Last night I had the privilege of having dinner with
one of my favourite members of the legal community. We talked a bit about family
history and mentioned that one of his aunt’s had fled German controlled Czechoslovakia
for Shanghai during 40s. He’s Jewish and when mentioned that, I told him that
my step grandfather had learnt to speak German from Jews in Shanghai, who had
fled Germany and German controlled Europe.
What really struck me about my friend’s recalling of
family history is the fact that he mentioned that whilst most of his family got
out of Europe before the Nazi’s got serious about exterminating Jews, many of
their contemporaries thought Hitler didn’t really mean them. It was a case of “he’s
only going to go for the religious Jews,” and “not people like us who happen to
be Jewish but aren’t strict about it and we’re so integrated into society, we’re
actually like everyone else.”
This really struck me because we’re now living in an
age where nations in the places that the rest of us look up to are becoming increasingly
isolationist and things that were once considered “xenophobic” or “racist” and
therefore “unacceptable” are now being seen as “truthful” and therefore “acceptable.”
I think of the Pork Guzzling Young Muslim Politician
from Pasir Ris GRC who got the shock of his life when I told him that I got
turned off Donald Trump the day he got onto a podium and talked about “Mexican
Rapist.” Yes, I agree, all of us say “racist” things and have racist thoughts
and I have to admit that I am guilty of it too. However, whilst I may the odd “racist”
thought and say the “odd racist” thing, I am aware that it’s the ugly part of
me and I like to think that a lot of people are like that too. Then, there’s
the point that I’m a nobody and I’ll never get the levers of state power. So,
when I’m at my ugly best, I’m just ugly and most right-thinking people avoid
me.
However, it’s a different story when you talk about
people with pubic platforms and ambitions for public office. Let’s go back to
the fact that Adolf Hitler only succeeded at what he did succeed in because the
people gave him the levers of the machinery of the state. That gave him ability
to do the horrible things that he did. Had Hitler remained an unknown painter,
nobody would have cared about what he said or did.
How did Hitler get to where he got to? The answer is
simple, he found an easy target and the targeted them as the source of all
problems. Whenever he said anything ugly about the Jews, the mases thought he
was “telling it as it is.” The people with power thought he would be a “useful
idiot” and so many backed him. The people with a few brain cells gave him lots
of license because they didn’t treat him seriously and I’m sure plenty of
people said he probably didn’t mean what he was saying and so on. Like it or
not, Hitler was given the keys to the machinery of state and the rest is well
documented.
For the longest of time, targeting any particular
ethnic or religious group was unacceptable in any decent society. I think of
the late Jean-Marie Le Penn of the National Front in France who ran for the
Presidency five times. He hated every immigrant to France and his solution to
all of France’s problems was centred around removing every French person of
colour. Sure, he picked up votes but by and large the French voters thought of
him as a “crazy old man.”
Unfortunately, we seem to be forgetting the lessons of
the 30s. When Trump made his comment about Mexicans, you had lots of people
rushing to defend these comments as “he didn’t really mean it,” or “may be, he
didn’t say it very well.” Brushing Mexicans as rapist was a wonderful dog
whistle for the guys who can’t get laid and let’s just put it this way, guys
who can’t get laid tend to take it out on the reason why they can’t get laid.
Ironically, things have evolved and become more
sophisticated. In France, Marianne Le Penn has successfully rebranded the “National
Front,” and instead of ranting and raving, packages things in a simple but attractive
way. It’s gone round the world.
Just look at the difference between Trump 2016 and
Trump 2024. This time round things are more sophisticated, even if you have to
listen to the rants about “eating dogs” from time to time. Trump has managed to
get the “tech-titans” who once shunned him over to his side. This time he’s gotten
“Latinos” despite all his rhetoric about mass deportations. Ask enough people of
migrant stock as to why they’re voting for him and the answer is inevitably “He
means Latinos crossing the border and not people like us who are well
integrated into the rest of society.”
It cannot be a good sign when one of Mr. Trump’s big
backers appears to give Nazi salutes at the inauguration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2bbb-6Clhs
Sure, not all of Mr. Trump’s ideas were bad. As my
favourite Young Muslim Politician likes to say “Many Americans I know say he
grew the economy.” However, whilst economic growth is important, it cannot come
at a certain cost and let’s never forget that Adolf did grow the German economy
for a while.
Let’s face it, if economic growth was the be all and
end all of how you judge a government, then China’s Communist Party would be
the best in human history. To the credit of the CCP, they have brought more
people out of absolute poverty in a relatively short time (40 to 50 plus years)
and so they must be good, never mind the Tibetans and Uighurs that they’ve gone
out of their way to eradicate.
The public targeting of any particular group by anyone
seeking office should be a reason why you should NEVER let them have the keys
to the machinery of state. When someone, particularly someone seeking power blames
every social woe on “Indians/Chinese/Blacks/Muslims/Jews/Christians/Gays etc,”
they mean exactly that and not “Indians/Chinese/Blacks/Muslims/Jews/Christians/Gays
like us who are part of the mainstream etc. Also remember that if someone
target certain groups, they can definitely target yours when they run of
excuses.
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