The Urgent Threat of White Nationalism

The scenes of horror that occurred in a temple of democracy, the United States Congress, should startle us all. Men and women who have been given a major dose of misinformation and hate, lashed their anger out in the halls of Capitol Hill.

The 6th of January, of the year 2021, will be a day that lives in infamy in the history of the United States. A country that has stood tall for the causes of freedom, liberty, and democratic norms, was a victim of a disease that has taken hold of many democracies around the world.

This disease is old and it’s transmission is known to us all. Hate, despair, anger, misinformation and propaganda. Which have been the factors that have driven people from civilized society to engage in such acts of extremism and terror.

Over the past few years we have seen more of these acts take place not only in America but across democracies around the world. The phrases of old turning into new scriptures and new versions of propaganda being disseminated not by loudspeakers but by Facebook posts and Instagram stories.

The vicious takeover of Capitol Hill sparks a major resemblance to the Reichstag fire that occurred not too long ago in history, and which helped propel a man and party into power that ended up with millions of people dead. Including six million Jews of Europe in the aftermath of it all.

The same ideology of Hitler, Mussolini, Generalissimo Franco are alive and thriving more than ever today. In the United States, this ideology doesn’t work with Nazi slogans or Nazi salutes. They bring with them Stars and Stripes and the Star Spangled Banner. With mobs like the Proud Boys to do the muscle work. With the same skill and precision as the Blackshirts of Fascist Italy.

On social media we can find far right extremists and white supremacist groups interacting, sharing information and posting fake messages that have already gotten innocent people hurt and killed.

The man who attacked the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, was a far right terrorist who believed that the synagogue was helping to bring in migrants from Central America. Tragically, this false conspiracy theory ended up costing the lives of eleven people. One of these victims was a Holocaust survivor, who survived Hitler’s death camps but fell victim to Far Right extremism once again. This time in the United States.

This was just one attack. White nationalists and far right extremist attacks have occurred in Germany all the way to New Zealand. With the perpetrators all having one ideology in common. The doctrine of hate, fear, and white supremacy. The same doctrine that drove men to commit genocide, neighbors to give up their own neighbors. Culminating with the march of European Jews to the slaughterhouse.

Today, with the start of a new year; we must fight this ideology of hate with all the strength we have. We cannot allow our societies to become overrun by voices of intolerance. This means always standing up for the marginalized, the people who might be different from us. We cannot become simple bystanders when the rights and the life of people are endangered and threatened. We must always remember that the voices who preach intolerance will always be small in numbers. Yet their reach might be grand when people of good will and values sit back and do nothing.

In our world we have politicians from political parties that preach messages of fear, anger, hatred to their political base. The Front National in France, the Republican Party in the United States, Vox in Spain, and AFD in Germany. With their messages being amplified by the use of social media, radio and the internet. People like this have no business entering the arena of politics or leading nations in a world that is more than ever interconnected and becoming smaller.

It is up to us, the overwhelming good people of society to see through their rhetoric of division and hold them accountable for their messages and action. For example, when we hear the line that is used by many voices on the right, that George Soros is behind a certain event. We must come to the realization that this is an attack on Jews. As George Soros has come to reference the stereotype of Jewish domination of society throughout far right wing movements. When we listen to politicians state that there are “attacks on Christmas’’ occurring or on “family values” we must come to the realization that multiculturalism and a more acceptable society is a threat to them.

But the buck should not stop with politicians and political parties. The news media must be held accountable for the actions they actively promote or allow to be promoted. This means always speaking truth to power and calling out those who without a worry, spew messages that are utterly false and help to expand the flames of division within our society from the comfort of a broadcasting station. Promoting falsehoods is not journalism and never will be.

Lastly, I believe it is critical that governments that are suffering from a rise in far right extremism, monitor and surveil what these members and groups are engaging in online. This means working with social media platforms to shut down groups and sites that promote extremism and dangerous conspiracy theories. As we are seeing now with Covid vaccines and elections. Without forgetting to arrest and prosecute those who might be planning to commit acts of terror. As was the case of the militia group that wanted to kidnap and assassinate the governor of Michigan a few months ago.

Many might argue that this might sound dystopian or Orwellian. But we must never forget the words of Karl Popper, the great champion of open societies. If we tolerate the intolerant and allow intolerance to gain the same admission as tolerance. We are opening the floodgates for a society where everything goes. In this world the truth or acceptance does not have a fighting chance. For truth and acceptance is the opposite of what fascists promote. There is no debate or arguing with fascists and their ideology. Reason and public discourse does not exist within the scope of their world. This is a major reason why the men and women who stormed into Capitol Hill cannot accept the results of a fair and democratic election. The world they seek does not give in to defeat or anything that is not their own point of view. That is why monitoring this behavior is so vital for the protection of open democracy and society.

Those who live in a free and democratic society, where we can laugh openly, think differently, marry who we want to marry, pray to who we want to pray to, are very fortunate. Every generation must add their grain of sand in order to make it better and protect it. It is much easier to lose a democracy than to create a vibrant one. Open societies tend to fall in times of despair and economic distress.

In the middle of a pandemic with the economic aftershocks that are soon to come with ferocity, it is important that governments act in the interests of their citizens and implement policies of social uplift.

During the Great Depression, the United States was on the brink of falling to the lust of fascism. It took a leader with courage and valor in FDR to move the country forward.

Now our predicament is Covid-19 and an economic system that for too long has left people behind. With the growing rise of discontent and extremism, it will not be enough to just monitor these groups. Jobs need to be created, the government must meet its needs of protecting people from the evils of society, violence and poverty. Which more often than not drives people into joining radical groups, in this case far right extremism.

We don’t know what the future might hold. But the one thing we have to our advantage is the hard lessons humanity has learned from movements of hate that have transpired during the course of human history. Let us not repeat the same mistakes.

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