Fascists and Fundamentalists Don't Care if You (or your mother) Die

 

Anti-vaxx, anti-mask Republicans don't care who dies

Fascism has no ideology.  It is not a coherent system of beliefs.  Fascists:

--Love violence

--Love displays of strength, especially against weak victims

--Ally with nationalist religion

Fundamentalists of whatever nationalist religion, strive for theocracy, because when their god is in charge, they get to speak for god.  

Fascists and fundamentalists take different routes to domination, but their goal is the same: full control of a state remade in their image.  

In the case of Islamic extremists, Jihad is fascism and Sharia is fundamentalism.  The Islamic fundamentalists who want to form caliphates bring together political fascism and fundamentalism in a state that is maiming and murdering its own people.

I wrote in 2016 that Trump is neither Hitler nor Mussolini because those fascist dictators were men of considerable personal courage--that was their path to power.  Trump is whining bully who plays a strong man on TV.  

But Trump is a fascist. After he left the White House, the Republican Party has become more fascist than he is.  

Fascists and fundamentalists are united in not caring how many of their own people die. A fascist of course wants to kill "them," anyone who is not part of their country, party, etc. And every fundamentalist is quite sure their god only cares about those of their faith--the rest of the world is going to Hell.

Neither fundamentalist nor fascist cares if you die. They don't care if your parents die, your kids, your neighbor, your spouse as long as they are triumphant.

Trump worshippers deny he is a fascist, but 2020 made clear Trump's fascist credentials as golden as his toilet.  Trump would not do anything to stop the spread of COVID if he thought it would hurt his chances of re-election.  He turned people against masks, he made antivaxxers of his own people, he did not care about COVID initially because it was brown people and old people dying in blue states as the sad chart above shows.

But now, the sick and the dead are the anti-vaxx, anti-mask dimwits who are Trump's most loyal worshippers. Trump does not care.  Most Republican leaders don't care. The Republicans who do care are hounded and threatened.

Right now in Afghanistan, the Taliban will be forcing Sharia Law (their sick interpretation) on their country.  They will put their Islamic fundamentalist program in place by beating, maiming, raping, enslaving and murdering their own people.  And they will believe they are doing their god's will.

Right now in America, Republicans are pushing a Christian fundamentalist agenda in part because the biggest group that voted for in higher numbers for Trump in 2020 than in 2016 was Evangelical Christians.  

Sacrificing their own people is not a bug of fascism or fundamentalism, it's a feature.  

Nazis are a special case of fascists with an anti-Semitic ideology.  Italian fascists were not anti-Jew immediately, but they got around to it eventually.  French fascists are deeply anti-Jew. They are the source of the Great Replacement Theory that was behind Trump's invading caravans. French fascists like an intellectual veneer on their hateful ideology.  They despise Trump. 

 

"Make a Buddy" Shitter

 

The times when I lived and worked in close quarters large groups of men--the Army and Teamsters loading docks.  One lament common to both places was, "Can't I take a shit in peace?"  

And even men I have known who care little for privacy would occasionally want "to shit in a latrine with a door."

When I was on German gunnery ranges in the 1970s, some of the ranges had a place we called a "Make A Buddy" Shitter.  It was an outhouse with two boards with three holes connected by a narrow floor space.  When it was full, three men sat on each side facing each other with interlaced knees.  The inside guys had to wait until the outside guys were done to get out.  Sometimes men would wear their gas masks to use that latrine.  

I have a lot of good memories of my military service, but "Make a Buddy" Shitters is not one of them.

Every Day, All Day Humiliation at Auschwitz

 

Auschwitz-Birkenau latrine

On my return visit Auschwitz in July of this year, I saw things I missed or forgot I saw on my first visit in 2017.  

In 2017 I was overwhelmed by the scale of the camp--so many people murdered, so many German soldiers and civilians running the camp.  

One of the horrible sights was the latrine in a barracks at Birkenau.  The guards herded the inmates to the latrine. They used the latrine together, dozens at a time. The guards used a stopwatch.  When time was up, the inmate had to get up or be beaten.  

When I try to imagine how horrible life truly was I think of times when I lived and worked in close quarters large groups of men--the Army and Teamsters loading docks.  One lament common to both places was, "Can't I take a shit in peace?"  

No one wants to be rushed in a latrine.  

And even men I have known who care little for privacy would occasionally want "to shit in a latrine with a door."

When I was on German gunnery ranges in the 1970s, some of the ranges had a place we called a "Make A Buddy" Shitter.  It was an outhouse with two boards with three holes connected by a narrow floor space.  When it was full, three men sat on each side facing each other with interlaced knees.  The inside guys had to wait until the outside guys were done to get out.  Sometimes men would wear their gas masks to use that latrine.  

And yet, these laments of dock workers and soldiers hardly touch the deep humiliation of prisoners in Auschwitz and other concentration camps forced to use latrines on a stop watch.  

The Nazis who marched in Charlottesville represent the very same things as the guards at Auschwitz. They see me and everyone who is not in their tribe as less than human. Nazis are never "fine people." We can never have peace with a government that tolerates Nazis. We are fortunate to be delivered from a government that numbers all American Nazis among its voters.

Nazi and rebel flags together at Charlottesville, 

both flags represent the losers in racist wars.

 

Seven Years Ago Today: Ironman Finish Six Minutes Before Midnight

 

My wife and I crossed the start line at 7:20 a.m. I crossed the finish line at 11:54 p.m. after 16 hours and 34 minutes of swimming, riding and running a total of 140.6 miles. My wife finished an hour before me.

Seven years ago today, I did my first, last and only triathlon. It was the Louisville, Kentucky, event.  That day, like today in Pennsylvania, the temperature was in the mid-90s with 90% humidity.  

Since that very long day, I had a knee replaced, lost partial use of my left arm.  I will never do another Ironman, but I am very glad I did the one I finished seven years ago today.

I have written several blog posts about the Ironman. They are here.

Vital and Urgent Priorities in America's Place in the World

 

At the center of the book "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" the author says we must learn to separate the Vital from the Urgent and live our lives taking proper care of both. The reason we can't is the tyranny of the urgent. 

When there is a fire on the stove we have to put it out before we can think about remodeling the kitchen to be more efficient. Social media makes the urgent loom much larger than Stephen Covey could have imagined when he wrote his book. I can see and sympathize with the urgent plight of the people of Afghanistan. 

But America also needs to keep its commitments to other allied nations, and I would add to fix prior betrayals. What America has done to the Kurds in the last three decades needs to be fixed. It does not have the videos of the current crisis, but we left the Kurds in Iraq to be gassed and slaughtered by Saddam Hussein in 1991. Our failed "nation building" strategy left the Kurds isolated in 2003 and after. Then the last President betrayed the Kurds in Syria after one phone call with Erdogan. Unlike the current President, he was not surprised by events, he did not give a fuck about the Kurds or any commitment we made to them. 

And while we focus on Afghanistan while showing the world we are incompetent, what happens to Taiwan? Does China think we would come to Taiwan's aid? And Ukraine? What would stop Putin from moving into Ukraine in force? The Baltic states have authoritarian Belarus and Russia as neighbors to the east and increasingly authoritarian Poland to the south and west.

Bungee Cord Repair Lasts 2,400 Miles

2021 Nissan Altima plus six bungee cords

Last Friday my son Nigel and I left Lancaster at 8:30 p.m. to drive to Minneapolis, Minnesota. He will be staying with his sister Lisa for a couple of months.  

The plan was to drive to somewhere around Cleveland, drive as far as I could Saturday and arrive by Sunday late morning.  As it turned out, I drove straight through. We arrived Saturday at 1 p.m.  More on that later.  

Nigel and Lisa at Caribou Coffee in Minneapolis

About 100 miles from Lancaster on US 322 West, I ran over what I think was a chunk of truck tire.  There was a horrible scraping noise.  We pulled over and found the bumper and pieces of the underbody dragging on the ground.  We tried to pound it into place, but it fell apart as soon as we moved.  

Then I remembered I had a bungee cord in my back pack.  And at the second place we stopped there was a bungee cord lying in the breakdown lane.  With two bungee cords, we could drive slowly to a Rutter's Store four miles away.  There I bought a half dozen more bungee cords.  I threaded them through the damaged pieces under the body, pulled bumper into place and kept driving. 

The Nissan Altima before we left. 

Nigel asked if the cords would hold until Minneapolis.  I reminded him that NASCAR repairs partially wrecked cars in the pits with Duct Tape and Bungee Cords and they hold at 200+ mph.  I could tell him the bungee cords would hold till I got home.  They did.  

When I returned the car after the 2,500-mile trip, I pulled off the bungee cords. The bumper and underbody parts stayed in place.  They will fall apart if the car is driven over a bump, but the tension of the bungee cords had stuck the damaged parts together.  

And why did I drive straight through?  When we got near the Ohio state line, I looked on my hotel app and saw very few vacancies anywhere near Cleveland. A Holiday Inn near Toledo had one room for $368!!!  I decided to keep driving.  When the sun came up we were approaching Chicago.  We at pancakes in Wisconsin and got to Minneapolis in the early afternoon.  I slept for four hours, got up for dinner, then slept nine more hours.  Late the next morning I started back.  This time I stopped half way.  

Modern cars are so reliable, it was fun to show Nigel I could put a broken car back together on the side of the road in the dark with green, yellow and black bungee cords.

"Le Grand Remplacement"--Great Replacement Theory Began in France and Became the Trump Call to Arms

Le Grand Remplacement came to America as "Great Replacement Theory," the belief that Jews are 

replacing white people with brown people as a strategy for world domination

 

On my last day in Paris in July 2021, I stopped by La Nouvelle Librairie on Rue de Medicis across the street from Luxembourg Gardens. It is the fascist bookstore of Paris, on a shaded street with a half dozen bookstores and several cafes. 

In front of La Nouvelle Librairie was a book table with a dozen copies of Le Grand Remplacement by novelist, gay rights activist and fascist Renaud Camus.  The subtile "Introduction to Global Replacement" (Introduction au replacisme global) made me smile. A French intellectual could describe a 500-plus-page book as an introduction. An American publisher would insist on something less than a third that length.

The fascist bookstore and The Red Wheelbarrow English-language bookstore are next door neighbors. Not happily.  The Red Wheelbarrow always has anti-fascist books in the window display.

Penelope Fletcher, owner of The Red Wheelbarrow, the English-language bookstore next to the fascist bookstore, assured me in 2019 that the French fascists have nothing good to say about President Trump or American fascists.  "They see themselves as intellectuals," she said of the fascists next door. "They don't like to be associated with Trump and American fascists."

But American white supremacists, Nazis and others racists have made Great Replacement Theory their own, even if they don't know its French roots. When the Charlottesville Nazis chanted "Jews will not replace us" they were echoing the theory that Jews are moving brown people into white nations as part of a global takeover.  (I can't help wondering what Charlottesville racists would have thought if they knew they were quoting a gay activist French intellectual.)

The man who murdered Jews in Pittsburgh in 2018 was motivated by Great Replacement Theory.  When Trump said caravans were invading America he was echoing Great Replacement Theory back to his racist ChristianNationalist voters.  

The ADL (Anti Defamtion League) has an excellent summary of Great Replacement Theory.   I have some highlights below: 

• “The Great Replacement” theory has its roots in early 20th century French nationalism and books by French nationalist and author Maurice Barres. However, it was French writer and critic Renaud Camus who popularized the phrase for today’s audiences when he published an essay titled "Le Grand Remplacement," or "the great replacement," in 2011. Camus himself alluded to the “great replacement theory” in his earlier works and was apparently influenced by Jean Raspail’s racist novel, The Camp of the Saints.
• Camus believes that native white Europeans are being replaced in their countries by non-white immigrants from Africa and the Middle East, and the end result will be the extinction of the white race.
• Camus focused on Muslim immigration to Europe and the theory that Muslims and other non-white populations had a much higher birth rate than whites. His initial concept did not focus on Jews and was not antisemitic.
• The “great replacement” philosophy was quickly adopted and promoted by the white supremacist movement, as it fit into their conspiracy theory about the impending destruction of the white race, also know as “white genocide.” It is also a strong echo of the white supremacist rallying cry, “the 14 words:” “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”
• Since many white supremacists, particularly those in the United States, blame Jews for non-white immigration to the U.S. the replacement theory is now associated with antisemitism.
• The night before the August 2017 the Unite the Right rally, white supremacists, marching across the University of Virginia campus, shouted, “Jews will not replace us,” and “You will not replace us,” clear references to Camus’ theory.

Use By Individual Extremists

• In October 2018, white supremacist Robert Bowers killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA, after writing a Gab post blaming Jews for bringing non-white immigrants and refugees to the U.S.
• In March 2019, white supremacist Brenton Tarrant livestreamed himself killing 51 people at two mosques in New Zealand. Tarrant also released a manifesto online called “The Great Replacement,” an homage to Camus’ work.
• In April 2019, white supremacist John Earnest killed one and injured three at a synagogue in Poway, CA. In a letter he released online, Earnest claimed that Jews were responsible for the genocide of “white Europeans,” and cited the influence of Bowers and Tarrant.
• In August 2019, white supremacist Patrick Crusius opened fire at a Walmart in El Paso, TX, killing 23 people and wounding almost two dozen. In a manifesto, Crusius talked about a “Hispanic invasion” and made reference to the great replacement.

Use by Media/Tech Personalities

• In July 2017, Lauren Southern, a Canadian far-right activist, released a video titled, “The Great Replacement,” promoting Camus’ themes. That summer, Southern was involved in “Defend Europe,” a project lead by European white nationalists to block the arrival of boats carrying African immigrants. Southern’s video further popularized Camus’ theory.
• In October 2018, on Fox News' The Ingraham Angle, host Laura Ingraham said, "your views on immigration will have zero impact and zero influence on a House dominated by Democrats who want to replace you, the American voters, with newly amnestied citizens and an ever increasing number of chain migrants."
• In October 2019, Jeanine Pirro was discussing Democrats' hatred of Trump on Fox Nation's The Todd Starnes Show. She declared, "Think about it. It is a plot to remake America, to replace American citizens with illegals that will vote for the Democrats."
• On April 8, 2021, on Tucker Carlson Tonight, the host explicitly promoted the ‘great replacement” theory. Carlson discussed “Third World” immigrants coming to the US who affiliate with the Democratic Party. He asserted, “I know that the left and all the little gatekeepers on Twitter become literally hysterical if you use the term 'replacement,' if you suggest that the Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate — the voters now casting ballots — with new people, more obedient voters from the Third World, but they become hysterical because that's what's happening, actually. Let's just say it. That's true."
• On April 11, 2021, Andrew Torba, the founder of Gab, posted on his own platform: “Now today the ADL is trying to cancel Tucker Carlson for daring to speak the truth about the reality of demographic replacement that is absolutely and unequivocally going on in The West. These are not ‘hateful’ statements, they objective facts that can no longer be ignored.”