The Brown Shirts - They Weren't, Like, Totally Nazis - Right? (OWS Knows...)

[JFN1]

After all, if you go by the strictist of definitions, true Nazis were getting rich from Hitler's systemic cronyism, living lavish lifestyles, and exercising power over millions of people.

By this definition, only the big shots like Himmler and Goehring (and Hitler), and the rest of the top dogs, were Nazis.

But...this isn't the reality of it, though...is it...?

The vast majority of Brown Shirts might not have gotten rich, but they got something else, something which also served Hitler's ends.

The Brown Shirts were given virtually unlimited power ovre the general population.

-- Are you a Brown Shirt, and want to get even with someone? Bash their skull in with a brick, or your boot, or a nice handy baton - no problem for you, whatsoever. Bash away.

-- Maybe you don't like the guy down the street, or the girl who turned you down for sex, or your brother? No problem. Just frame them as enemies of the State, and bam! Instant revenge.

Sure, there were some Brown Shirts who were Brown Shirts only for survival's sake, who did their best to ameliorate the worst of Hitler's excesses at the local level - but they made little to no difference in influencing the culture which glorified in the violence and ego gratification their vast power allowed.

So were the Brown Shirts just as bad as the top level guys, since they willingly - and even enthusastically - carried out the Nazi agenda in the own towns, villages, and neighborhoods?

Because I think they were just as bad.

Just as I think the police, generally speaking, are NOT PART OF THE 99% - for pretty much the same reasons I believe Brown Shirts were true Nazis.

These cops out there bringing violence and human rights abuses down upon OWS people, are doing so, again generally speaking, for one of two reasons:

1) They want to do it, they love doing it, they are reveling in their power for their own benefit, unconcerned in the least about the larger questions, and how their own action affect everyone else.

or

2) They do not like the abuses they see all around them, but they are too COWARDLY (thus selfish and self serving) to stand up and STOP THEIR FELLOW COPS FROM ABUSING THEIR POWER.

Personally, I don't give a FUCK about the culture "good" cops struggle in - they are still a part of it, just like the unwilling Brown Shirts.

And here's the thing: Cops are NOT Brown Shirts. Cops HAVE a choice - they can quit being cops ANYTIME.

If OWS - and the rest of us - have ANY hope of successfully resisting and SURVIVING the wrath of the 1%, we had better come to terms - emotionally and practically - about just how much a part of the 99% cops actually are - based on their ACTIONS - NOT THEIR INCOME.

Cops, in a very real way, have been our culture's modern day gladiators. What American doesn't love a good high speed chase on the 11 o'clock news? Cop shows and crime dramas DOMINATE our airwaves, and our society places such value on the "job" these people do to "keep us safe." Well, we'd better get over this particular brand of hero worship, and fast, before we all get a nightstick upside our heads...

Check out crime statistics - instead of violent crime rising during this economic nightmare, as historically, such crimes have always done, crime rates are DROPPING. We're keeping ourselves safe - by choosing it every day - not because the cops are soooo busy with the fighting crime thing.

If cops were actually so busy fighting real crime, then why are they ALL OVER THE COUNTRY abusing peaceful OWS people, instead of being out there fighting all that crime?

Puh-lease. Cops haven't done anything different in my area...or anywhere else that I've heard of. No dramatic new methods or weapons to lower crime rates. Cops have not done shit - the fact is, we've done it ourselves..

And how about that condescending and invincibly arrogant open letter to OWS from Oaklad police? Did you like how they hollowly claimed to be part of the 99%, but without ANY emotional connection to actually BEING part of the 99%? Man, that was so obviously manipulative. It was a play on commraderie - and NOTHING more.

You yourself KNOW that cops are a corrupt and dangerous sub-culture; and they are, because of their collective actions, and personal morals, values, and ethics. And it is this fact which defines them as part of the 1%.

One final thought: When this all finally shakes down, and we've broken the power of the 1%, I think we're going to need our own "Nuremberg trials" to address the rapidly growing list of human rights abuses afflicting the 99%...

[Javaman]

1. Interesting note on the drop in crimes...

this is also happening during a time when police depts are cutting budgets and laying off cops nationally.

funny how that works.

[DainBramaged]

2. "When you've broken the power of the 1%"

Who speaks to the press? Who speaks to the public? What are your demands? What do you want? Who do you want on trial and for what crimes? Who goes before the media to plead your case? Is anyone other than the 'mob' listening?


Until you are a cohesive movement and not a mob doing mic checks, nothing will change, nothing. And your dreams of 'Nuremberg Trials' is an insult to all who are Jewish.

[JFN1]

3. Huh?

I really don't understand what your saying at all - could you elaborate, please?

[sabrina 1]

4. We don't speak to the press. The press works for the 1%

and speaking to them is as worthless as speaking to any of our so-called Representatives.

You need to catch up with what 'we', I guess you don't include yourself in this movement, are doing. 'We' are building our own media, and look how successful it has been. Over 60% of the population know what our grievances are and agree with them. So I guess if you DON'T watch the MSM, you would understand the message of the people.

And what will we do about those grievances? We will start, because we have to, by removing the money from our political system. And then we will push for legislation to restore Glass Steagal, to restore The Fairness Doctrine, iow to break up the media conglomerates and return to real news and investigative journalism NOT controlled by the 1%.

But all of this will take time. Those making demands for instant 'change' from the people who first need to make this movement so powerful in numbers, (the first goal which is almost achieved) before they can begin to start work on deconstructing the mess made over the past several decades.

It took THEM decades to destroy this country, and billions of dollars, so this won't be happening over night, but it had to begin, and it has. Maybe you'd like to help as everyone can have a say and the more who do, the more likely we are to succeed. But once the election of 2008 failed to even begin to make the changes people wanted, this movement became inevitable.

[inna]

7. Huh? Whut?

LOL, :wtf:

[ellisonz]

5. Can we please not make Nazi Germany comparisons?

Call it fascism - that's fair - but Brown Shirt is a very specific historical term.

:shrug:

[steve2470]

6. +1 nt

[JFN1]

8. Why?

If you can give me another historical parallel that fits as well, I'd be happy to use it.

[ellisonz]

9. Sure.

I think for some of us here when we start seeing Nazi terminology loosely flung around it diminishes the meaning of the Holocaust .

You could make a similar comparison to the American Revolution:

Loyalists were American colonists who remained loyal to the Kingdom of Great Britain (and the British monarchy) during the American Revolutionary War. At the time they were often called Tories, Royalists, or King's Men. They were opposed by the Patriots, those who supported the revolution. When their cause was defeated, about 20% of the Loyalists fled to other parts of the British Empire, in Britain or elsewhere in British North America, especially Ontario and New Brunswick, where they were called United Empire Loyalists. Most were compensated with Canadian land or British cash distributed through formal claims procedures.<1>

Historians have estimated that between 15 and 20 percent of the European-American population of the colonies were Loyalists.<2>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loyalist_%28American_Revolution%29

Or you could go back to Antiquity and make a comparison to the Roman Empire...