The above picture was censored for years. What would the public have thought if it knew that thousands of people were being herded up on the West Coast and sent to prison camps without due process of law? The United States Government had considered these pictures too inflammatory for public viewing until they were unearthed from the National Archives in 2006.
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Most people don't know that Japanese food was as common as Chinese food in the USA (at least on the West Coast) until World War 2. But, after Pearl Harbor Day, our government had a ready made excuse to strip everything of value from law abiding people and deny them their basic human rights.
Could this happen again? Of course!
We now have a president elect (at the time this blog entry was written) who has expressed a desire to force Muslims to register themselves with the Federal Government, so that the government could do what it wants after the next terrorist disaster. This is dangerous. This is the same president elect wants to put limits on 1st Amendment freedoms for the rest of us. Can you imagine what would happen if Alec Baldwin did a Saturday Night Live sketch that offended someone who had the power to incarcerate people without due process of law?
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We live in a culture where people live in fear. They pick and chose their news sources to conform to the way they imagine the world as being, and not as it really is. So their biases are confirmed and strengthened. Recently, one self appointed "examiner" went to a pizzeria to examine reports of a Child Abuse ring in the Pizza Parlor, associated with some high level Democrats. The problem, is that this jerk opened fire on people, triggered by fake news. This person acted as a self appointed police force without any hard facts, and put people's lives at risk.
Of course, I have posted the BBC links to the real story, and have shown only the tip of an iceberg. Fake news is being disseminated, and people believe it. Although this was not done by OUR government this time, it has happened in the past, and will happen in the future. Thankfully, services such as Google and Facebook recognize the need to use Artificial Intelligence to filter out this misinformation. But it's not enough. People inclined to believe in conspiracy theories will do so no matter what facts are presented to them. They can't afford to challenge their beliefs. As the Archie Bunker character noted, "My dad was this way. How could this man be wrong?" When one is taught that right is wrong and wrong is right, how can a person come to a rational interpretation of the facts?
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The other night, I started to have a conversation with a woman I consider a moderate. I had posed the idea that Liberals should give up opposition to 2nd Amendment rights. Instead of opposition, Liberals should advocate that every law abiding person be required to own a gun AND to practice using it on a regular basis. My idea was to make it possible for people living in Blue States to resist being intimidated by those living in Red States, if we came close to having a second Civil War. She was horrified, as she realizes that we need gun regulation based on population density, and not arbitrary geographic boundaries. So this line of thought ("Should we increase the risk of violence in cities, so that we can protect ourselves in a war between rural and urban areas?") got shut down for a while, as it triggers great intellectual discomfort among liberals and moderates who live near big cities.
This is a big problem. How does one fight back against an armed opponent? Should we be taking butter knives to gun fights? This is an issue that Liberals must tackle, both as a metaphor, and as a literal statement. Liberals have to become serious in defending their rights - even if that defense has to use tactics which Liberals find abhorrent.
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Life is all about risk management. People (by instinct) want to eliminate each and every risk in their lives. When they can't cope with what life puts before them, they give up hope then make big mistakes. Sadly, enough people gave up hope and chose someone who could be a tyrant. They have put their faith in the wrong things, and now the piper will be paid. These will not be pleasant times for most of us, and I hope we finally learn to see through the fog and act a little more rationally 2 and 4 years down the road.
It's a little unfair to be using the image of Hitler. But it's easy to understand Germany's acceptance of this man, given the humiliation that Germany endured after World War One. With riots in the streets, the German people could be easily seduced by any demagogue promising peace, order, and good government - none of which were delivered to the people of the Reich.
Today, we know more about how people choose authoritarians, and why people choose them. An article in Vox describes how the Trump phenomenon came about, and why he is attracting support. Sadly, all the signs of another authoritarian government coming to power are there - people who value order above freedom, people who sacrifice liberty for security, in short - people who are afraid of the future, and want to restore the glory days of the past. It is no accident that Trump's motto is "Make America Great Again." But when did it stop being great?
Trump is known for making deals that benefit only himself. Is there any evidence that his MO has changed? A Trump administration is likely to be one of the most corrupt administrations America will have ever endured, as he has used questionable business practices to build his empire. He is a con man, someone only interested in making his deal, and has no interest in seeing that the I's are dotted and T's are crossed.
Recently, on Vice TV, they documented about the squalid working conditions that "guest workers" (read, defacto slaves) live in while building the Trump International Golf Club in Dubai. Trump ignores laws that require we try to hire domestically first, and has staffed his exclusive resort, Mar-a-Lago mostly with imported labor. The man is a hypocrite and a total liar. Yet, none of his supporters give a damn.
What frightens me is that this man is so fickle. He has no consistency in pattern. He threatens to blow up any nation that doesn't bow to the power of a Trump America. Can we trust him with "the Button?" I doubt it. I'm afraid that America will make the same mistake in the 2010's that Germany made in the 1930's - with the same disastrous results.
How will we know this is happening? Let's look at what happened in Germany. In the 1930's they first rounded up the Homosexuals and Political Dissidents. Of course, we can not forget how many Jews were persecuted. Within 2 years of Hitler taking power, these people were persecuted. If we change the nation to America, go after Homosexuals, Transgenders, Socialists, and Muslims, we'd have the same situation as Germany had roughly 80 years before. We have already herded Indians onto reservations, and put Japanese Americans into internment camps, and lynched Blacks. It's not such a big step, given the size of our prison system (which incarcerates over 1.25% of our population, the highest percentage in the world) to expand it further to hold "undesirables". And it would not be inconceivable to make the new prisoners engage in hard labor. Does "Arbeit Macht Frei?" I doubt it.
If you think that going to Canada will make you any safer, please remember that Canadians are also under attack from their own authoritarian politicians. Could you imagine an "Anschluss" between the two countries? Heck, we were once both part of a larger British North America. I could see this happening.
Do I fear too much? Maybe. But stranger things have happened, and I am not comfortable (nor should you be) that Trump is running neck and neck with Hillary. I once said that I want America to be scared shitless with Trump. Sadly, I think that wish may just come true - and that Hillary may win a victory even closer than that won by Bush in November, 2000.
Recently, I was watching TV when Ben Carson said that he felt Islam was incompatible with the constitution, and that he was uncomfortable with a Muslim being president. Politically Incorrect? Sure! But he said what a lot of the people in mainstream America feel, and are voicing in both rural and urban settings. So why are the pundits giving him a hard time?
In an age where the Middle East is center most in the political debate, often ahead of jobs, education, and health care, the religion of a candidate for POTUS often gives us an idea about his/her thinking about an issue. Would you have wanted Joe Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew, having to deal with a possible rapprochement with Iran? I certainly wouldn't. But I wouldn't want either a Sunni or Shiite Muslim directly involved with the negotiations either - they may have too much emotional "skin" in the game to make a decision which meets the best interest of ALL Americans.
Carson did say that he was comfortable with a Muslim in the Legislative branch - as long as he/she subscribed to the basic secular values of the United States. And in many ways, most Americans support people who are not religious extremists being part of government at all levels.
The US Constitution says that no religious litmus test (my words) shall be used to qualify a person for running for any office in the United States. This is a good thing. But it doesn't prevent the individual from using a person's religion as a guide to how he/she would deal with certain issues. For example, POTUS is a 24x7 job. Would we want someone who "religiously" observes Shabbos to be president? I'm not sure. But we've already had a Christian (in the 1800's) who would not work on Sunday be elected president, and as a result, we actually had a day in our history where there was no sworn in President of the United States. Could we afford this today?
Years ago, people worried about JFK being Roman Catholic - Would he obey the Pope before fulfilling his duties to America? History tells us that he put America first ...after sating his sexual appetite. This is why we need to know as much as possible about a presidential candidate before supporting him or her. Sometimes, a person's religion can be simply posturing (as in the case of JFK) - or one of real belief (such as with Jimmy Carter). Either way, religion is an important factor in who we choose for president....
In the end, I think this will quickly become a non issue, but not for the reasons I'd want it to happen. Instead, the Democrats and the remaining GOP Candidates will be out gunning to take down Donald Trump, and not having a serious conversation about the role of religion in politics and government.
What is it that many devout Muslims find offensive about any visual depiction of their prophet? I can understand why they might find the pictures in Charlie Hebdo offensive, but can't they do what Christians do when Christ is depicted in an offensive way - look elsewhere?
These radical Islamists (like radical Christianists and radical Zionists) are a dangerous cancer eating away at our society. The use of terrorism to cause fear must be pushed back. But most of the mainstream media refuses to publish any of the pictures that catalyzed the deaths that just happened in France. Why? They are afraid! This is why we must insist that these pictures are published - to insure that people know why the murderers committed their crimes and why we must protect satire at all costs, as satire is the most valuable of speech protected by the 1st amendment.
Years ago, Charlie Chaplin said that he would never have made "The Great Dictator" had he known how evil Hitler was. To me, that would have been a great crime in itself. Only Chaplin could put Hitler in proper perspective - as an evil man who was out of control and wanted to rule the entire world.
We have a choice as Americans - run and hide, or defend free speech. Years ago, Larry Flynt was asked why he appealed an obscenity ruling against Hustler Magazine. He responded that he believed that it was important to defend obscene satire - and the Supreme Court of the United States agreed, in an 8-0 unanimous verdict. He could have given up, but he didn't.
Yes, I find Flynt a vulgar man - unlike his then peers, Hefner (Playboy), Guccione (Penthouse), and Goldstein (Screw). But I respect him and his peers (especially Hefner) for their work to preserve the protections of the 1st amendment. And I feel that it is important that we support the right to be offensive, for if we don't support it, our freedoms will be whittled away by those who want to act as moral police....
