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Anti-fascist liberal arts college professor
brutalizes Nazi, who has a permit |
The tragic events at Charlottesville and UnPresident Trump’s embrace
of Nazis and KKK members provide for a teachable moment on fascism and
race. The rise of the American fascist and racist far right-wing, of the
sort that festered and spread from the state of Wisconsin, threatens
national and global well-being and security. Historically lynching and
gassing of individuals based upon their race or religion have been
strongly resisted in America (albeit sometimes disturbingly late) at the
cost of nearly a million U.S. anti-fascist lives. Yet GOP political
figures such as Government Walker of Wisconsin refuse to repudiate the
hate of his voters. Listen closely: under no circumstances will threats
of murder and enslavement of non-whites and non-christians be tolerated.
Nazis and KKK are UnAmerican, and will be resisted using all means
necessary. Start by refusing to vote for candidates whose supporters
include Nazi and KKK members. There is no backing down when faced with
fascist hate; and we must seek love-based, yet forceful, unity in
resisting such monstrous evil. There will be no further American
genocide.
“Jewish Americans and immigrants should not have to worry
about being incarcerated in concentration camps and whether their
children will be gassed. Nor should black Americans fear lynching and
enslavement. This is evil incarnate… It is duty of all true Americans to
resist fascist, racist and anti-science hate as if our shared survival
depends upon it, it does.” — Dr. Glen Barry
By Dr. Glen Barry,
EcoInternet
THERE IS NO GOING BACK
Centuries of human progress are at risk as fascism and racism are
again resurgent in America. Enormous strides have been made in recent
decades towards racial, sexual, and religious equality. The world is a
more just and fair place as slavery has been largely eliminated,
religious guarantees solidified (including the right to not believe),
overt racism and sexism are in decline (though issues with systematic
discrimination remain), and non-white ethnicities’ political rights
established.
Sadly the societal diseases of state-based racism and fascism are
flaring up again, and in the United States of America no less. Granted,
America was conceived in genocide of Native Americans and slavery of
Africans, yet the nation had until recently become a beacon of perpetual
self-improvement. Appallingly fascism’s rise is occurring as humanity
is faced with a plethora of social and ecology crises – such as climate
change, ecosystem collapse, inequity, injustice, and perma-war – any one
of which could kill us all. At this critical juncture, humanity cannot
afford the distraction of again having to fight monstrous evils which it
was thought had been long banished.
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Right-wing terror is UnAmerican |
Let’s be clear. Nazis murdered 6 million Jews in WWII and in total
over 80 million deaths resulted from the rise and defeat of the fascist
disease. In the American South over one-third of a million Africans were
kidnapped, tortured, and brutally enslaved; as the lunatic, treasonous
confederacy fought to continue this savagery. And over 4,000 black
Americans have been lynched by the KKK in the past 150 years as the
promise of racial equality went unmet.
We are one human family. And such filthy and vile ideologies have no place in civilized society.
The rise of the American fascist right is one of the gravest threats
to global peace, stability, and well-being the world has ever known.
Their grotesque ideology threatens the terror of mass murder and
enslavement. In recent years in the United States there have been twice
as many terrorist incidents by right-wing extremists as by Islamist
extremists. In recent decades 74% of US domestic terror attacks are by
far right wing violent extremists, who have murdered 106 people in 62
attacks.
Jewish Americans and immigrants should not have to worry about being
incarcerated in concentration camps and whether their children will be
gassed. Nor should black Americans fear lynching and enslavement. This
is evil incarnate.
The lesson from German Nazism and America’s post-Civil War is that
you speak out against, actively resist, and utterly destroy state-based
fascism and racism immediately as it arises or face much worse problems
later on. Such horrendous evil flies in the face of all that America
stands for and aspires to be. Villainous Nazis and KKK have no place in
American politics and efforts to again murder and enslave blacks and
Jews will be met by The Resistance and vigorous Anti-fascist
counter-measures.
America’s and the world’s hard fought gains in human rights will not
be so easily erased. Under no circumstances will psychotic homicidal
hate of the terrorist far-right be allowed to trump the peace and love
found in vibrant and tolerant multi-cultural communities based upon
universal principles of equality, racial harmony, social justice, and
basic human decency. There is no going back to Nazism and the KKK, and
there will be no further American genocide.
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Long history of anti-fascist resistance |
HOW DID WE GET HERE
Like many I have been appalled by the resurgence of Nazism and KKK
white supremacy (collectively referred to accurately here as “the
fascists”), and their recent murderous rampage in Charlottesville,
Virginia. And I have been shocked by the failure of the GOP – including
such leaders as UnPresident Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan, and my own
state’s second-tier Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker – to condemn in
uncertain terms rising right-wing hate.
While it is true that historically the Democratic Party was the home
of Southern racism including tolerance of the KKK, there has been a
political re-alignment. For decades now racists and fascists have become
a vital GOP voting bloc in the rise of their extremist right-wing hate
politics. There is a long established tradition in the GOP’s electoral
strategy of a wink-and-nod promotion of racial intolerance for votes and
funds. America’s current political malaise whereby we even have to
consider the re-emergence of the KKK and Nazism is the logical
consequence of decades of GOP bigotry for political advantage. What sort
of people vote for candidates whose supporters include Nazis and the
KKK?
The American government has been seized in a fascist coup by
treasonous UnPresident Trump. America’s government is in the hands of
the fascist wing of the GOP party. UnPresident Trump is emotionally
unstable, politically inept, morally bankrupt, and these traits along
with his fascist demeanor make him unfit for office. It is truly
shocking that UnPresident Trump can’t bring himself to condemn Nazis and
the KKK, for fear of alienating his political base. This and a whole
slew of other actions have shown #CreepyDonald to be a filthy, vile,
charlatan, authoritarian demagogue, madman bent upon waging war on
non-christians and non-white men, American and international security,
and even truth and science.
Again, all peace and truth loving Americans are called upon to
find meaning in nature and #TheResistance to Trump Fascism.
I have been an anti-fascist campaigner since first witnessing
fascism’s rise in my home state of Wisconsin nearly a decade ago. There
Governor Walker – a former college classmate of mine for which I have only derision
– has a long record of racist campaigning. I remember well when Scott
Walker was in college running for office and compared himself to Martin
Luther King, showing his total detachment from reality.
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Governor Scott Walker is a balding fascist |
For decades Walker has used suburban hate of Milwaukee blacks for
political gain.
Authoritarian fascism began to re-emerge with Walker’s
war on workers, the environment, and education. Under his reign it is
not unusual to hear racial epitaphs in rural Wisconsin, something I
never encountered as a child or young man. Walker’s political rise in
Wisconsin has been built upon consistent race-baiting and support from
racists, and the Wisconsin GOP has created the current environment where
Nazis and the KKK are ascendant.
Given Walker’s history of race-baiting, it is not surprising that he
supports UnPresident Trump’s warm embrace of Nazi and KKK ideologies.
Both Walker and Trump are fascists. Governor Walker is complicit in
UnPresident Trump’s treasonous, anti-science, racist, war-mongering
hate. Walker’s electoral success shows that Trump’s political ascent is
far from an aberration, and reflects the heart and soul of the
Republican Party. As the Gubernatorial election nears in Wisconsin, we
must never forget the current intensity of GOP hate started with
Walker’s attacks upon workers.
It is hardly surprising Scott Walker refuses to condemn Trump’s white supremacist bigotry, as he is a racist too.
My warnings of fascist Wisconsin were widely ridiculed and ignored.
It doesn’t seem that my decade long predictions of American fascism were
so wrong after all. Nor should my avocations on what is required to
address fascism be dismissed. There is no backing down when faced with
fascism.
NEVER AGAIN
There is a lot of nonsense spouted by the right regarding political
ideologies. Nazis were not socialist, they were right wing extremists.
Fascism is a political ideology based upon nationalism, militarism,
racism, corporatism, scapegoating and more. Similarly anti-fascism is a
philosophy, not a physical group, that opposes fascism, with many
divergent tactics to strategically destroy right-wing hate.
Anti-fascists are committed to disrupting the activities of those
committed, by their own words, to carrying out mass genocide against
entire races. History shows us that by the time the fascists have
attained state power and genocide has commenced, it is too late to stop
mass murder and large-scale wars of fascist resistance.
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At all costs, the horrors of the Nazi holocaust must never happen again |
Over one million Americans died defeating the twin monstrous evils of
Nazism and the confederacy. And under no circumstances must such
vicious and intolerable ideologies be allowed to resurface and spread.
There will be no American concentration camps where fellow human being
are imprisoned, overworked, gassed, and burned. Nor will any Americans
of any ethnicity ever again fear being enslaved. The work to abolish
systematic racism still inflicted upon non-white persons must continue
apace.
As Nazi fascism and KKK racism again rise in GOP America, there is no
neutrality. You are either anti-fascist, or a Nazi and KKK
collaborator. At first it is up to all stable and confident Americans to
ask nicely for rhetoric promoting the murderous hate based upon race to
stop. But at some point, more direct actions to utterly destroy the
metastasizing disease of racist fascism are entirely justified. It is up
to each of us to decide to what extent and how we will resist fascism
and take responsibility for doing so.
One thing I know for sure – fascists must be confronted and revealed
as the monsters they are, or their political extremism becomes
established and regularized. Under no circumstances must fascists be
allowed to rule the streets unchallenged, or their hate-mongering will
win, and we will all live in fear of arbitrary detention, work camps,
and murder.
Grieving fascist resurgence and establishment within American
government, I have been vacillating between which is the best response;
ridiculing, counter-protesting, or punching Nazis and KKK members. For
now it is best to show up in massive displays of pubic counter-protests,
and ridicule such repugnant ignoramuses given any opportunity. But
let’s not fool ourselves, these are violent terrible ideologies, whose
adherents are indeed deplorable, evil filth. We must never surrender the
streets to these foul fascists. And we may need to fight fascism again
to remain free and just, and we must be ready.
Of course non-violent peaceful protests are always the best means to
achieve lasting and just social change. There are numerous creative
means to protest, that stand up to fascism with community displays of
solidarity and love; including displays of righteous ridicule, such as
recently Tubas playing cartoon themes to troll fascist protests. Yet
sadly, realistically stopping the rise of fascism in America may once
again require meeting force with force. Anti-fascist punching of Nazis
may be required. Anti-fascists must never stand down, particularly when
Neo-Nazis hold the reins of governmental power.
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Nazis are not nice people, and generally you cannot reason with jack booted thugs |
THE ANTI-FASCIST WAY FORWARD
Being a Nazi or in the KKK is never OK. Hate towards non-whites and
non-christians is never OK. Maybe if Hitler’s jack booted thugs had been
asked nicely to stop hating, war and mass murder of innocents could
have been avoided. Probably not though.
Standing up to medieval anti-Semitic, white-supremacy, fascist hate
is the duty of all civilized people. All Nazi and KKK supporters should
expect to be resisted, and if their hateful threatening of others does
not stop, to be destroyed.
It is duty of all true Americans to resist fascist, racist and
anti-science hate as if our shared survival depends upon it, it does.
There are some simple steps that can be taken now to minimize the risk
of fascism.
Join me in calling upon Twitter to shutdown UnPresident Trump’s
account for his support of fascist and racist violence. Please take the
time to report his tweets, which clearly violate the Twitter terms of
service. Many other accounts including my own have been shut down for
far lesser reasons.
We must ensure that Trump’s reign is short, and even as we work for
impeachment, seek to minimize the damage. The fascist-in-chief must not
be allowed to use nuclear terror to advance his far right-wing GOP
fascist and racist agenda. To avoid global nuclear war at the hands of a
madman, the US Military must under no circumstances obey emotionally
unstable UnPresident Trump’s orders to launch nuclear weapons. There
must be no nukes for Trump. The military is called upon to join the
resistance.
Even as we confront fascism, and work to urgently address other
global emergencies such as climate change, we must all lower the tone of
our political rhetoric. It is time for a political force to arise in
Wisconsin and the nation that shuns political extremes, and seeks to
compromise and find truthful solutions from all sides. And we must vote
out of office all fascist and racist sympathizers.
In highly polarized Wisconsin, both the Madison Congressional and
Wisconsin Governor’s race would benefit from candidates from the
political center. Imagine Wisconsin and American politics free of
Republican fascism and Democratic self-entitled elitism; finding truth,
justice and well-being in the political center. Let’s start by voting
twin authoritarian fascists Scott Walker and Donald Trump out of office.
It is the SACRED DUTY of every true American to resist rising fascism
and racism with every ounce of their being. Never forget what happens
when Nazi fascists and Confederate racists seek to gain full state
power. The result is inevitably reigns of terror, mass genocidal murder,
and justified wars of resistance.
Let’s together end this Nazi and KKK bullshit and get back to saving the Planet.