I can’t believe I have reason to write these words, but it appears there is still some confusion in some people’s minds.
So here goes: Nazis are the bad guys. White supremacy, the ideology that led Nazis to commit horrible atrocities, is bad. The “alt-right,” basically a rebranding of white supremacy, is bad.
If someone is morally bankrupt enough to support or align themselves with white supremacy groups, with Neo-Nazis, with the Ku Klux Klan, with the alt-right, then they are – and excuse my tough language here – no-goodniks.
Phew, what a strange sensation it is to write those words, words which up until quite recently seemed quite unnecessary. I feel like I’ve just started into a rant trying to convince people that humans need a heart and/or decent supply of oxygen to maintain a healthy and active lifestyle, that rain is wet, that Weekend at Bernie’s 2 was a bad idea.
These are unassailable truths. Or so most people thought until recent events in the United States. Last weekend a white power rally – the largest in the United States in several years – was held in Charlottesville, Va., with protesters and counter-protesters making their opinions known.
The white power guys showed up with matching polo shirts and hardware store tiki torches, earning well-deserved derision for what looked like the world’s crappiest luau.
But something more sinister was at play, and events turned much more tragic the next day when the two sides clashed, culminating in a white supremacist ramming his car through a crowd of people, killing a woman named Heather Heyer and wounding several others.
For most of the world it was yet another indictment of the hate-filled white supremacist movement and the violence that results from their open and stated goal of wiping large populations from the face of the earth. For some, however, there was debate about who was at fault. Included in that number was the president of the United States.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides,” Donald Trump said the day of the attack, doubling down three days later by saying that there were “very fine people on both sides” of the clash. The white supremacists, after all, “had a permit.”
His remarks were widely criticized by people from all walks of life and all political stripes, although they did win praise from a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
I’m not going to debate the “very fine people” side of things. Maybe there were some very polite folks at the white power rally, people who take great care of their aging grandparents, who meticulously clean all of their creamed corn tins before putting them out for recycling. Maybe some of the people protesting the white supremacists do some unsavoury things themselves, like parking right next to you in an otherwise empty lot.
They are, after all, just people. We’re all flawed in some way. The contrast, however, is in what they are fighting for. White supremacists believe they are superior to others based solely on the colour of their skin and they wish to expel, do harm to, or even exterminate other groups of people from their lives.
On a more specific level, in this instance, people were fighting to preserve the placement of a statue of a Civil War general, a monument to a time when white people owned, bought and sold black people like property.
On the other side were people motivated by the simple goal of stopping white supremacism.
Was the Second World War so long ago that some have completely forgotten the history? I haven’t. My grandfather left his home in Saskatoon when he was 17 years old, lied about his age to do it, so that he could go to Europe and fight against Nazis, whose doctrine of white supremacy led them to commit horrible atrocities against millions of people, Jewish people in particular. And now, some 80 years later, hundreds of dudes in polo shirts are marching with garden candles chanting “Jews will not replace us!”?!?
There’s no “both sides” here. Maybe we need more relatable analogies to clear this up. In Lord of the Rings, the “alt-right” were the orcs, whining when they didn’t get a chance to eat the skin off of their enemies. They all ran away, mind you, when their leader – a creepy orange bag of gas sitting on top of a tower – was toppled. In Star Wars, the supremacists were the Empire, bent on controlling the entire galaxy through fear, force, and the destruction of entire planets with a “Death Star.” In the Second World War, the Nazis WERE THE F***ING NAZIS.
This isn’t about Republican or Democrat, rich or poor, left or right. This is about love and hate.
And yes, there are other bad people in the world, other hate-filled groups doing horrible things. But that does not mean it is OK to bring the core principles of Nazism back to life.
I’ve always subscribed to the idea that you should leave the word Nazi out of all arguments, that bringing it up immediately negates whatever point you are trying to make. But if people are showing up to a rally wearing Swastikas, they are the ones drawing the weird little moustache back into this picture.
And to those guys holding torches – do something better with your life! And if you aren’t a white supremacist but you end up at a protest where some of those standing beside you are wearing hoods or Swastikas, find somewhere else to spend your day! Find something to love rather than someone to hate.
There’s only one side for me. Call me old-fashioned – narrow it down to the year 1939 if you like – but I’m siding with my grandfather.
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