Some comments from me:
1. As about everyone knows, I hate drugs. As I rarely find the need to make clear, I hate lynchings even more.
2. Political violence has no justification. We elect our pols even if we end up with Donald Trump and others that I need not mention.
3. Political violence tends to build upon itself. It reinforces the feelings of those who do it and causes those who fear it to cower as it gets closer to them. It is a powerful tool for malign leaders, and it is characteristic of totalitarian causes and regimes. A decent society represses it quickly lest it fester into terror by outsiders or repression by the rulers.
4. Crimes by illegal immigrants? They can be dealt with with imprisonment and deportation. But this said, illegal immigration is not the problem.
5. The way to deal with whatever seems to be a social menace is the rule of law. No crime, no consequences.
6. The Nazi Julius Streicher published a vile rag, Der Stürmer , whose specialty was stories of Jewish plots against the German people in particular and the rest of humanity in general, including the infamous blood libel that alleged that Jews killed gentile children for use of their blood in religious rituals. (Never mind that blood of any kindis a violation of kosher food laws and that murder is an abomination in Jewish religion.
![[Image: 220px-Der_St%C3%BCrmer_Christian_blood.jpg]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/da/Der_St%C3%BCrmer_Christian_blood.jpg/220px-Der_St%C3%BCrmer_Christian_blood.jpg)
This pornographer of hatred created a climate in which anything could be done by a German against any Jew. Yes, Der Stürmer existed in the context of a totalitarian state in which nothing contrary to the political leadership could be done. The Nazi state gave the Jews no chance to rebut the calumnies against them. But tyranny rarely emerges whole and instantly. Even Hitler had to impose his sick dream incrementally. Even if Donald Trump is not Hitler and the Republican Party is not the Nazi Party, we Americans are experiencing a steady erosion of civil liberties and rule of law. There is no rationale for this erosion of fundamental decencies of American life.
Julius Streicher did not enjoy a comfortable retirement. He was arrested by the Allies, put on trial in the main Nuremberg Tribunal in which he was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by hanging, the sentence being carried out.
1. As about everyone knows, I hate drugs. As I rarely find the need to make clear, I hate lynchings even more.
2. Political violence has no justification. We elect our pols even if we end up with Donald Trump and others that I need not mention.
3. Political violence tends to build upon itself. It reinforces the feelings of those who do it and causes those who fear it to cower as it gets closer to them. It is a powerful tool for malign leaders, and it is characteristic of totalitarian causes and regimes. A decent society represses it quickly lest it fester into terror by outsiders or repression by the rulers.
4. Crimes by illegal immigrants? They can be dealt with with imprisonment and deportation. But this said, illegal immigration is not the problem.
5. The way to deal with whatever seems to be a social menace is the rule of law. No crime, no consequences.
6. The Nazi Julius Streicher published a vile rag, Der Stürmer , whose specialty was stories of Jewish plots against the German people in particular and the rest of humanity in general, including the infamous blood libel that alleged that Jews killed gentile children for use of their blood in religious rituals. (Never mind that blood of any kindis a violation of kosher food laws and that murder is an abomination in Jewish religion.
This pornographer of hatred created a climate in which anything could be done by a German against any Jew. Yes, Der Stürmer existed in the context of a totalitarian state in which nothing contrary to the political leadership could be done. The Nazi state gave the Jews no chance to rebut the calumnies against them. But tyranny rarely emerges whole and instantly. Even Hitler had to impose his sick dream incrementally. Even if Donald Trump is not Hitler and the Republican Party is not the Nazi Party, we Americans are experiencing a steady erosion of civil liberties and rule of law. There is no rationale for this erosion of fundamental decencies of American life.
Julius Streicher did not enjoy a comfortable retirement. He was arrested by the Allies, put on trial in the main Nuremberg Tribunal in which he was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by hanging, the sentence being carried out.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.