This is not hard, people. It is not nuanced. The bad guys last weekend were the ones doing the Nazi salute. Literally. Doing. The. Nazi. Salute. Look at the goddamn picture.
If you’ve been on the fence about this, if you’re one of the ones saying “well, both sides,” congratulations! You would have enabled the Nazis to kill millions during WWII. It is time—past time—for decent Americans to stand up and fight Nazis, the actual face of evil. If the picture above doesn’t do it for you, if the murder of a counter-protester by a white nationalist terrorist plowing his car into a crowd doesn’t do it for you, if hundreds of years of shitty American history doesn’t do it for you, then I’ve got news for you: you’re a white nationalist sympathizer. To put it more directly, you’re a white nationalist, whether you’ve ever gone to one of their rallies or not.
But also also? You’re losing. YOUR SIDE IS LOSING BIGLY.
- White nationalists are being slammed in the media. Slammed.
- They’re also not very popular with Virginia officials like the Charlottesville mayor and the Virginia governor.
- You’re being outed on Twitter and elsewhere, and you’re losing your jobs.
- Even mainstream conservatives like Orrin Hatch—goddamn ORRIN HATCH—are calling this shit what it is: evil Nazism.
- White nationalist site The Daily Stormer was told by their web host that they have 24 hours to find a new home.
- And this dude is not welcome at Thanksgiving dinner.
That’s not what they expected, these white nationalists. For the past several years, they’ve been using the internet to mobilize, to gather, to organize. And while the internet is powerful in that it enables us to find like-minded people, it can also be misleading as to the numbers of those people. They thought, they really thought, that they would spark a white power revolution with their violent protests; that’s why they showed up with guns and shields and torches, that eternal symbol of the angry mob. But they may be learning that the internet, powerful as it is, can also function as an echo chamber. When you only hear voices that agree with you, you start thinking that everyone agrees with you.
So they brought their paramilitary gear and their tiki torches and their white power slogans, and they thought they’d start a race war, that most of the white people across the nation would join in. Yeah, no. We’re not having a war between black and white. We’re having a war between wrong and right.
As I said, though, there are still a lot of (mostly white, natch) people who are trying to avoid taking a stand. There’s a lot of “both sides are wrong” rhetoric going on. I’m calling bullshit on that, and here’s why. The concept of “live and let live” only works if both sides are willing to let the other side live. White supremacists, by definition, are NOT willing to let black or brown people, women, LGBTQ people, non-Christians (because this bullshit absolutely is driven by dominionism) and others live their lives. They demand that whites remain in ultimate power and fight every attempt to provide a way for others to live without undue interference. “Live and let live” is an unofficial peace treaty, and white supremacists have broken that treaty. They have smashed it to bits over and over, not for decades, but for centuries, and societally, they’ve gotten away with it.
NO MORE.
No more, Nazis. We are done here. We are fighting back. We are not going to have a repeat of WWII Germany. If you know you identify with white supremacists, also know this: we will not honor your Confederate statues of slave-owning assholes (and no, that’s not history; history would be if you showed those same assholes beating slaves or perhaps surrendering). You’re a losing group that idolizes two traitorous loser groups of the past. You cannot be Nazi and also be a loyal American. You cannot consider yourself a Confederate and also be a loyal American. But if you think that doesn’t describe you, that you simply want to see both sides and just want everyone to get along, then know THIS: more than ever, you cannot refuse to choose. The Nazis were enabled by “decent people” who simply looked the other way. Today is the day you must take a stand. Nazism is evil. White supremacy is evil. And all that is required for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing.
Elie Wiesel, who was imprisoned in Auschwitz, where his parents and sister were murdered, said it best: “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormenter, never the tormented.”
We’re making history here. You’re on a side whether you want to be or not. Choose wisely.
