“And most of them walked to their deaths because they had no weapons to defend themselves against a tyrannical government..”
And MANY of them initially believed that Hitler was a ‘joke’, wasn’t serious, etc. I’m sure every adult Jew in Europe heard the warnings from the relative handful of other Jews: “This is it!” “He’s coming for us” “We’re all going to die”.
And then, due to a combination of the following (known as Normalcy Bias):
1) Convinced it “cannot happen here”, since German society is the most cultured and sophisticated the world has ever seen...plus it never happened before
2) Not being able to bring most of their wealth with them...so having to start from scratch if they leave
3) Not wanting to leave everything and everyone they knew
4) And simply thinking that the people screaming that the sky is falling are a bunch of kooks.
And then, as the one-way trips to the camps began, but things don’t make sense. They’re told they’re being moved for their own safety, but why aren’t any letters being sent back, why isn’t anyone, just one or two people coming back for a short visit? Where are they? They seemed to just disappear off the planet.
And finally they realize that it’s time to go - the kooks actually did have it right. But the door is now shut, not even the United States will take them. Their only hope is to do what they’re told and hope they can ‘ride it out’. And, maybe, 1% do...the ones lucky enough to be picked up just before surrender day (as opposed to well before that time).
Perhaps the MOST IMPORTANT thing that separates us from Leftists and NeverTrumpers is that we DO NOT think the United States is immune from the possibility of a bad ending, just as ‘the sky is falling’ bunch didn’t think Germany was immune from the same in the 1930s. Personally, I was CONVINCED that had Skunk Cabbage won in 2016, she would have done whatever the hell she wanted to the country and to us (the people she learned to despise and hate, back from her college days, or before). She would have had the courts, she may have had Congress (but that didn’t matter, as the her courts would have neutered Congress, making them symbolic only...just like the House of People’s Deputies, or whatever they called their ‘Congress’ in the Soviet Union), there was nothing but an armed uprising that could, maybe, stop her. But an uprising like that wouldn’t be as easy as some here think. There are enough people who hate us Deplorables (both here and from overseas), and she could pull them together, arm them, and get to work, using them as her army (as happens very often in other countries).
I had a plan to get out, and was working on the process prior to Trump winning...my wife, being an immigrant, simply couldn’t believe it could happen here (even as conservative as she is) - to her the United States was and always will be the country she saw on the Brady Bunch, when she was growing up overseas. I get that, understanding the details of our politics and its weaknesses is rare enough for Americans, and next to impossible for those who don’t speak English as a first language. But my well-educated parents...Democrats, think I’m out of my mind when I told them that yes, I was ready to pack up and never see this country again. They thought: “We’re the United States, it can never get THAT BAD here. You’re crazy to think that.”, and hence there was no downside in voting for Skunk Cabbage, or her winning.
Excellent post.
Thank you for sharing. We’re on the cusp.
Consider this: there was a greater percentage of sincere Christians in 1930s Germany than are here in present day America. Our people, on average, have less built-in resistance to cruelty and mass murder. The liberal attitude toward abortion is proof of this.
You had a lot to say.... and all spot on.... The younger generations do not know this could happen here.... we are the LAST country on earth .. the world knows if we go, there is no one left to save them from world dominion and hell on earth.
We are the country who shed blood for others... who kept freedom from vanishing... we never took land in war... we liberated.
The young’uns who would vote for the person who paid for their student loans... have not looked further to what their worries would be if a socialist was our President. Such ignorance in a college indoctrination program...
Wisdom is not taught... obedience to their beliefs, is.