"Total Moral Collapse"
I think Paul Staniland has hit it on the head - after Trump's last press conference the US has suffered a "Total Moral Collapse" of its federal government.This is a serious problem as it has strong implications for law and order. In the vacuum created by this moral collapse, criminal organizations will move resolutely to undermine law and order.
As many of you are aware, whatever law and order means (how ever twisted that may be), it is held in place by the police departments of the land. A little known fact about police departments is that each houses a slush fund. In the US this fund is filled using the "Civil Forfeiture" process. By way of this process police departments across the US seize illegal property or just property from people who are too weak to push back against it with expensive lawyers. These funds have a purpose, they keep the departments functional. Given how varied police funding is in different parts of the US, the civil forfeiture amounts vary. Other slush funds are also around, mostly in the form of money/assets that is "borrowed" from special operations.
One of the most interesting documentaries to emerge out the Cville incidents was the work of Elle Reeve. In the documentary at the 9 min mark, a 3%er (or Oathkeeper) can be seen on the phone with some police official. The 3% er threatens to send "200 men with guns" to do something unless the Police official complies with his demands. This gave me a very Punjab 1980s vibe.
Armed men talking down to police officers is something I first saw in Punjab in the 1980s. After that point was crossed, the Police began bribing the extremists not to be hit. The slush funds built carefully over decades in the local PDs were quickly drained down as the Khalistani extremists (now chock full of random criminal elements) began to demand a higher baksheesh not to kill cops.
I feel we are in a similar place in the US. A number of police forces are infiltrated by Nazi sympathizers. It is difficult to gauge the extent of infiltration but risks of this kind of thing multiply in mofussil areas where police forces are small and there just aren't enough resources to do anything at all. It is in such areas that the Nazis with their heavy weapons can overwhelm local policing resources and compromise the slush funds.
Once those slush funds are under the control, they will try to establish a mafiosi system which pays them instead of the local PD. In this way the Nazis will supplant the local government.
Readers should recall that the Nazis were able to carry out the bulk of the holocaust in a very short time because they quickly reorganized local police units and reserve units to perform the actual task of genocide. These units had already been infiltrated by genocidal persons like Christian Wirth and so they were able to adjust to the needs of the task of mass murder.
I think we should recognize that to Donald Trump's failed political platform the Nazis were nothing more than AstroTurf. The only interest Donald had in them was a political fodder for his divisive political campaign that appealed to the racial fragility of old white boomers. I guess in that sense the old white boomer is not that different from the old Hindu boomer in India. Both share a sense of cultural displacement and a racially driven sense of fragility.
But the reality of Nazism is that it is not anyone's AstroTurf. It is a persistent and unrepentant evil - a most horrific form of criminality that soon overwhelms those who seek to ride it into political power. Once this criminal beast is off the ground and running - there is often no way to stop it without killing a staggeringly large number of people.
By refusing to recognize these facts and pandering to some twisted sense of ego - Trump has failed to provide the critical leadership needed at this time. With him acting like this the USG will not be able to bring federal resources to bear on the Nazi problem and the cancer will metastasize. It will most likely consume the police forces - that most vital organ of our civil society.
I can't say I am surprised - Trump is not known for his ability to lead - only for his ability to beguile.
posted by maverick @ 5:24 AM
10 Comments:
exactly. another salem witch trial is evergreen college brandishing prof. weinstein as a "racist" which is laughable in its ridiculousness. also the image of a bunch of transgenders and lesbians roaming the campus with baseball bats while the college administration suspended law enforcement. it...it...staggers reality. uh, houston, we have a problem here....apollo 13
and for those who wish to ban hate speech here is what the supremes have to say about it.....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/06/19/supreme-court-unanimously-reaffirms-there-is-no-hate-speech-exception-to-the-first-amendment/?utm_term=.ebac7bbcb155
Dear Wise_Ass,
How nice of you to come visit just after Subramaniam Swamy tells US Hindus to rush to Trump's defence.
At least now I know who pays for Swamy these days.
There is "hate speech" and then there is marching in front of a Synagogue carrying machine guns, Hitler slogans and Nazi flags while hurling anti-Jewish epithets at the unarmed congregation.
This is how it begins.
First its hate speech, once they get away with that, they start burning the synagogues and then they crank up the gas chambers.
The train only leads to one place.
This comment has been removed by the author.
what could happen is a constitutional ammendment to limit hate speech. its happened before with the prohibition of alcohol.
mass hysteria and cult activity is democracy's weak spot. it is rather scary to depend upon people's common sense and decency which has failed all too much down thru history. william tyndale was burned at the stake after strangulation for writing the english language bible. yes, I am a friend of tyndale.
"The surest way to work up a crusade in favor of some good cause is to promise people they will have a chance of maltreating someone. To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior "righteous indignation" -- this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats." ~Aldous Huxley
Dear Wise_Ass,
Unfortunately it only took a thousand or so upconverted German police reserve officers to actually commit genocide. And that was before nuclear weapons.
Now given the threat that exists, one cannot afford to take chances - even a few hundred people openly espousing Nazi ideology is cause for extreme worry.
Nazism does not come in well recognized wrappers every time. It can present in innocuous ways. The odd homicidal fancy is one thing, but a deep seated desire for genocide is something completely different.
Perhaps they see themselves as "nationalists" or "free speech advocates" or "guns rights activists" or "misguided teens who like to say offensive things"... it doesn't matter to me, if they act in certain ways - they will be counter as Nazis IRL.
The question of whether internet sampling is more accurate of the spread of Nazi ideas or if one should pay more attention to what is going on in meatspace - that is an open one. But one cannot afford to take chances.
If the ideas are spreading - then we have a problem.
Given the amount of open source information that is out there about what happens when you flirt with these ideas, there is no reason why even one person should want to subscribe to such notions.
So - this is a threat - a very real one.
Trump may think he can ride this tiger - he cannot - it will consume him the same way it consumed Hindenburg in Germany.
There is a reason why I like Tom Clancy's Sum of All Fears. It captures this aspect very succinctly.
The old "Facism is the fault of the Left" trope is rolled out when all logic has failed.
Sundar Pichai did the right thing firing Damero. The real question is whether people would even be talking about it if Larry or Sergei had done it. Damore needs to get over himself and get back to work instead of whining about how life was unfair to him.
Perhaps Damore should reflect on German history. Millions of Germans subscribed to similarly regressive views in the belief that it would grant them some form of enduring supremacy. All it got them was the ashes of Dresden.
That I fear is a lesson that some people in the world want to re-learn.
Post a Comment
<< Home