A Nashville lawmaker is alarmed to find a group of what appeared to be Nazis in broad daylight, marching the streets of Nashville this President's Day weekend.R

The group of more than a dozen masked individuals marched wearing red shirts and black pants, waving flags with swastikas on them. It is not clear at this time who the group is or affiliated with, though many of the shirts said “Blood Tribe.”

  • IninewCrow@lemmy.caEnglish
    402·
    10 months ago

    People have to step up and denounce this stuff publically, openly and loudly enough everywhere. And I don’t mean causing violence, attacking or assaulting anyone in any way. I mean more people should step up and just state how they do not accept this and pressure their government representatives to act and do something and say something to discourage individuals like this.

    If people are silent, and don’t know about it then they are just the ignorant masses.

    If they are silent but know that it is happening but still say nothing … then they are complicit, because their silence is an acceptance of movements like this.

    American is slowly diving into a rabbit hole that the world already visited almost a century ago.

    It’s easy to deal with now and it’s easy to stand up and tell everyone you don’t accept this.

    The longer everyone stays silent and passive, the more their chances of saying anything evaporates.

    When it goes on for too long and too far … it takes far more energy and activism to stop this ugly movement.

    The last time it went too far … it took a world war and millions of dead everywhere in order to stop it … and even then, it wasn’t stopped, it was just merely controlled and brought down to a manageable level because it never really disappeared.

      • IninewCrow@lemmy.caEnglish
        31·
        10 months ago

        Fighting, war and death is a last resort when all hope and possibility is lost.

        We’re not there yet so it’s still possible to convince others not to follow these movements and make those that do follow so uncomfortable and unwelcome that they can stay in the shadows where they belong.

        It’s mostly our political leaders right now. If we allow leaders that allow this behaviour or leaders that even are part of this then we people have the power to either put them in power or remove them from power through elections.

        And it’s not just political leaders either … it’s those with wealth and power that fund and support these movements as well as corporations that would not mind seeing fascist and anti democratic governments in place. The more we call out the instigators and supporters, the more uncomfortable they will be.

        Because it also works the other way, the more people speak out, the more they see that there are many more people who share the view of anti Nazism and anti fascism. If we all just sit silently, we never know how many supporters are around us and it makes us feel like a minority.

        So speak out in public and speak up with your political leaders.

    • DABDA@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      10 months ago

      Well said.

      Principiis obsta et respice finem — ‘Resist the beginnings’ and ‘Consider the end.’

      • IninewCrow@lemmy.caEnglish
        2·
        10 months ago

        Principiis obsta et respice finem — ‘Resist the beginnings’ and ‘Consider the end.’

        Thank you for sending me down this path of little research

        They Thought They Were Free, by Milton Mayer (written in 1955)

        As Mayer’s Nazi friend noted, “I do not see, even now [how we could have stopped it]. Many, many times since it all happened I have pondered that pair of great maxims, Principiis obsta and Finem respice - ‘Resist the beginnings’ and ‘consider the end.’ But one must foresee the end in order to resist, or even see, the beginnings. One must foresee the end clearly and certainly and how is this to be done, by ordinary men or even by extraordinary men?”

        Some notes taken from this blog - https://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2005/11/they-thought-they-were-free

        Milton Mayer - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Mayer

        They Thought They Were Free - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Thought_They_Were_Free

        August Heckscher, the chief writer of editorials of the New York Herald Tribune, wrote that the book “suggests how easy it is for human beings in any society to fall prey to a dynamic political movement, provided their lives are sufficiently insecure, frustrated or empty.”[1] He stated that the book is simultaneously a discussion on ethics, on “how political tyranny is established”, and on issues in Germany and the “German mentality”.

        = = = = = = = =

        Thanks for sharing this little tidbit … Now I have to go a read the book for myself

        • DABDA@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          10 months ago

          I really should have mentioned that book is where I got that from, glad you were able to find it and for spreading awareness of it with your update.

          Overall I enjoyed the book but it wasn’t what I was expecting going in based on that large block (mostly included on that blog link) about the slow boiling of fascism. Super depressing subject to be reading about not out of historical curiosity but increasing modern relevance :(

    • TokenBoomer@lemmy.world
      32·
      10 months ago

      The Brits didn’t defeat Mosley and his fascism with denouncements.

      In October 1937 in Liverpool, he was knocked unconscious by two stones thrown by crowd members after he delivered a fascist salute to 8,000 people from the top of a van in Walton.

      • IninewCrow@lemmy.caEnglish
        31·
        10 months ago

        The idiots in the news story are a small group of masked thugs that don’t even want to be identified. So they would be far easier to denounce with words and counter protest.

        Mosley was an open political leader that plastered his name everywhere and led mass public rallies that had a sizeable following. He also had a lot of political support and funding by wealthy backers who believed in this movement. Even the royal family had deep and sympathetic connections to fascist and far right ideology. At the point in history at the height of his movement … there was not much else to do than to throw a stone at his face to stop him from going further.

          • IninewCrow@lemmy.caEnglish
            31·
            10 months ago

            Then you would be no better than them

            100 people denouncing 10 people is far more convincing than 1 person using violence against 10 opponents because those ten people now have the excuse to use more violence to promote their movement.

            Start with education, awareness, promotion, public support and campaigning against these movements … violence only comes when there are no more options left and there is no longer anything else to lose.

            • TokenBoomer@lemmy.world
              23·
              10 months ago

              Nice pontificating. I don’t disagree. I’m glad you still have that luxury. I’ll find a nice brick and save it for you if the shit hits the fan.

              Edit: See ya in 7 months.