What’s going on in America today disgusts me. White Nationalists, Klu Klux Klan, American Freedom Party, Aryan Nations, etc. ( more here ) spray painting hateful messages in public places ( article here ), violently killing two men who stood up for a muslim woman ( article here ), plowing into protestors ( article here ), and other disturbing, terroristic acts.
The movement has gathered so much momentum, that Donald Trump was aided by these groups in his candidacy to become President of the United States ( potus ). That this happened in American History, that we the people allowed these Nazi groups to gather so much strength that they helped get a candidate elected as President, after my grandfather and his brother fought and killed Nazis in World War II to protect humanity, warns us that we’ve got huge problems in the United States of America. How did we let this happen?
America’s past is bloody and violent – slavery, civil war, world wars, etc. The Civil War was absolutely caused because the confederacy wanted to continue to keep slaves ( article here ). The civil war ended legal slavery in the United States. World War I ended a violent struggle for power to control others. World War II ended the Nazi agenda of genocide, and Japan’s struggle with it’s own fear of getting stomped flat by western powers. ( article here ).
I can get into smaller examples around the United States of America that show these thought patterns in action, ranging from the hanging and burning alive of African Americans by Klu Klux Klan members, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, to a teenager posting a video online of KKK hanging a black man ( article here ). I can show many instances of Nazi thinking causing acts of violence against others who don’t fit the Nazi idea of what a human should be ( article here ) – remember, Hitler used fear to gain support when he started. From this, we can see that any groups who promote these past violent acts, these past violent thought patterns, must be stopped.
The main argument I see today in favor of these hate groups has to do with the United States’ Freedom of Speech as applied to Hate groups:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
People who espouse this as the reason that we must continue to allow these groups to do this fail to see one very important point clearly – Nazis committed genocide because of what they thought, because of the Nazi thinking process. I’ve seen defenses like this:
I disagree. Our freedom of speech is at the very essence of who we are as a nation. It’s easy for me to say that they can’t speak when I find there ideals repulsive. What happens if they gain power and shut down my speech because I stand for equality regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.
One thing this individual, who’s name I’ve omitted, fails to see (or ignores) is that these Nazi groups can use the Freedom of Speech to rally like minded people to them, and if they become numerous enough, they will take over our country right in front of our eyes, which might be what’s happening with the election of Donald Trump. If these people do take over, you can expect that our Freedom of Speech about what’s right and good for human life will be obliterated.
Do you want to allow the United States of America to go back to slavery? Do you want to go back to genocide because you feel your race is superior to others? Do you want to go back to allowing those governed by greed, who have money, to have the power to govern (World War I)? Let’s get back to the question I asked a few paragraphs up.
How did we let this happen? We did nothing. We pretended that there’s nothing going on. We stayed in our semi-private personal bubbles, where the effects of recent times might not have touched yet. We allowed ourselves to feel that our votes and voices don’t matter.
There’s a difference between speaking out, rallying, and promoting actions that help people live peacefully, and speaking out, rallying, and promoting things that the Nazis did, and the Nazi way of thinking.
Freedom of speech ends as soon as you make a solid threat. It ends when you call your boss a f**khole when he’s standing behind you without you knowing. It ends when you say something hateful to friends or loved ones that hurts them deeply. “Freedom of speech” for too many equates to “there’s no consequences to my words.”
We have laws to bind back our actions for a reason. I’m going to get graphic here to show my point. It’s not allowable to promote rape, to rally for rape, to promote the thinking around rape. No, hell no. That’s disgusting, immoral, putrid. The thinking involved with rape is just as disgusting as the thinking behind the actions of the Nazi regime. The genocide of Jews, and anyone not fitting the Nazi agenda, is disgusting. We cannot allow this to continue.
Did I make my point clear for you now?