As we discussed some time back, whenever the Party of Personal Responsibility is called to do something mildly inconvenient, one of its favorite strategies is to compare itself to a victim of the Third Reich.
Whether it’s having to show a little consideration to the medically vulnerable…
Or consider the feelings of those who have lost children to the latest Gun Cult slaughter…
The MAGA cult is always ready to spit on the graves of six million victims of Nazi barbarism in order to platform its sociopathic narcissism and outraged sense of privilege, victimized by the mere existence of other people’s needs.
Given such a massive sense of entitlement, it is therefore not surprising that when the Party of Personal Responsibility is not merely asked to consider somebody else, but to own up for its actual crimes, it completely loses its mind:
To all the conservative panic-mongers screaming “YOU’RE NEXT! YOU’RE NEXT!” like the hero in INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, let me say to them what I say to the man who used to be Ben Stein, by taking a cue from Martin Niemoller:
First they came for the racist landlords and I said nothing because I was not a racist landord.
Then they came for the fake cancer charities and universities and I said nothing because I was not a fake cancer charity or university.
Then they came for the sex predators and I said nothing, because I was not a sex predator.
Then they came for the corrupt cronies and I said nothing because I was not a corrupt crony.
Then they came for the violent insurrectionists and I said nothing because I was not a violent insurrectionist.
Then they came for the traitorous criminals stealing state secrets and endangering the entire world by leaving top secret nuclear information laying around for spies and global enemies to see and I said nothing because I was not a traitorous thief.
Then, they did not come for me, because I am not a criminal.
If you think they are coming for you, I can only assume you are a criminal or an aspiring criminal and are plagued with a guilty conscience.
Hear the word of the Lord: Repent!
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2 Responses
The key thing to remember about all this “They can do this to you too” rhetoric is they could already do it to you. If I were accused of stealing classified documents, I would have been arrested the same instant they raided my home, even if the accusations were totally false. If it had been my home instead of Mar-A-Lago, it’s not unlikely I’d still be in jail “awaiting trial” until they could find something to pin on me to retroactively justify their raid. (I’d say if I were black, it would be a certainty, but to be honest a black person in that situation would probably just get shot.)
What they’re mad about is, perhaps ironically, the fact that they are being treated like anyone else. They’re supposed to be the Great Men the law protects but does not bind, safely segregated from those it binds but does not protect. Consequences are supposed to be for the little people.
So I hope that makes it clear that I’m not defending the intentionally-poorly-disguised nazis pretending to be nazi victims when I say: “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear” is also nazi rhetoric. “They did not come for me, because I am not a criminal” is famously not what happens under nazism or fascism or authoritarianism generally. As you recently pointed out.
So your assumption strikes me as awfully bold, coming from someone living in a fascist police state.
The key thing to remember about all this “They can do this to you too” rhetoric is they could already do it to you. If I were accused of stealing classified documents, I would have been arrested the same instant they raided my home, even if the accusations were totally false. If it had been my home instead of Mar-A-Lago, it’s not unlikely I’d still be in jail “awaiting trial” until they could find something to pin on me to retroactively justify their raid. (I’d say if I were black, it would be a certainty, but to be honest a black person in that situation would probably just get shot.)
What they’re mad about is, perhaps ironically, the fact that they are being treated like anyone else. They’re supposed to be the Great Men the law protects but does not bind, safely segregated from those it binds but does not protect. Consequences are supposed to be for the little people.
So I hope that makes it clear that I’m not defending the intentionally-poorly-disguised nazis pretending to be nazi victims when I say: “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear” is also nazi rhetoric. “They did not come for me, because I am not a criminal” is famously not what happens under nazism or fascism or authoritarianism generally. As you recently pointed out.
So your assumption strikes me as awfully bold, coming from someone living in a police state. Not as bold as rewriting an anti-nazi poem into a long-form restatement of a nazi slogan, but still pretty bold.