Tags
democracy, electoral college, Heathen, Pagan, polytheism, shoa, trump, voting
Ladies and Gentlemen, we have reached a post I never thought I’d have to ever write. And much like the distant post of Nazi memes I never thought I’d write, this one is up there. I swear to Gods, I have not been hanging around /pol/, but folks, it seems /pol/ has come to us. So please, forgive me for what I am about to do.
It all started on the GoodBook. As most things these days seem to. Well, when they’re not starting on the Twitters. Of course, this started before this particular post appeared in my feed, and I am amazed at the idiocy of those wishing to pull this off, but yeah. I am, of course, speaking of people trying to get the Electoral College to “Revolt” come whenever it is that they’re supposed to vote, and instead of casting their votes for Trump, as was chosen by the people and our electoral system, they…go rogue and vote for someone else. Probably Clinton.
This, of course, would be a massive, unheard of, game changing break with tradition and history. It would also mark the end of the American Democracy, because presently the EC answers and obeys the voters’ will. Should they break with this tradition, they would instead be acting under their own will, and we would move instantly from a Democracy to an Oligarchy. But never the less, I am presented with this:
That’s right. Let’s just disenfranchise millions of people, destroy our traditions, upend our democratic republic, and institute a world where only a select, privileged few, have the right and the ability to determine who leads our country. Why? Because “fuck them, I didn’t win, and that’s not fair.”
Of course, you might be wondering what this has to do with Another Shoa. Well, that comes in here in a second.
That’s right, because some crazy dude on the internet claims “there’s a psychic connection between Trump and the Alt-Right!” that means, of course, that Trump is an anti-semite who wants to kill all the jews. Apparently he’ll just ship the Mexicans back and build a wall once they’re gone, but for the Jews?!?!?!?!?!
SHOA!!!!!!
Think I’m joking? This is the conversation that made me break down and write this:
Yeah, Trump, whose extended family and own Children are Jews…is gonna enact the next Shoa! And the only way to prevent the SHOA! is to go and disenfranchise all the Goyim who voted for Trump and prevent Trump from being the President as was democratically chosen via the laws of our nation!
Ladies and gentlemen, I fear we are no longer “Good Goys.”
I say this because apparently as a “white guy” my opinion on this matter is invalid. Look at me, just being a bad goy.
In fact, apparently for the thoughtcrimes of pointing out that “hey, doing this is going to be doing to others the very things you fear about to be done to you,” puts me in the “you’re a bully and I don’t have to listen to you” camp. Of course, that got said after I pointed out i was not a “white, straight, rich, protestant man,” so, you know. When you dodge the game of identity politics and racist dismissals, all there really is to fall back on is “you’re a bully.”
Because when I think bullies, I always picture the Goy telling people that the other Goy people are claiming is going to commit another Shoa is practically a Jew himself.
Oy Gevalt!
Look, I’ve got a bit of a unique perspective here. On the one hand, I spent pretty much eight years of my life living as an orthodox Jew and nearly converted. So it’s not like I’m ignorant or unsympathetic to the plight of the Jewish people. On the other hand I have spent almost fourteen years as a Heathen, watching and living under the onus of Racism and Nazism, where my religion and its symbols are publicly listed as “hate symbols” and their public showing as “hate crimes.”
I know what the Swastika means to Jews, and I know what it’s like to live in a world where the Jews tell me I may not possess, show, or share one of the holiest symbols of my ancestors. Where I may not discuss ancient beliefs, practice holy rites, of study in search of lost knowledge about my ancestors and their ways because it is offensive to Jewish People. Hel, it took decades just to get Mjolnir back to the point where we can wear it in public and have it officially recognized, and it still gets listed as a “hate symbol” sometimes.
I understand why the Jews fear another Shoa…but I also live in a world where I and millions of others are denied countless things that we have a right to possess…and may now even lose our democratic rights, because of a tyranny that is “justified” by that fear.
And
That’s
Bullshit.
But it’s exactly the kind of bullshit that got Trump elected in the first place. It’s exactly the kind of bullshit that will give the Alt-Right more and more power and influence. It’s exactly the kind of bullshit that, ultimately, would create another “Shoa.”
Because there’s one simple, fundamental fact that the people on that facebook post, and elsewhere who are arguing for the electors to switch their votes don’t seem to understand. Probably because they’ve lived in it for so long they don’t realize there’s any other way…or what it was like before. But I’ll try to explain it.
Democracy is nothing more than an unarmed, and usually non-violent, war.
Every couple years, people go out and they raise up armies. Through promises, through passion, however you like. And they lead these armies to the field of battle in the hopes that they will win the war, and get to rule and make their dreams come true. In our modern politics, the battlefield is the voting booth. And we’ve agreed to this “non-violent” form of war because it helps preserve our society. Not unlike the Eminiarians from the Star Trek episode A Taste of Armageddon.
But this “non-violent” war only works so long as we fight with our “computers.” So long as we respect the treaty between our various peoples. That everyone can show up if they want, they can vote for they want, and at the end of the day we accept the results of the war and we all go home and try to live in the following peace as best we can.
Few people seem to remember that the first time Obama was elected, McCain actually won the popular vote. But at the end of the day, despite their fears and anger, the Republicans accepted the results of the election and abided by the rules.
But here’s the thing, as soon as one side breaks the treaty…as soon as one side no longer is willing to play by the rules…the democracy ends. And when it ends, it takes with it the non-violent war.
Leaving only real war.
Now, this is something that the Left doesn’t like to talk about, or even consider, but the “Right” has spent the last several decades watching their way of life be eroded, attacked, vilified, demonized, and legislated out of existence. Where once a shopkeeper could work his beliefs, he now is made slave to those who insist he violates his morality. Where once their views on sex and gender was the norm, or at least accepted, they are now forced to watch as each sacred belief is demonized and exorcised from existence.
They have watched as their jobs vanished, their culture erased, their families destroyed, and constantly told that all these things happening to them were good and acceptable because they were evil because of their race, gender, sexuality, or creed. And after decades…they’ve had enough.
And so they found a general who spoke the words of their pain, and promised to fight for them. And so they rallied, and they marched, and they went into the little computers and they placed their vote. And they won the war. By a Miracle of the Gods Themselves, they won the war. The routed their foes. They reclaimed their human decency.
And now you have the very people who have been demonizing them for decades insist that, here, at the 11th hour…this victory be stripped of them, that their rights not only be violated, but erased from existence. People who insist that the computer be “blown up” so to speak.
Well then, the only option is War. Real, physical, violent war. The kind of war that burns cities to the ground. The kind of war that would ultimately lead to another Shoa as one side or the other purged the degenerates from their society. And honestly, I don’t like the “left’s” chances. Sure, they might have won the “popular vote” but they did so by such a tiny margin (3 million people, some of whom were dead, illegal voters, or felons) that both sides would essentially be evenly matched in terms of army size. But the Right has long been in possession of the superior firepower. And I’m sorry, but while the anti-facists might be skilled in placards and jackboots, those don’t hold up so well against rifles and regimented troop formations.
On the one hand, I understand the fear of the Shoa and long for a safe and peaceful existence. On the other though…I’ve long been made a second class citizen because of my religion and people, and my blades wouldn’t mind tasting the blood of those who insist they have the right to call themselves my masters regardless of their race, orientation, etc.
I am, ironically enough reminded of a Christian quote when I see all these people insisting the Electoral College revolt. “Forgive them father, for they know not what they do.”
But while they might not know what they do, Ignorance is no excuse under the Law, and what punishments they receive for their actions are completely justified.
Even if, Gods Forbid, it ends up being “Another Shoa.”
Hela Bless
Son of Hel 
So, reading your blog and then blogs of others post-election…all things considered, it’s taken me some time to figure out where I stand. Pre-election, I didn’t have a clue where I stood. On one side, I couldn’t stand Clinton because she so consistently flip-flopped her stance on various issue’s, and then the whole national security fiasco…. On the other side. I couldn’t stand Trump because here was a man who was speaking hatred and spewing forth racist comments without a second thought, a man who had no qualms turning a presidential campaign into a popularity contest. All through the race, I felt cheated. The political process felt cheapened- no one focused on a platform. Not really.
Post-election, I kept my judgment in check. Didn’t immediately jump on any bandwagon. Wasn’t sure if the friends I had telling me that Trump was a menace to society were correct or if the friends I had who supported him were correct. I’m not the type of person to judge anyone based on perceptions. I need action. I need to see what happens.
So I started paying attention to the news. I listened ad friends told me about blatant racist remarks made to them, voiced fears about what a Trump president “might” mean for them, and I was sympathetic but unsure that things were as bad as they were being portrayed.
I’ve watched as Trump had appointed men known to be racists, known to be misogynists (based on their histories). Watched as Trump has allotted potential cabinet seats to lobbyists whom he claimed he wanted to essentially eradicate. He said so much about being anti-establishment and about what he was going to do once in office, only to repeal, renege, or alter those promises once there.
I’ve watched as suicide hotlines have increased in call volume, worst it’s been since 9-11, and all I can feel is sorrow. How did a country, once brought together by the horrific events of that day, become this? How did we become so divided that friends are walking away from each other, people are sending relationships, and neighbors are vandalising each other’s property without a second thought towards the very real human being that is lurking underneath? How did we become a country that has forgotten what unity is? What humanity is?
I don’t care where the blame is laid. People don’t feel safe to walk down the street, and that is true on both sides. The fact that there are sides, the fact that there are lines being drawn when we are all Americans…that is what scares me. Because once we started drawing these lines, we started dehumanizing one another. We created camps of us vs them, and the us vs them theory of war has seen fruition multiple times over the course of history.
We’re supposed to live in a country renowned for solidarity, and yet it is looking more and more like a civil war is going to happen. There are strong voices on both sides of the line. There are valid arguments on both sides. But as our country continues to engage in this us vs them mentality, nothing gets done and everyone gets hurt.
I’m not saying everyone can be friends or even should be. But can’t we all at least be civil enough to another to disengage from the atmosphere we are creating that is turning more and more into the tension that typically precdes a civil war?
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Well, I can actually explain what happened very simply.
Identity politics.
The political left, for the last…30+ years, has been pushing for identity politics more and more because it groups people based on their “idenritites” (i.e. black, Hispanic, white, gay, jew, straight, etc). they did this because it was very easy to get people to commit to a tribalistic identity and then motivate them because of that identity. And the political right….let them. For whatever reason, the Right never mastered the art of breaking down IP and just ended up rolling with the punches as they were called racists, sexists, bigots, etc and spent their time trying to prove they weren’t those things…rather than working to make those things irrelevant by getting people to move past their identities. And for 30+ years the Left controlled education and tough every successive year to be more and more political with their Identities.
And there had to be a “Bad guy” for these identity politics to work. So for blacks it was whites. for gays it was straights. for trans it was cis. for “immigrants” it was “natives” and the list goes on. And in order for the left to retain the power of IP, they had to attack the “enemies” of their “identities.” And you can only group a people together under a label and attack them for being that label so long before they finally decide to accept the label, accept the slurs of that label, and then band together as a people to fight for their rights.
Hence, why you now have a “sexist, racist, bigot” in the white house who was elected by a bunch of “sexist, racist, bigots.” It’s not that Trump was those things to start with, or that the people who followed him were those things to start with. But he, they, and their “cultures” have been labeled those things for so long, and so often, that now people think of them as “sexist, racist, and bigoted.” And so they see any evidence of those things, no matter how slight, as proof they were right about how evil their opponents were.
So here’s a thing. You say Trump is a sexist, racist, bigot…and that’s fair. Though, and forgive me if this is going to far, most of your friends I suspect are calling Trump those things and providing “evidence” that he is those things…are probably also the kind of people who insist that Islam doesn’t have a misogynistic rape culture, mistreats and executes their gays, and insists that any conversation about the problems in Islam is a “Racist conversation.” Or likely insist that the cop who killed an “unarmed” black man that was beating him to death was a racist. It’s always important to see how those labels are applied, when judging how valuable those labels are.
But did you notice that his first three governmental appointees were a Woman, A Homosexual, and an African American? And while I am not exactly happy with all his present choices (though there are a few I like), there is more racial, sexual, and even ideological diversity in the staff Trump is picking than there was in the previous admin, and way beyond what is usually seen in a Republican government. Trump himself is pretty liberal, he backed Bill Clinton in the 90’s. Pence is very conservative. Carson is pretty religious. Bannon is “alt-right.” The list goes on and on, all over the spectrum for his staff.
But here’s my thing, however you feel about Trump, whatever issues you have with his “thoughtcrimes,” He won. Lawfully and against all odds. And if we wish to move past divisive identity politics which is, indeed, rapidly pushing us to a civil war, we have to accept the legal results and do our best to live without resorting to violence, and the first step of that is not stripping everyone who voted for him of their rights. Because the instant they are stripped of their rights, they have no reason to respect the rights of anyone else.
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While I can understand and appreciate what you are saying here, I’ll thank you not to place my friends in neat little boxes. We’ve never talked about Islam except to acknowledge that it’s a violent religion founded on violent principles. When we have talked about race and racial issues, we have discussed why movements like Black Lives Matter work to further racial divisions rather than eliminate them, how movements like BLM fails to take into consideration races outside of their own.
We’ve discussed how “reverse” racism isn’t a thing simply because racism is racism, no matter which way it is dealt out. We’ve also discussed how race gets called into problems where race shouldn’t even be considered a factor – if a black man beats a black man to death, where’s the racism in that? What about the white men who have been denied access to opportunities because of affirmative action despite their qualifications? What about the color of someone skin determines their ability to contribute? There’s nothing “politically correct” about the conversations that I have with my friends.
I do agree that our country has somehow become obsessed with labels and identity politics, which in a way drives me absolutely insane. We divide and we divide and we divide; we diversify so much that common ground becomes harder and harder to find. And I have no problem with diversification – humans are vastly complicated and everyone should feel safe to be themselves. That’s an ideal speaking, of course, because I realize it’s not something that can ever practically be realized. As soon as one group of people – one label – feels safe, the opposite label feels threatened. Like somehow, just being excluded from a group somehow automatically makes you less human.
Learning to navigate the minefield that identity politics has created is exhausting, and, for the most part, not worth the effort. I hate the idea of being “pc” because once you embrace an attitude of “pc” speech, you abandon the idea of free speech. Free speech, however, does not include hate speech. When I have black friends who are walking to class only to be stopped by a complete stranger and asked things like “You ready to get back in the field picking cotton?” that enrages me. When the KKK feels comfortable enough to come out from the underground and stage a march in my state – that sickens me. Because these are people who are looking at a person and saying “You’re not like me; therefore, you’re not human.”
Also, when it comes to my friends, I’m not getting my information about Trump’s actions from them. I generally don’t speak to them about it because the night after the election happened, they were in shock and terrified. The LGBTQ community, as a whole, was rocked back on its heels. Trans suicide hotlines became more active than they’d ever been. And even being part of the community myself, I held myself back from making judgment. I stepped outside of the crowd mentality and focused instead on paying attention to the news.
I’ve reached the conclusion that had Clinton took the election, the results would have been largely the same. There would still be communities of people out there, terrified of what her actions in office would mean for them. The hard truth that this election has shown me, at least, is that this isn’t an outcome that could have been avoided. What I have seen through Trump’s actions – gleaned through multimedia sources, not from hearsay (though that’s arguable because many news sources aren’t reliable , as is) – is that he made all sorts of promises that he’s currently working around. He promised to create jobs, yet has created a plan for updating infrastructure that only truly benefits corporations and doesn’t provide a long-term plan for creating jobs for working class citizens.
What I have seen, and what saddens me more than anything, is the level of dehumanization that occurred immediately following the election. Reading news stories of 5th grade non-white children forced out of classrooms by their peers making fake walls with their bodies, stories of white men being dragged from their cars and beaten half to death by black men because the white men happen to have Trump stickers, watching the vandalism in various dorms around campus with people on either side destroying property…. there’s no question that Trump won the election, but what about the aftermath? Because it’s not just one side doing it – both sides are perpetuating the problem. And it’s only when the strongest voices on either side realize what they are doing is harming real *people* and not ideologies, and can address the very real concerns that people have and the fears they hold, that our country, as a whole, can begin to heal.
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I knew Phoebe Rockwell, George Rockwell’s daughter at one time. Her father was the head of the American Nazi Party in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. They pledged their support to Richard Nixon, who they thought would undo Johnson’s Civil Rights Laws. Nixon has been long thought of as a Nazi to the point of putting swatzikas in the x.
Then during Ronald Regan’s presidency, the KKK and the Nazis gained in resurgence and became more public in their marches. Skokie, Ill. happened during this time. In other words, the same old, same old stuff going into a fever pitch because of the echo chambers and fake or partisan news sources like OccupyDemocrats.
Need I remind people that Obama was the Nazi for the right. And the left told everyone to simmer down. They were wrong…….
Two things, from Nixon on to Obama, the imperial presidency has been strengthened to the point that Obama could be a dictator if he wanted to. Funny, there was no objection or fear from people about that. Just for Trump and earlier Cheney/Bush. Nothing changed between Bush and Obama – Gitmo is still there. People are still being deported. Civil rights are still being trampled on such as NSA spying and the end of habius corpus (you can get arrested without a warrant, these days.) Wars are still being fought. Muslims are still being kept out with the terror watch list, which has the FBI spying on Muslim communities. IN OTHER WORDS, PEOPLE, NOTHING HAS FREAKING CHANGED.
What has changed is that the cultural wars went all the way to the left, and left behind a lot of people. What is happening now is that it is being righted back to neutral. That is what has people reacting – in dire tones, and with such vile language as all Trump people are deplorable, only Clinton people can inherit the earth.
And they are such self-righteous pricks about it too. Overturning an election with a coup. Indeed. That frosts me more than anything else.
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Picayune point; Rockwell was killed in 1967, and the ANP dissolved. There might be successor or splinter groups that are similarly named, but no way he was in charge of the party in the 70’s and 80’s.
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I was speaking of the 1960s. I am that old.
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I do know that 1968 election of Nixon did have Nazis pledging support. And a group did march in Skokie in 1980s. I was not clear about Rockwell not being the head. Thanks for pointing that out.
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I do want to correct something I wrote: Something did change.
People’s sense of safety. Somehow they convinced themselves in spite of the news of Black people being killed by cops, cops being killed by whomever, the DAPL which Obama has not intervened in, the rise of the alt-right during Obama’s time, that they were safe…. As long as Obama was in charge… and Clinton.
No one was really safe, anywhere. They just thought they were. Now, stripped of that sense or illusion, they now realise that they are alone and helpless. I wonder if the Democrats or Facebook echo chamber taught them helplessness and dependence on the “good government” from which they benefited?
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“Few people seem to remember that the first time Obama was elected, McCain actually won the popular vote. But at the end of the day, despite their fears and anger, the Republicans accepted the results of the election and abided by the rules.”
2008 Election Popular Vote: Obama – 69,498,516 (52.9%)
McCain – 59,948,323 (45.7%)
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