Trump is a friend of Israel.
Conclusion: Anti-Semitic words and deeds are on the rise in America, not unlike Hitler with his anti-Semitic words as he began his entrance onto the world scene. This is dangerous to our Republic. Sadly, the rhetoric seems to be coming from the liberal left. Small fringe groups on the radical right may also be anti-Semitic, but they have not elected anybody or elevated any of their members to everyday national prominence as the anti-Semites residing on the left have. Overall, the anti-Semitic voices we are hearing in America today are on the liberal side of the scale. The American Jewish community would do well to take note of this and vote accordingly.
I'm sure this essay is going to upset many liberals. Knowing that it will offend some people I value, I debated whether or not to write it. Nobody likes to be called a Nazi, and for the record I am not saying liberals are real Nazis. Nobody is putting political dissidents in concentration camps or exterminating them, even Hillary Clinton who has a remarkable record of associates getting murdered or suddenly and inexplicably committing suicide. I'm pointing out that that a good portion of 21st-century American liberalism shamefully copies much of what the Nazis thought important. Control of the media and education, gun confiscation and antisemitism were all part of the Nazi grand scheme. Considering everything, America is not in a good place right now. Things need to change; a balance has to be restored or repeating many of the evils of the last century is almost certain to occur. Whether it is in my lifetime or not, I don't know. I'd guess not, but then again, looking at the almost even division that exists in America right now, of that I'm not even certain.
History does have a funny way of repeating itself. Many civilizations have come and gone before us. America is not in any way immune, and if we don't get our house in order, we will eventually join them when our future becomes our past.
Coming Attractions (next blog): Who do you think is the biggest murderer in history?
Hint: You're not thinking out of the box enough.
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