@hankg

«My grandpa taught me that Nazis are fantastic storytellers. The new Nazis are on Tiktok and elsewhere on social media, telling great stories. Stories of safety, of simplicity, of order and justice. Stories of lives without crises. Adventure stories.»

This is a brilliant, brave piece of writing. Thank you for posting it.

I've also recently been thinking a lot about my German grandparents. Their story is very different from your grandpa's (they were Jewish refugees from the Nazis, and very lucky to escape in the 30s) but learning about their lives led me to the same conclusions as you, and, also like you, to an anti-fascism I feel in my bones.

“My grandpa taught me that Nazis are fantastic storytellers. The new Nazis are on Tiktok and elsewhere on social media, telling great stories.”

I think the economy and clarity of conservative storytelling contributes enormously to cultivating conservatives. Conservatives think linearly. Their stories pit good guys against bad guys without the clutter and confusion of nuance. Thus Fox News. Thus Bill O’Reilly histories. Thus the Redemption. The list goes on.

thank you for sharing.

I'm not from Germany nor living there (yet), though the place I'm visiting this weekend has a protest organized against the AFD (whose local department thought it would be wise to take office directly next door to a Youth Pride space). I'm not sure about the details of the protest yet, but I'm considering going to it.

The current political situation is scary, and I hope your post inspires people to at the very least not vote "strategically" anymore.

Thanks for writing this, as well as for your talk at border:none, it was nice to talk to you there!

So many things sound familiar, so-so many. Only not in an “in the past” way, but “in the present”.

Thank you for writing and posting this. You nailed it:

“Our collective mistake is to underestimate the mechanisms behind all that. Even with our history. We can only keep the Nazis in check as long as they don't find step stones to get back to power.”

We all need hope and we must keep fighting the good fight against hate & violence.

"You cannot argue with someone who's living in a different universe. It took a long time for me to understand that."

I've recently realized this about my zionist relatives cheering on genocide right now.

“We can only keep the Nazis in check as long as they don't find step stones to get back to power. Once the pendulum swings too far in their direction it's going to be over and it's currently not looking good.”

Thank you for this brave and apt call to action.

"The young, wild boy in the 1920s has all my empathy. The man, that my grandpa turned into, does not deserve any of that."

Thank you for your words and your clear voice.

It took me some time to read it truly. Thank you for sharing.

I grew up in germany but I am the first generation.

I never had this kind of confrontation in my family.

I believe it to be very important to share and remember. And to never forget.

This stands out for me:
"He once told me how you did not need to fear anything back then. If someone committed a serious crime, they would be executed, so nobody would dare to."

I wonder how he reconciled the fact that, for some, the "serious crime" was just existing.

Thanks for posting. It does enlighten me about a few things that never made sense to me.

thank you for sharing.

I can't imagine being a young child and brought up to believe Nazism is good and proper. If you learn it from childhood, it must also be extremely hard to change, too. I'm sorry you had such a person in your life but I'm also glad his influence actually had the opposite effect on you in the end.

Never again.

Thank you. Please don't delete it. One of the things that stood out for me:

"He once told me how you did not need to fear anything back then. If someone committed a serious crime, they would be executed, so nobody would dare to."

They promise: "All problems can be solved if we just dare to use enough violence. Crime exists because we are too soft." Who judges right and wrong based on what? Injustice doesn't exist because we are not cruel and brutal enough with each other.

"Then there are the opportunists. Those who think that they can keep the monsters in check. They think they can abuse them as vehicles to stay in power or get in power. They are the worst of all those groups."

This is why it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up when people claiming to fight them, buy them campaign ads....

Danke für den Text. Mein Opa ist kurz nach meiner Geburt gestorben, er hatte einen ähnlichen Werdegang und Überzeugungen. Ich hab schon oft überlegt, wie ich mich wohl mit ihm verstanden hätte.

Packen wir’s an.

@jbhughes @shekinahcancook @thepoliticalcat This is bloody scary. And when pointed inward, the re-evaluation of one's tastes and beliefs is astonishing.

Thank you for sharing.