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Stop talking about Godwin's Law: real Nazis are back
In the last few days alone we have also witnessed:
● The White House accusing the media of “misinformation”, falsely stating that it is required to separate families by law, rather than its own decision to do so, while the president – a role once unironically referred to as “the leader of the free world” – refers to people “infesting” the USA, the most blatant form of dehumanising language.
● In Italy, the far-right interior minister calling for a “register” of the country’s Roma population, with the overt aim of expelling as many as possible. “Unfortunately we’ll need to keep Roma with Italian citizenship,” he said – drawing horrified condemnation from groups, including Jewish groups.
● In Hungary, far-right prime minister Victor Orban consolidating his hold on the country, his primary opposition now a rival far-right party as the left and liberal groups fall even further back. Simultaneously, as independent media in the country struggles for survival, a university founded by a Holocaust survivor is facing losing its licence – in part because of its founder’s support for the refugees fleeing violence in Syria.
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People argue that Trump and his equivalents who share his views in other countries are chaotic, mismanaged, and will burn themselves out. They said that in the 1930s, too. People argue that what’s happening now falls far short of the eventual violence – people are talking expulsions, not extermination. They said that in the 1930s, too.
We do not know where the road we are on ends. Perhaps this time it would never reach the levels of horror that millions lived through in the last century. But the only way we can make absolutely sure of that is to stop walking that road at all – to call out what we see, to not let exhaustion blind us to horror, and to make sure we learn the lessons from history. We need to keep our eyes wide open.
● The White House accusing the media of “misinformation”, falsely stating that it is required to separate families by law, rather than its own decision to do so, while the president – a role once unironically referred to as “the leader of the free world” – refers to people “infesting” the USA, the most blatant form of dehumanising language.
● In Italy, the far-right interior minister calling for a “register” of the country’s Roma population, with the overt aim of expelling as many as possible. “Unfortunately we’ll need to keep Roma with Italian citizenship,” he said – drawing horrified condemnation from groups, including Jewish groups.
● In Hungary, far-right prime minister Victor Orban consolidating his hold on the country, his primary opposition now a rival far-right party as the left and liberal groups fall even further back. Simultaneously, as independent media in the country struggles for survival, a university founded by a Holocaust survivor is facing losing its licence – in part because of its founder’s support for the refugees fleeing violence in Syria.
------------
People argue that Trump and his equivalents who share his views in other countries are chaotic, mismanaged, and will burn themselves out. They said that in the 1930s, too. People argue that what’s happening now falls far short of the eventual violence – people are talking expulsions, not extermination. They said that in the 1930s, too.
We do not know where the road we are on ends. Perhaps this time it would never reach the levels of horror that millions lived through in the last century. But the only way we can make absolutely sure of that is to stop walking that road at all – to call out what we see, to not let exhaustion blind us to horror, and to make sure we learn the lessons from history. We need to keep our eyes wide open.
[link:https://www.newstatesman.com/world/north-america/2018/06/stop-talking-about-godwin-s-law-real-nazis-are-back|
This. This. This.
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