My family left Germany prior to WWII. Those Jews that remained were increasingly anxious, but as our wealthy relations who hosted my aunt and uncle in the late 30’s thought, it would go just so far and no farther.
Catholics need to be aware that it can, indeed, go much farther than anyone thinks.
It just takes the need for a scapegoat to unite people and the right person to be their messiah.
I think they just elected the messiah.
First They Came for the Jews
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.~Pastor Martin Niemöller
Community and individuality are not opposites. People cannot survive on their own. When the odds are stacked against you, you must rally with the oppressed and hated.
When a growing oppressive regime is taking hold, you must act, otherwise you will soon face your enemy alone and hopeless.
Strength of community is a strength as much as individualism, as long you are willing to face weaknesses in your own community. Ignoring slacking values will mean that you will be rallied against by those you oppress.
Niemöller affirms we must rally against unhealthy organized regimes. We must also stay vigilant with those that appear to be good natured, as all organisation attracts corruption. Niemöller also warns us that if it is you who are corrupt, then you will face a stronger combined force of foe!
~Vexen Crabtree
Yes, and the first steps against Jews in Germany was to deny them the right to own and operate businesses. That is the effect of the HHS “contraception” mandate (contraception includes all pre-implantation procedures, therefore it’s an abortion mandate).
Any genuine Catholic who owns a business that employs more than 50 has been told, in effect, you may not operate a business on your terms, only on ours. He has a choice between his faith and his business.
If they can do it to owners of businesses larger than 50 employees, they can do it to anyone.
Yes, perhaps SCOTUS will overturn it. But that will only be a temporary setback.
The Nazis did not start with concentration camps. They started by outlawing Jewish businesses.
All those Prots and Libertarians who say, what’s the fuss, it’s only about contraception, everyone except those stupid Catholics have long accepted the morality of contraception, need to listen up. You are next and it won’t be about “contraception.” It’ll be about you and YOUR beliefs, not about those crazy stupid Catholics and their beliefs.
But nobody listened in Germany until it was too late. Nobody will listen here until it’s too late. The concentration camps were indeed largely hidden from the people. I have read my uncle’s brother-in-law’s memoirs. He was 19 years old when the war ended, enthsusiastically a memmber of the Waffen SS, from a down-at-the-heels typical German bourgeois family. He truly thought Hitler was a decent guy who only had Germany’s best interests at heart. He truly believed the scapegoat the Jews myths.
Already in November 1942 reports of the Final Solution were in the NYTimes. I just read them in the war report postings here on FR the day before yesterday, I think.
But in Germany, that stuff was either not heard at all or was dismissed as enemy disinformation.
That’s the way it will be here. The opponents of the Regime will be scapegoated and even people in the “middle” will hear reports of penalties and think, yeah, but it’s just those stupid Catholics who are such extremists when it comes to sex stuff.
It’s pretty darn close to being too late now.