History’s Latest Arsonist
By: Jon Schwartz
“People will tell you it can’t happen here. Trust me, they’re wrong.”—Ted Schwartz, US Soldier, Liberator of Dachau, my father.
Marketing research shows that books about World War II sell 20% better if there is a swastika and/or photo of Hitler on the cover. Nothing, it seems, captures our attention and imagination quite like evil.
We’ve all pondered the essence of evil. How, for example, does one go from tyrant to “genocidist”? De-humanizing others is perhaps the most popular explanation for the pure evil of genocide. If we can see another as less than we are, we can excuse horrible acts against them. Certainly we’ve seen this de-humanization technique employed alongside history’s most horrific pogroms.
While de-humanization is an ingredient in the killing of others and arson of a society, it requires much more than just that. A child holding a magnifying glass to an ant is one thing, but killing millions demands more of an explanation.
What do history’s arsonists have in common besides reducing others to a life not worth living? What primary traits do Hitler, Stalin, Saddam, Pol Pot, etc. share? What other vital component did their totalitarian treks exhibit? The answer is clear in all their ugly screeds:
I AM A VICTIM!
WE ARE THE VICTIMS!
WE WILL FIGHT FOR WHAT IS OURS!!!
Perceived victimhood is the totalitarian’s best friend and lifelong companion. The delusion of righteousness always precedes the tyrant’s pitch that he alone is endowed with inexplicable power to lead his tribesmen from victim to victor. Genocide becomes merely the “necessary work” to complete the victory.
Saddam, Pol Pot, Hitler, and Stalin surely all believed that “I AM THE VICTIM, AND I AM THE AVENGER!” History’s arsonists never worried about acknowledging their evil because from the start their cruelty was defensive, the fault of their would be oppressors. Whatever actions they were “forced” to take became heroic reactions to conspiracies they concocted and validated through relentless propaganda, another necessity to carry out mass murder.
As they say, one person’s freedom fighter is another person’s terrorist.
Hitler spent his lifetime emotionally ensconced in a dual belief system of de—humanization (Jews are parasites) and victimhood (Germany is surrounded by the Jewish Bolsheviks to the east and the imperialist Jews to the west). This narrative took root before he ever set foot on World War I soil and 20 years later became the tsunami of hatred Germans set their watches by and went to war for.
And of course this is what incenses us when we look back at 1930’s and 40’s Germany. The people followed. Why? How could they be so servile to such a vision?
I wish I knew, but I suspect there are two societal cornerstones of the spread of evil in this, and all other such episodes: first, to MLK’s point, “in the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” The decent majority chose the comfort of silence over the necessity of righteous counterattack against the malignant minority. Second, the application of repetitive propaganda is the marinade of every societal barbeque. Keep saying the same thing over and over, and people will eventually believe it.
Enter today’s United States of America. And Trump… And his followers.
Of course today’s America is not Nazi Germany, Baathist Iraq, Khmer Rouge Cambodia, or Stalinist Russia. However, if you believe “it can’t happen here” then you are a fortunate fool, and if you believe that powerful elements of our country aren’t sliding toward evil in active and passive forms alike, you are mistaken.
Is Donald Trump our next historical arsonist? I don’t know, but I am certain he will be unless he’s stopped. We must cease pretending that this isn’t so. While the content of his narrative may not match Hitler’s sentence for sentence, his process is disturbingly similar.
De-humanize his perceived foes? We need not count the ways.
Mold himself as the victim? Check.
Cast himself as the avenger? “I alone can fix this.”
The silence of the masses? Oh God yes!
The “righteous indignation” of the frothing few? Watch a Trump rally.
Assaults on the media? Every minute of every day. “Enemy of the people.”
Use of repetitive, false propaganda? The lyingest liar that ever lied, and it’s not even close.
So what is his end game? King of the world will suffice. Nothing else will do.
And what of his political base? Do they see themselves as victims and Trump as deliverer? Where do they find the emotional fuel required to subjugate facts, vote against their own interests, and lustily inhale the funk of bad deeds all around them?
Who are the Trump supporters reeling from? Who is soiling their ideal, denying them their pursuit of happiness? Two principle villians have emerged, feeding each other and together constituting an existential threat to “the country I knew.”
First, there are the “others”, and the list is long… and expanding. Immigrants, Blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, Asians, and everyone else who doesn’t symbolize or respect what America should be – a white nation sprung from Anglo-Europe heritage. We speak English, we forged our constitution from British ideals, and we created the greatest country ever by the toil and moxie of people who need sunscreen. For Trump’s base the apocalypse is scheduled for 2050, when White officially becomes minority status on census sheets.
Second, of course, there is the mainstream media, coastal Ivy League elites, bent on their “celebrate diversity/stronger together” mythology that will subjugate real Americans.
And what is the media’s culpability in all of this? Enter CNN. While Fox News unabashedly serves as Trump’s propaganda platform, CNN also does his bidding, albeit in a cloaked fashion. Just like Fox, Trumpism has been economic boom times for the network which has branded itself the noble resistance. Nonsense! Far from being The Old Man and the Sea, fighting the ocean beast to his last breath, CNN gladly enables Trumpism’s dangerous narrative. If Trump is the Shark, CNN is but the remora hitching a ride on his gills. Their symbiosis is as complete as a tick on a dog’s neck. When Trump crows he is “the best thing that ever happened to CNN,” he stumbles into territory he seldom visits…the truth. Truth to Power? Nonsense! It’s ratings dressed up as the noble warrior.
As the elitist CNN host/ess “turns to the panel” we see a lonely Trump supporter flanked by several ardent anti-Trumpists. it doesn’t matter when each of these outraged elites thrusts perspicacity and moral authority at the Trump surrogate because the Trump viewer isn’t listening. Rather, the Trump viewer watches the Trump surrogate surrounded and “bullied,” and voila: victim narrative confirmed!
While serving snifters of cognitive cognac to those who oppose, CNN simultaneously pours shots of Jack Daniels confirmation bias for the Trump base. CNN cynically gives us all what we seek through this manipulative formula which, in the end, serves Trump in his never ending quest to rain fire and fury on the remnants of our national unity.
Facts and reason are not the amino acid chains of the Trump supporter. Their fuel is victimhood and the enemies responsible for it. Fox News is spinning Trump’s worst for them to be able to digest. But CNN and other media outlets seem to be knowingly playing their role too, with a lack of concern in proportion to increased viewership and more expensive ad spots. The truly awful places Trump may yet take us are unclear; those who will bear responsibility if we go there far more so. JS