Posted on 01/05/2021 5:46:51 AM PST by Kaslin
As my listeners and readers can hopefully attest, I have been on a lifelong quest to understand human nature and human behavior. I am sad to report that I have learned more in the last few years, particularly in 2020, than in any equivalent period of time.
One of the biggest revelations concerns a question that has always plagued me: How does one explain the "good German," the term used to describe the average, presumably decent German, who did nothing to hurt Jews but also did nothing to help them and did nothing to undermine the Nazi regime? The same question could be asked about the average Frenchman during the Vichy era, the average Russian under Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Leonid Brezhnev and their successors, and the millions of others who did nothing to help their fellow citizens under oppressive dictatorships.
These past few years have taught me not to so quickly judge the quiet German, Russian, etc. Of course, I still judge Germans who helped the Nazis and Germans who in any way hurt Jews. But the Germans who did nothing? Not so fast.
What has changed my thinking has been watching what is happening in America (and Canada and Australia and elsewhere, for that matter).
The ease with which tens of millions of Americans have accepted irrational, unconstitutional and unprecedented police state-type restrictions on their freedoms, including even the freedom to make a living, has been, to understate the case, sobering.
The same holds true for the acceptance by most Americans of the rampant censorship on Twitter and all other major social media platforms. Even physicians and other scientists are deprived of freedom of speech if, for example, they offer scientific support for hydroxychloroquine along with zinc to treat COVID-19 in the early stages. Board-certified physician Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, who has saved hundreds of COVID-19 patients from suffering and/or death, has been banned from Twitter for publicizing his lifesaving hydroxychloroquine and zinc protocol.
Half of America, the non-left half, is afraid to speak their minds at virtually every university, movie studio and large corporation -- indeed, at virtually every place of work. Professors who say anything that offends the left fear being ostracized if they have tenure and being fired if they do not. People are socially ostracized, publicly shamed and/or fired for differing with Black Lives Matter, as America-hating and white-hating a group as has ever existed. And few Americans speak up. On the contrary, when BLM protestors demand that diners outside of restaurants raise their fists to show their support of BLM, nearly every diner does.
So, then, who are we to condemn the average German who faced the Gestapo if he didn't salute Hitler or the average Russian who faced the NKVD (the secret police and intelligence agency that preceded the KGB) if he didn't demonstrate sufficient enthusiasm for Stalin? Americans face the left's cancel culture, but not left-wing secret police or reeducation camps. (At least not yet -- I have little doubt the left would send outspoken conservatives to reeducation camps if they could.)
I have come to understand the average German living under Nazism and the average Russian living under communism for another reason: the power of the media to brainwash.
As a student of totalitarianism since my graduate studies at the Russian Institute of Columbia University's School of International Affairs (as it was then known), I have always believed that only in a dictatorship could a society be brainwashed. I was wrong. I now understand that mass brainwashing can take place in a nominally free society. The incessant left-wing drumbeat of The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and almost every other major newspaper, plus The Atlantic, The New Yorker, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, NPR, all of Hollywood and almost every school from kindergarten through graduate school, has brainwashed at least half of America every bit as effectively as the German, Soviet and Chinese communist press did (and in the latter case, still does). That thousands of schools will teach the lie that is the New York Times' "1619 Project" is one of countless examples.
Prior to the lockdowns, I flew almost every week of the year, so I was approached by people who recognized me on a regular basis. Increasingly, I noticed that people would look around to see if anyone was within earshot and then tell me in almost a whisper: "I support Trump" or, "I'm a conservative." The last time people looked around and whispered things to me was when I used to visit the Soviet Union.
In Quebec this past weekend, as one can see on a viral video, a family was fined and members arrested because six -- yes, six -- people gathered to celebrate the new year. A neighbor snitched on them, and the celebrants were duly arrested. The Quebec government lauded the snitches and asked for more public "collaboration."
Snitches are likewise lauded and encouraged in some Democrat-run states and cities in America (Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti in March: "Snitches get rewards") and by left-wing governments in Australia. Plenty of Americans, Canadians and Australians are only too happy to snitch on people who refuse to lock down their lives.
All this is taking place without concentration camps, without a Gestapo, without a KGB and without Maoist reeducation camps.
That's why I no longer judge the average German as easily as I used to. Apathy in the face of tyranny turns out not to be a German or Russian characteristic. I just never thought it could happen in America.
Exactly. USA is bring subverted and taken over by a leftist/Nazi/communist style dictatorship in the making. Watching today in Georgia and tomorrow in congress with hope but also great trepidation. Csm the DemoNaziCommie coup be stopped?
BINGO-
People are caught up in life, getting by. They don’t think about the philosophical meanings, motivations, consequences... What are we eating tonight, how do we stay warm in winter, how do I keep my kid safe and wife happy?
The power of conforming and belonging to a group is immense. Think about it, people will fly planes into ships. They will starve themselves to death in a society where the trashcans are stuffed with food because they have a self-image where they are fat. We want to be accepted, and if the group says you should be a racist or today have white guilt, nationalist or today globalist, gay bash or today be an advocate for gays... people say and do what they think others want them to do.
Society ends up creating carrots and sticks. There is ALWAYS some sort of reward system and punishment created if you play along or decide not to play along (to varying degrees). Example: What happens if you don’t follow Covid rules and keep your store open, go to a beach that is closed, don’t wear a mask, own a gym and keep the pool open??? Did closing pools and beaches make any logical sense? Do masks really work? Is Covid actually spread in restaurants? But if you refuse to play along, can you even get on a plane?
So called “science,” prominent individuals (role models), politicians, even those teaching right and wrong end up pushing the agenda. There was “science” behind racism, just like their is science telling us to today that there are no differences between the races or sexes. There were ethics even morals behind racism (unequally yoked and many other ideas), just like today there are ethical ideas against racism. There are prominent leaders, artists and role models that are for nationalism (Norman Rockwell), just like there are prominent individuals, role models, music, movies, literature, today telling us how great globalization is. Science tends to tell us whatever we want to believe. Ethics justify whatever we want to do. These prominent role models and leaders simply read from the vents of time and ride atop of these social movements for their own fame and fortune.
It’s hard not to get caught up in whatever the bullshit “flavor of the day” is.
Courage is a lot easier to muster when there is an organization to which it can contribute with concrete actions.
The state governments in Republican controlled states have been fairly moderate. Florida probably presents the best example.
The Fed Gov should have acted immediately against the unconstitutional restrictions on the free exercise of religion, but it was private lawsuits that earned what few legal victories there have been. This is testimony to the fact that Trump failed to get control of the DOJ, probably because he was hamstrung by the fake Russia-collusion coup attempt nonsense for at least two years.
There were also no follow on investigations to the vote fraud in MI and PA that was already evident (ironically) from Jill Stein's lawsuits, such as the Detroit and Philly precincts returning larger numbers of votes cast than registered voters.
Right now the best means of resistance would be states to come forward and publicly state that the costs of lockdowns simply outweigh the threat posed by COVID, and also to form a compact with red lines about gun control, fracking, etc., that the states will nullify should His Fraudulency actually take office. They need to back that with a plan to address threats from the administration and/or the Federal courts, as well as pushback against businesses that threaten actions if the states don't fall into line.
Gradually force any Biteme administration of the Federal courts into a position where they have to threaten to send in the army to get their edicts enforced.
“...without a Gestapo...”
Don’t need it...they’ve got the police to do their bidding.
On another note-
What you can blame the Germans of, is being complete conformists and following rules even if they know they don’t make any frigging sense.
Inside the German, is this sense that following the rules is the right thing to do, for it’s own sake. If you’re at a crosswalk, and the little man is red, at night, no cars, you can see both ways and there is no one coming, but dare to walk across, the German will consider you somehow in the wrong. They don’t think or question the rule in the idea of what is the “spirit of the rule.” They follow rules, to the letter, to the point of absurdity.
That is why they took our racist Lynchburg experiment ideas borne out of the era of eugenics (which was alive here also), put a Swastika on it, and made it into the Holocaust.
That is why they took our recycling ideas of years past and created this crazy Gruenerpunkt recycling program.
That is why they took feminism to absurdity and talk about quota’s in their parliament to make sure they have equal representation...
The Germans are prone to extremes because whatever idea they institutionalize and accept socially, becomes “unquestionable.” You must follow the rules, or else your German neighbor inspecting your trash will turn you in for not recycling and the Ordnungsamt (Office of public order) will fine you.
What you can blame the Germans of, is group think at a epic level (from global warming to the ozone hole), mass conformity, and rule following even if it makes no sense. It is a German cultural trait and while it is nice that people don’t make noise after 10PM and you can sleep, it’s also a society where you are hammered into mindless submission by a society that also chases fads and stupid ideas just like here. Only here (US) you have more opposition and certain ideas of liberty that are largely accepted which constrain the stupidity. So in Germany if you want to raise your own children, sorry, no can do, the government mandates you send them to school even if you have the ability and desire to homeschool and can show/demonstrate that you can do as well or better. There is no thinking, just follow rules and do whatever everyone else does.
re: the people getting by.
Indeed,....they are at the lower levels of Maslow’s needs and don’t have the time, energy, or money to read Dennis Prager or Solzhenitsyn.
Thanks to government schooling few Americans read well enough to even begin to tackle the works of Prager or Solzhenitsyn
The ‘good germans’ are everywhere, even right here on FR
milgram’s 37 (Peter Gabriel)
we do what we’re told
we do what we’re told
we do what we’re told
told to do
we do what we’re told
we do what we’re told
we do what we’re told
told to do
one doubt
one voice
one war
one truth
one dream
Kings do it.
Communists do it. The elite class wasn't poor. LOL
Capitalists do it. The US is a country where the rich get to play monopoly but make and change the rules to suit them as the game is played.
Theocracies do it, may it be the Catholic Church in the past or in Islam where you have a few powerful and very wealthy Imams.
The idea is how much can you squeeze the people while a small opulent elite walks away with the fruits of labor living in palaces.
The difference is that at least in a capitalist system, if government is small, you can have a democratic process, somewhat neutral courts, and if an economy is going well and there is a demand for labor, labor a commodity itself can see it's value rise and benefit. Capitalism isn't particularly ethical or moral, but it does allow for the coexistence of a democratic process and the sharing of wealth if the economy prospers and labor is in demand.
“Ve are da new world order. Ve bring to da world dis-order”. Spike Jones
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWF8iRCan7I
A good read.
Historically in most places and time periods advocating open insurrection never came without paying a steep price.
Under the Treason Act of 1661 proposing, gathering, talking about levying war against the King was the same as actually doing it.
The penalty was the same. All it took was 2 witnesses.
“ The USA was founded by men that valued freedom over security. Now the USA is run under a strict feminist/leftist code which values security over freedom. Yes we are f'd”Somehow all those MEN in 1776 knew that even gathering talking about the Revolution carried the same penalty as actually rising up in arms against the King under the Treason and Sedition Acts. They still did it. Did they have nothing to lose? Did they not value life? And fast forward to today, how many conservatives feel like they have nothing to lose? How many are afraid that a simple assault arrest and conviction, never mind felony assault due to a violent street confrontation with the Antifa will cost them their jobs, their house, their life’s savings and even their marriage? How many are willing to walk away from the comfort zone? Easy times breed weak men. Is the answer a Spartan lifestyle generation over generation then? I do not know. And even Sparta eventually failed to one of their slave revolts. So much for that.
In terms of the good German, the many I feel I understand are the ones who had dependents.
I could possibly bravely risk imprisonment/torture/death for not joining the Nazi party. But I don’t know that I could risk the same for my kids or dependent parents etc.
I am not sure what I would do. Not get to the point of actively persecuting others. But I may have been quiet, at least a lot of the time. If I had dependents.
RED6 - You obviously know the German mindset / behavior. We in the USSA are no different.
Very well articulated summary of the shitshow that has been and the shitshow that is to come.
Really?
Do tell.
It is evident that now we, as a nation, no longer have reasonably honest elections.
If elections are are fraudulent, then government is tyranny, free markets will wither and Oligarchic oppression is inevitable.
We already have something similar here.
In no way does this lessen the fact that this is the course we are on.
Even if the stated goal would be the restoration of the Republic and giving primacy back to the Constitution.
It is STILL the correct course of action.
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