2/14/2021

Cancel Culture Threatens our Freedom and Safety

I know next to nothing about Gina Carano, either as an actress or of her political views, but entire college programs have been developed trying to understand how the Holocaust was made possible. From Auschwitz survivors like Max Frankl to noted scholars, it comes down to desensitizing the population to cruelty by dehumanizing an entire group. You refer to Jews (or Gypsys or Communists) as vermin, an infestation, snakes and the like, while blaming them for what ails society. As Frankl said in his book "Man's Search for Meaning," the Nazi death camps had only a handful of sadists who took actual pleasure in the torture and murder of prisoners, while the vast majority of guards had been "dulled by the number of years" that they'd been exposed to the dehumanization of their foes.

It is said, those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. It is instructive what the CEO of the parent company of Cambridge Analytica had to say about Donald Trump's tactics. Cambridge Analytica helped Steve Bannon field test things like "build the wall" and "lock her up," as well as more vile things like "Can Blacks succeed in American without the help of Whites" or "Are Blacks genetically predispositioned to fail?," seeking out people who would respond positively to such messages and suggestions. Not surprisingly, the CEO of Cambridge Analytica's parent company was later recorded saying that the tactics the Trump campaign used in 2016 were identical to those used by Hitler to turn Germany against the Jews.

Which brings me to Gina Carano. This is what she posted:

"Jews were beaten in the streets, not by Nazi soldiers, but by their neighbors...even by children. 🙁

“Because history is edited, most people today don’t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?”

The result of such densensitization, whether directed at Jews, Gypsies and Communists, or at Blacks, Muslims and socialists (and Mexicans, liberals and NeverTrump Republicans or conservatives, Christians and white males) is to villify dehumanize the opposition such that resisting becomes an act of courage, where those who act in defiance of the leader and in solidarity with the oppressed are treated as outcasts and enemies of the state. Below are two images that show the horrors of such dehumanization, two images suggesting how such atrocities are made possible, and finally, two photos showing how standing against the hatred is an act of courage. I would argue that what Gina Carano was warning us of, is that we risk following the path that Germany followed. We should not - MUST NOT - ignore history. It is why our founding fathers felt freedom of speech, the press, and to protest were so vital that they placed them first among our Bill of Rights. What has been done to Gina Carano via cancel culture, while fully defensible from a legal standpoint (she was fired by a private company) is so misguided. I don't know if the hatred against political opponents she decried was against liberals or conservatives, but she is correct in her assertion as to the potentially tragic outcome ignoring her warning could bring about. She wasn't saying that where we are is just like Holocaust, she was saying what we are now witnessing is akin to what transpired in Germany that made the Holocaust possible. It is an accurate and critical distinction.

Please tell me where I am wrong in that belief.



Nazi Germany

America

Nazi Paramilitary

American Paramilitary

German Outcast

American Outcast