I wake up.
I get my daughter up, make her lunch, get her clothes for the day, put her hair in a braid. Her grandma gets her breakfast ready.
We talk about mundane topics I cannot remember.
I go into the bathroom and look into the mirror. I notice the positive affirmations still written on sticky notes:
"Everything is going to be ok."
Then I glance through the news and think to myself,
I'll give this Nazi white supremacist named Bannon a chance. What's the worst that could happen? What's one group taken out, more or less? I'm not them so I should just be fine. I won't worry about what comes next.
Then I get my coffee and cream. "Everything is going to be ok", I tell myself, just like the positive affirmations still stuck to my mirror.
Now I happen to notice there's a low-grade anxiety that lingers inside my gut.
Something about a Nazi with power just doesn't sit right in my body. I had never even considered the possibility of this scenario. It never seemed like something that would happen in my lifetime. Something in my body doesn't feel right when I think about this. As I go back in forth in my mind, I take note of another thing happening inside me. The more I consider such a thing, the less shocking over time, it feels to me. The exposure of such an idea seems to be like having small doses of anaethesia sent into my system, each dose makes me more numb to the idea. The less I feel. I begin to gauge other people in my life for their reactions, to see if my reactions are unique to me. Others are shocked at first too, but as time goes on, their shock lessens. The anaethesia is being administered to them, too, in tiny doses, day by day.
I look back at the little sticky note, "Everything is going to be ok". I memorize the little saying, trying to push aside my internal signals that are still there, sending me warning of clear threats.
Everything is going to be ok
The hollow, empty sentence hangs on, drowning out reason, morality and common sense.
I turn away from the signals inside of myself and turn on my computer. I surf the internet mindlessly reading. I see that many of my friends have decided to just carry on as if nothing has changed. The low-grade anxiety returns. Some of my friends though have decided to listen to their internal signals.
Then I ask myself, "how did the Nazis first rise to power in Germany?" I do some research and discover the following:
The Nazis gradually devised an electoral strategy to win northern farmers and white collar voters in small towns, which produced a landslide electoral victory in September 1930 (jump from roughly 3% to 18% of the votes cast) due to the depression. Refused a chance to form a cabinet, and unwilling to share in a coalition regime, the Nazis joined the Communists in violence and disorder between 1931 and 1933.
The Nazis won their support primarily from the lower middle class and the peasantry. These voters were strongly nationalistic in their political views and feared that the depression would deprive them of their standard of living.
There is little evidence to support the view that Hitler received substantial financial support from big business. The conservative upper classes generally regarded Hitler as an uneducated demagogue and gutter politician. - Hitler's Rise To Power
And from Pookleblinky's Twitter we learn how obedience fits into the scenario that is currently being thrust upon Americans:
Each obedience test will occur after the results of the last have been sufficiently normalized.
There is never one single test, a poll asking "is it ok to kill Jews?"
Instead: a series of tests, each edging toward atrocity, each relying on the previous one to have normalized the outcome of this one.
The moment America normalizes the result of this obedience test, there will be another, with slightly higher stakes.
Those higher stakes will not look higher. After you put the first nazi in power, is a second one really that huge a thing to get around?
After you put a nazi in power, is him doing anti-semitic things really that shocking?
So: the next obedience test will have higher stakes, and will look as hard as this current one.
How you react to this obedience test, is exactly how you will react to the next. It'll feel just as easy/difficult morally.
It'll seem identical in stakes and difficulty as this obedience test. But, it'll have higher stakes, and take more effort to fail it.
That last test will not feel like it has any higher stakes, or any more moral difficulty, than the very first already forgotten test.
That last obedience test, pretty much sets the bar for how obedient you are. And, requires nothing but war as a means of disobedience.
How long? It took Hitler, in an age before instant ubiquitous communication, 4 months to lead up to that question.
Fascism moves, let us say, 5 times faster than you expect. You don't have 4 months, you have 24 days before that last exam question.
You have 3 weeks to loudly, visibly, and angrily disrupt the process that allows each test to set the baseline of normalcy for the next
After those 3 weeks, those obedience tests will keep coming, and will keep establishing the grounds of what is normal.
I look inside myself and it tells me that having Bannon, a confirmed White Supremacist is not ok. It will NEVER be ok.
This is the first obedience test spoiled Donnie is giving us, the American people. We will not allow this. We will not be sheep and we reject this first obedience test. You know deep within you that having a Nazi in power is not right. I'm asking you to look inside yourself.
What can you do to stop this? There are many things, but one simple thing you can do now is send a postcard to Trump Tower with the words, NOT BANNON written on it. Here are the details
fyi the part of about the positive affirmations stuck to my mirror is parody.
I believe you @stellabelle it will only get worse until Americans stop it. But I'll remind everyone: didn't start with Trump and will not end with Trump. Has nothing to do with Trump! The bad guys are not going to give up, they will not grow a conscience and just give up. Keep digging. Only question is how much will it take for enough people to wake up and stop being sheep (lol, I love that term).
Applying Hitler to Trump doesn't cut it. Same can be said about any president and any political party. Clinton had all the news media and all the banks supporting her. The entire establishment that you complain all the time. People just voted for some other asshole. That's the only difference.
Also. the NAZI argument is so stupid it got its own fallacy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law
Hitler was also vegetarian and loved dogs. He also drunk water. That applies to many people outhere. Again. Your post makes no argument and reinforces why America needed a bitchslap across the face.
Also another thing. Defcon Nuclear threat dropped to safest levels after his election. What does that tell you about the "nazi" narrative?
http://www.infowars.com/defcon-nuclear-threat-reduced-to-safest-level-following-donald-trump-victory-2/
you just upvoted your own comment!
Because I am not from USA I canot adress 100% this subject ...
As a normal person that exists in a society..yes!
So here it goes....
First O my goodness that guy was scary and somehow won...
Just as a normal discussion in my family ... we where wondering...if he wow in a fair election...and not something rigged...then what says this about the USA?
...He wants to build a wall....he likes to grab some cats for some reason and he is ashamed of his boldness . Yes I said it he is bald as..ff...
That was my first reaction....then when I heard of the stuff Hilary wanted and that her true love was nuclear war ...o well... I started to understand why people where so divided... But near the end there where other choices...other candidates....
And here I stop!
All I wrote was my reaction as a simple spectator in an election that reached my country too.
Then yesterday I saw on youtube what this BAINE...ugh sorry Baaannon ...O my im turning into a sheep now....
Ok enough with the jokes from my side ...but this is what I do in a terrible situation... I try to make a joke...and faill...
I seriously hope that things there in your country will be ok...
I mean my country just started to wake up after few decades of comunism...we had that lovely guy Ceausescu (no more...)
PS: I want to be the red sheep, because red sheeps are badasses.
Trump is a sociopath, with all the trimmings. We are fucked.
We're going the wrong way in politics. It's about fear instead of hope and division instead of unity. Build bridges, not walls
Agreed the only walls I see that are being built are paid for by Donald himself. Let us not just give in to his horible plans. We need unity in order to make changes for good.
Most people said: Hitler? Come on, he cant be so bad as he says. Its just election bullshit.
Those who don't have a good grasp of history don't see the signs of fascism, or choose not to see it. Demagogues are closely linked to fascists. Anyone who has been involved with a sociopath will understand what comes next.
YES, I'm glad you can see it. I keep telling my friends that Trump has Narcissistic personality disorder along with some signs of sociopathy and they can't see it! They can't see his distorted perception of reality or how he twists everything to soothe his fragile ego. They can't see the seething rage that lies beneath the fake charm and bluster. They can't see how dangerous this man is and I'm tired of the media and everyone else normalizing his attitude, his behaviour and his words.
exactly. Those who have experience with sociopaths and narcissists can see it clearly. The rest are lost.
I'm not lost. I'm not paranoid either.
the normalization has already begun.
Trump and Hitler are very alike, for example they both drank water!
You need better coffee. I may be able to help.
I thank you for this, I thought him to be a comparison to Joseph Stalin, but Hitler also works. if nothing is done then we can expect no less than a repeat of WW2 and all the evil that was done by people not wanting to see what really was coming. Let's hope things do change, I'm in for sending those postcards.
Another hope that some have is to change the minds of the electoral college. My wife found this link for resisted voters who are hoping for a change.
https://www.change.org/p/electoral-college-electors-electoral-college-make-hillary-clinton-president-on-december-19
Either way I hope that American do not just sit idly by while injustices are being done to other Americans.
In the beginning of Hitler, well before he had any power, most people shrugged him off as a "comic figure". No one took him seriously. From Trump's right hand man, the guy who does all Trump's dirty work, we learn that he functions more like the mafia than anything else. This is the way things are going down, through threats of violence. People are completely blind to this, because they have consumed the well-targeted propaganda, and they don't even realize it. Threatening a journalist, to the point where they have get 24 hour security guards to ensure they are not killed is not a normal way of politicians dealing with the press. Think about that for a moment. If you haven't seen this, I'd recommend just doing so now:
Fear and jealousy of women; always abundant
Wow, I new he had threatened her, I had not see this clip, but I did not realize the severity of what he had done. So we voted a known terrorist into office it appears. That is really worse than I had known, yet I new it would be bad.
Having been tricked by a sociopath before, I understand how they operate. I will tell you this: those who are guilty of violence, fraud and ill will are the first to accuse others.
The tongue is like the mirror into one's soul.
Anyone who's platform is based in violence, hate and threats, is one who is at heart a real fascist. Spoiled Donnie has always gotten his way. People have forgotten he is an elite, was given $200 million for doing nothing.
It agitates him to his core when people, especially women don't bow down to his every whim.
I still can not see how so many people did not see this through out the campaign. I did not watch much news but I could tell that is who he was. So far, one positive is that it seems the Republican party all hates him and I hope they go ahead with a lame duck session stopping all his attempts to do anything.
People only see what they want to see.
And I suppose Obama didn't have any hench(wo)men ?
This is interesting food for thought. I hope you are wrong but I have become more cynical over time. If it has happened before it can certainly happen again. To be honest I am all over the place right now - I'm trying to stay positive too but Trump is not making it easy by making these kinds of choices. The US presidency doesn't just affect the US it affects us all (especially the UK as official poodle to America). I just hope you are wrong about this hunch.
Thank you @stellabelle - but please .... everything in your life is not going to be 'ok', everything in your life is going to be wonderful, magnificent, fulfilling and inspirational to others!
Being a realist with a generous helping of pessimism will probably put me squarely in the 'ok' category. By the way, that was satire as well. I don't believe that anything good comes from complacency.
Not fundamental to what you are saying, but the "There is little evidence to support the view that Hitler received substantial financial support from big business" you quote is untrue. Big business, and also the upper classes, were more scared of the communists than of Hitler, and big business saw some nice opportunities.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Meeting_of_20_February_1933 for Hitler's financing by big business.
"The Nazis won their support primarily from the lower middle class and the peasantry. These voters were strongly nationalistic in their political views and feared that the depression would deprive them of their standard of living." is also doubtful. The depression had already deprived them of their standard of living, and not just the lower middle class, but the whole middle class was a good source for Nazi votes. It wasn't all about nationalism, but also about jobs.
I will look into it. What I was researching was how the Nazi party first began to gain power and from the very beginning stages, it appears that
Reading this worries me because we may very well see street wars. As Trump's economic policies favor the billionaire class and more lower middle class white folks become unemployed, they will blame immigrants even more with egging on by Trump in this regard. It becomes a vicious cycle. Even if the economy tanks, he won't lose that population he won over in 2016: they will become more dedicated to him and the race wars will grow. Trump will stoke these fires.
The topics you bring up in this post are crucially important. I love your post. I don't think it should be constrained to Trump though.
This quote is the last sentence of the only appendix of a 1869 book named No Treason The Constitution of No Authority
I wouldn't say unfit to exist but I would say the constitution doesn't guarantee anything. What we believe in needs to be fight for on a daily basis. I would also argue, as someone on Steem have put it that the system in place is more akin to electing a king or queen for some X period of years than a truly respectable essay at a fair system of governance.
I hope you'll continue writing on this subject. There is nothing more important than our liberties.
Also I love your writing style. I wish I could express as eloquently as you do.
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Hoping to see many postcards arriving at 725 Fifth Avenue though. Thanks for not being a sheep and sharing your important message @stellabelle! The comparison with Hitler is absolutely fine. Bannon is an anti-Semitic racist, what else do Americans need to know?! Send these postcards or whatever, but don´t just look and be OK with it. Greets from Spain
Thanks so much for your fine and sane assessment!
Seguido y votado! Usted me sigue @Sandra16
to read your post and the entire comment section later! #savethecomments #thebestpostsarecomments
My daughter is fascinated with Hitler and his rise, How he was so powerful and yet such a small slim man who anyone could have dealt with.
Sound like you're from the EU. The real obedient sheep, swarmed with the so-called 'refugees'. Trump's nothing like this, just another populist when the real change is needed