The Lessons of History

I get it. Our society has a short memory. The older people who lived through things are becoming fewer and fewer. Maybe they didn't pass down their wisdom, or maybe the younger generations were too busy with all the amazing new technology to listen.

People have forgotten what it was like before vaccines. They don't remember and were never told how almost everyone knew a family who had lost a child to now-preventable diseases like smallpox, polio, whooping cough, measles, diptheria, influenza... 

Scarlet fever, tuberculosis, chicken pox... Whole families were decimated sometimes. And when vaccines became available, mothers lined their children up to wait for hours to be vaccinated, because they didn't want them to die. 

But people have forgotten. And now we have widespread anti-vaxxers. And now we have children dying of those same old horrors, even though they don't need to because we can protect them... 
cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-g…

And people have forgotten about the Nazis. They have forgotten the scourge that was fascism. Some even deny the Holocaust happened. There are so few alive now who were there and saw it with their own eyes... 

People have forgotten, to the extent that now neo-nazi white supremacists are called "very fine people" by the American president. And the American public did not rise up and drag him from the White House. 

Trump Defends White-Nationalist Protesters: 'Some Very Fine People on Both Sides'The president backtracked from his remarks on Charlottesville just a day earlier.https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/trump-defends-white-nationalist-protesters-some-very-fine-people-on-both-sides/537012/

And now... now we have the US president and conservative leaders around the world declaring "antifa" (literally anti-fascists) a terrorist organization. 
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

Fascists. That's Nazis. You do know that, right? And antifa, or antifascists, are opposed to Nazis/fascists. What does it tell you when political parties try to declare what isn't even a real organisation a "terrorist organisation"? 

When a political party tells you that anti-fascists are the enemy... It is a clear sign that they are pro-fascist. See how that works? It's not vague or ambiguous. But people have short memories. Society has a short memory. 

There were people in the UK, Canada, the US, and in Europe in the 1930s who thought fascism was a good idea. It was all about nationalism and jobs, after all. Until it wasn't. Until it became all about death and oppression and persecution and war. 

But, our society seems to have forgotten that. Our journalists cheerily talk about "antifa" the way they would talk about the IRA or ISIS. Except, it's different. Anti-fascists are regular people, those who have not forgotten. And they are reacting to an existential threat. 

Anti-fascists are not looking to take over anything. They want to prevent a take-over. There is a big difference. The reason this gets any traction at all is there are an awful lot of honest-to-goodness fascists out there in high political positions. 

Trump, Bolsonaro, Orban... The list goes on. And don't forget right wing political parties not in power. 

But our society has forgotten. We have not learned the lessons of history. I fervently hope we will all come to our senses and not be forced to repeat them. 

BLM: Watching America From North of the Border

Like many Canadians, I am watching in horror as our neighbour falls into chaos and disorder. And, after reading so many Tweets and news posts about what is going on down there, I feel moved to ponder the situation.  

What I am seeing is a country built on slave labour, that fought a brutal and bloody civil war before slavery could be abolished. And even with the abolition of slavery, many continued to treat people of colour as inferior. 

Then there was a civil rights movement, which demanded that people, black and white (and brown) be treated equally under the law. And some changes were made to the laws. But legal changes alone do not change the way people think. 

And there are other levers of power besides the law. Under-funding certain schools, suppressing some people's votes, not having the political will to ensure all people have access to a living wage and health care and housing... 

Combined with a police force that started out as slave-catchers and, in many places, continued that culture within their ranks, all encouraged by a wealthy class that holds the lion's share of political power in the country... 

This has led to gross inequality, and discrimination. And instead of progressing from the victories of the Civil Rights Movement, the US has slid back, in temperament and outlook. There are laws to protect black citizens, but they are not observed. 

Police who kill are seldom sanctioned. Fear of the "other" has grown, not receded. Black people are killed almost every day in the US by police. And the number of cases of black people being killed while doing nothing wrong grows and grows. 

And the media helpfully feed the notion that, well, if he or she wasn't doing anything wrong this time, they probably did something in the past... It seems like any past transgression can be turned into a crime punishable by death, if it happens the person is black 

Which has led to the "........ while black" - it could be grocery shopping, or talking on the phone, driving a car, sleeping in your own home. It is a terrible, sick way to treat a segment of your population. And this has been going on and growing for a long time. 

It is no wonder people are taking to the streets in protest of this (yet another) innocent man killed for being black in America. 

And now it seems a lot of the violence, the property damage, that is happening when peaceful protest turns violent, is being instigated by people not involved with Black Lives Matter. It has been suggested that white supremacists are involved. 

This makes some sense. What would white supremacists, like Proud Boys and the KKK want to accomplish? Well, if they can gin up a lot of violence around these protests, they can get regular Americans to turn against BLM, and begin to adopt more racist views. 

They can begin to discredit black Americans whenever they try to organize or push for greater fairness and equality. They could get more supporters, gain more sympathy from legislative bodies. 

And then there is the theory that undercover police are also instigating violence, masquerading as protestors. And what could they possibly gain? Well, proof that their Blue brethren were right to be treated as above the law, because look how dangerous BLM is? 

And who else has something to gain? Well, Trump tweeted that he is going to make "Antifa" an illegal terrorist organisation. Because, he says, Antifa is behind the violence and any outside agitators. 

It doesn't matter that "Antifa" is not an organisation, just a concept, a movement, a loosely connected scattering of like-minded people who do not want to see totalitarianism take over. Antifa, after all, just means anti-fascist. Which should be everyone's default state. 

This could give the GOP-controlled government the power to crack down on any and all protests. To make being anti-fascist illegal, makes it impossible to criticise anything the government does. Because, clearly, the GOP has distinctly fascist tendencies. 

And, as the police break heads and shoot at protesters, and target journalists and medics working with the injured, the President is contemplating making himself secure, and enabling his administration to do anything, anything they want. 

I read that the only reason there are not heavy tanks in the streets of most American cities right now is that they would damage the roads. Not that innocent people could be killed. No. Simply because infrastructure could be damaged. That speaks volumes. 

I want to be very clear about all this. I am not saying this because I think Canada has no racism. Canada does have racists. Many of them are supporters of the GOP's little brother party, the CPC. 

While we watch America burn, we in Canada should be taking this as a lesson. Racism is a powerful tool that can be exploited by the far right. It can be used to create conflict and then justify draconian measures to suppress that conflict.

Measures that can be used to suppress any and all dissent. Measures that can mark an end to democracy. 

As the US teeters on the brink of totalitarianism, we in Canada must think deeply about what kind of future we want for our country. We must take care not to let the door open to the kind of inequality, injustice, and unbridled brutality we are seeing unfolding in the US. 

We must take care to not let parties who foment hatred of the other, who try to make us mistrust and hate, form government. There is no room for "barbaric cultural practices" tip-lines, or racially motivated crime in our society.

We must stand on guard for Canada, now more than ever, and not let our country go down to darkness as we are seeing our neighbour do. It's time for Canadians to speak out about racism, to stand up to it. For all our children, and our children's children. 

Antifa. It doesn't mean what you think it means...

Exhibit A:

Seriously, this tweet deserves a rant.

Let's lay out some facts here.

1. "Antifa" is the abbreviation of anti-fascist. Ever hear of Hitler? Mussolini? Franco? They were fascists. They believed that some people were superior to others based on ethnicity, skin colour, religion, country of origin, sexual orientation...

Specifically, they believed they were superior. The Master Race.

This automatically meant everyone who was not like them was inferior. So inferior that sometimes they called them vermin or worse. Sometimes they ordered them rounded up and locked in cages. Sometimes they ordered them to be exterminated.

Fascists are bad. Evil. The worst of human ideology and inclination.

To be anti-fascist should be every human being's default position. We should all be "antifa". Except some are not.

2. There are people around who believe, as the fascists did, that they are superior and those not like them are inferior. They fear that those people who they see as inferior will become the ruling majority. They fear that this new ruling class will treat them the way white people have treated others for centuries. They, at some level, recognise that they and their kind have been brutal, inhumane, cruel, even monstrous, and now they fear that this will be their fate, should they allow people not like them to have rights, citizenship, power.

They also fear the people who do not think like them, even if they look like them. They set out to vilify those people in the public consciousness. Using right-wing media they built a narrative about this "antifa" being this dark, mysterious, shadowy threat to regular people living their regular lives. Unfortunately, main stream media has picked up the terminology and the vibe from these far-right white supremacist media sites and made it mainstream. So much so that usually rational people who are progressive thinkers see Antifa as something like terrorists.

3. "Antifa" as an organization simply does not exist. They are not an organised group in the sense that the FLQ was an organised group, or the IRA was an organised group, or the SLA was an organiseed group. They are not an organised group like the _____ Proud are organised. Or the 3 percenters are organised. Or the Yellow Vesters are organised. They aren't even as organised as the civil rights movement was organised. Small groups in specific areas organise to go out into the streets and show up to show planned white supremacist marches that there are people who don't agree. Often much of this "organisation" is in the form of facebook events and tweets just letting people know what is happening and inviting them out to stand in solidarity.

Because that's what needs to happen. When people march in the street in support of hatred, people need to step up and say, No. I disagree with this. If you ignore it, the white supremacists and the misogynists and the xenophobes think everyone agrees with them. Silence is agreement. Silence is complicit.

So when a white supremacist (fascist) rally is announced, people in the area co-ordinate to present an opposing view.

If things get violent, it is those who do not believe in racial hatred defending themselves against the attacks of those who do.

Yes, in every group there are some hot-heads. Young men get inspired and passionate about issues like this and many young men, even on the side opposing hatred and violence, haven't yet learned that peaceful resistance is the honourable way to deal with disagreements. Some fascists have been punched, or had drinks thrown at them.

On the other hand, fascists/white supremacists have killed people. Most recently in a shopping centre in El Paso, Texas. But over the past few years, these people have gunned innocent people down in churches, schools, night clubs, mosques, on the street, on public transit, in theatres, in shopping malls... And not just in the US. But mostly in the US.

3. Antifascists (Antifa) were the soldiers from Canada and the US and Britain and Australia and New Zealand and a host of other countries who went to war and fought and many died to prevent Hitler (a fascist) from taking over the world. Your grandpa or great uncle or second cousin... any member of your family who fought with the allies against Hitler, and all the women, the grandmas and aunties  who worked for the war effort as nurses, wrens, in munitions factories, cracking codes, calculating formulas, or sewing clothing and knitting socks and keeping the home fires burning... they were, literally, antifa.

The guy who wrote this tweet seems to be suggesting someone go out and gun down elderly veterans and/or their widows. What is wrong with people?

4. Kent State University was the scene of a terrible massacre on May 4, 1970. The Ohio National Guard opened fire on students protesting the US bombing of neutral Cambodia as part of the Vietnam War. Twenty-eight guardsmen fired approximately 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis. Clearly, automatic weapons have increased their deadliness since then. 

The Twitter poster above is advocating US military forces gunning down people who do not agree with white supremacy and fascism. 

Again I ask, what the holy hell is wrong with some people?

5. The effectiveness of the far-right sites' campaign to vilify those who do not agree with white nationalism, bigotry, racism, misogyny, and, yes, fascism, is clear. Aided and abetted by main stream media, and not just Fox News, or American news sites, but also Canadian media, including the CBC, is evident. The term "antifa" has become associated with an evil organisation. To recap, Antifa is an abbreviation of anti-fascist. This should be every thinking human's default position. Antifa is not an organization. It is a moral imperative. The real threat is not those who value all lives and want to see peace, justice, harmony, and equal rights in the world. The real threat is the organisations that seek to impose a race/gender/sexual orientation hierarchy with straight white males at the top. These are the people who go on shooting rampages. These are the terrorists of modern society.

In conclusion, I call on you to call out people who are confused about what antifa is, and educate them, as gently as you can. I call on you to call out people who are racist, misogynist, homophobic, transphobic, and full of hatred, and warn others about them. Opposing these things is a moral imperative. 1984 was not meant to be a how-to guide. We do not want the future to be a boot stamping on a human face...forever.

Don't be like Bob

Just had an interesting exchange on Twitter, one of so many similar exchanges over the past several years. The other person, let's call him Bob for simplicity, insists that the right wing has nothing to do with hate speech online or people committing hate crimes... 

Bob insists it is the "alt-left" who foment division in our society. First, there is no "alt-left", not in the way Bob means it. There are people who are unhappy with the economic inequalities in our society...

They are unhappy with the callous way workers are often treated, they are unhappy with the way some people are discriminated against, they are unhappy with cruelty and hoarding of wealth and violations of human rights...

Contrary to what Bob thinks, that does not make them bad people. There is a trend towards trying to equalise blame lately. Trump saying "on both sides" regarding Charlottesville hurried this trend along. 

That's sort of like saying a mosque shooter was wrong but the people who died probably did wrong things in their lives too. No. Just no. 

I know, it can feel sort of icky to be identified as a group that a lot of people disapprove of, to have your people blamed for putting murderous ideas in people's heads. It's awkward. I get it. 

But that doesn't change the fact that more and more research is revealing that many of these hate crimes do not occur in a vacuum. People are exposed to a type of communication and, over time, they respond to it. 

It gets into their heads. It changes how they think and how they view the world. Some may have grown up with a lot of racism and misogyny and biases and the messaging just takes it to a deadlier level. 

But others are more gradually moved from ambivalence, to strong opinions, to reposting and wearing shirts that suggest hanging the PM, to actually doing something... 

There is considerable academic literature, large longitudinal studies that examine the media people consume and their attitudes. What we put into our brains makes a difference. It can change us. 

Check out this video.

Twitter Ads info and privacy

If the shooter leaves a manifesto, as some do, they often mention right-wing sources as an inspiration. Even if they don't leave anything written down, and don't live to tell us why, police look at their browsing history. Guess what? 

They generally have been looking at a lot of right-wing sites. Sorry, Bob. It is a for-real thing. They generally have not been spending a lot of time in NDP chatrooms, or reading about saving the whales. Nope. 

And I know, it's hard. You think you are a really good person. And you think there is truth to the opinions you read or hear on the media of your choice. You don't think there's anything wrong with the way Ford/Kenney/Scheer/Trump talk and behave.

After all, they are really in it to help out the regular people, right? Jobs. Cash in the bank. And those people who aren't going to do well, they probably don't deserve to live comfortably. They haven't worked as hard as you, right, Bob? 

They're lazy. They're probably addicted to something, or they're part of a religion that want to kill us all in our beds.... And who the hell are they to come to our country and take our jobs anyway!?!? 

Oh. Wait. That's sounding a little bit racist, isn't it Bob? Awkward. Because you're not a racist, are you? No, it's the lefties who are racists. They hate white people, isn't that right, Bob? 

No. Actually, they don't hate white people. They hate what white people have done to others over the history of there being white people. They would like white people to behave better and be decent human beings to people who don't look like them.

"But, aren't Antifa an awful, violent terrorist organisation?" Suggests Bob. No. Antifa is an abbreviation for "anti-fascist". Which, incidentally, should be every human's default position. If anyone you know served in WWII, you know an anti-fascist. Your Grampa is Antifa. 

Anti-fascists only need to identify themselves and do things like protest, when their antithesis, actual fascists, show up and start doing stuff. Anti-fascists are not trying to seize control anywhere. They are strictly resistance. 

"But, Lefties are Nazis. Nazis were socialists." Offers Bob. Well, no. Nope. Just because the Nazis had the word "socialist" in their party name, they were no more socialist than North Korea is democratic. 

"But the left is trying to indoctrinate our children." Counters Bob. In what, exactly? Treating people equally? Wanting facts instead of authoritative assertions? Understanding their bodies and science and geopolitics? 

I can see how that sort of education would not benefit an authoritarian regime. An authoritarian regime would want education that omits certain parts of the facts that conflict with ideology. Things like "climate change is real", or "you are allowed to decide what happens with your body. It's called consent." 

People are up in arms about climate change being taught in schools. "It's too frightening for the children!" but they are ok with kids being bussed from school to attend anti-abortion rallies, with graphic gory posters? OK, then. 

"But they're sexualising children and making them join perverse clubs where they convince them they are gay or trans or whatever." No. They don't. Did you know if you were a boy or a girl by the time you were in school?

No. When confronted by facts, the things you believe fall short, Bob. But, by all means, you do you. Just don't try to blame anyone else.