Well said, Thom. You had the same sort of gratuitous anti-gay attacks during the vicious McCarthy period too. And while this whole topic is far too big to discuss here, it certainly has been a tool of bigots for a long time. (Funny story: As an innocent American teenager in 1931 my mother wandered into a Berlin cabaret. Decades lat…
Well said, Thom. You had the same sort of gratuitous anti-gay attacks during the vicious McCarthy period too. And while this whole topic is far too big to discuss here, it certainly has been a tool of bigots for a long time. (Funny story: As an innocent American teenager in 1931 my mother wandered into a Berlin cabaret. Decades later, after seeing the movie set exactly in that time and place, she said, "Oh, I wondered what all those strange people were doing in the corners.")
But more seriously, the whole idea of victimhood runs deep in our society. I well remember discussing it with a friendly Christian fundamentalist who kept going back to the “current persecution of Christianity” as though it was Nero's time. He got confused when I pointed out that the courts, the presidency and Congress were all filled with members of his faith. So he fell back on attacks by,”the liberal press", which I guess included the “War on Christmas.” I had to go over how it was a long time since the Fairness Doctrine was in force.
Of course his phrase about “liberals” can easily slide into "Jews", but the point is that once people think of themselves as victims--either economic or social--it's easy to find someone else to blame. Fascists know this and use it all the time. Putin’s reframing his terrible war as protection for his own people from the corrupting influences of the West (and explicating naming sexual issues) is just one current example. When you get down to it his rationale isn’t that different from what the Republicans are doing.
Well said, Thom. You had the same sort of gratuitous anti-gay attacks during the vicious McCarthy period too. And while this whole topic is far too big to discuss here, it certainly has been a tool of bigots for a long time. (Funny story: As an innocent American teenager in 1931 my mother wandered into a Berlin cabaret. Decades later, after seeing the movie set exactly in that time and place, she said, "Oh, I wondered what all those strange people were doing in the corners.")
But more seriously, the whole idea of victimhood runs deep in our society. I well remember discussing it with a friendly Christian fundamentalist who kept going back to the “current persecution of Christianity” as though it was Nero's time. He got confused when I pointed out that the courts, the presidency and Congress were all filled with members of his faith. So he fell back on attacks by,”the liberal press", which I guess included the “War on Christmas.” I had to go over how it was a long time since the Fairness Doctrine was in force.
Of course his phrase about “liberals” can easily slide into "Jews", but the point is that once people think of themselves as victims--either economic or social--it's easy to find someone else to blame. Fascists know this and use it all the time. Putin’s reframing his terrible war as protection for his own people from the corrupting influences of the West (and explicating naming sexual issues) is just one current example. When you get down to it his rationale isn’t that different from what the Republicans are doing.