Don't Be a Sucker (1947) [video]
archive.org
archive.org
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_Party_of_Am...
The ACLU, on behalf of honest-to-God neo-nazis who wanted to march in a place where 1/6 of the folks were Holocaust survivors, stood up for the 1st amendment. Notably, it established that icons of a hate group were not themselves fighting words--rather different than the "everything is violence" position taken by the myopic today.
I'm equally unsettled that few seem as principled or dedicated to basic freedoms today.
He fought at the liberation of Royan, and received a fairly prestigious decoration for it. After the war, he married my grandma - whom he had met through a postal service that matched young soldiers to young women so as to keep them motivated - just by showing up to her house, as he had nowhere else to go to.
He then worked in a chemical plant, starting from the bottom, and ending up in a very respectable managerial position. His first child became a surgeon, and his second child a chemical researcher for the very company he had worked for.
Sadly, he spent the last 15 years of his life becoming more and more racist, frequently disparaging arabic/black people, and voting for extreme right political parties. He died never knowing that my cousin was gay, and that he had been breaking her heart with all of his anti gay rhetoric. He taught her to count, drive, and was basically a second father to her.
For him, Americans were always the liberators, coming from a country of justice and respect. He was very proud when I moved to the US.
And now people are marching with nazi flags in the open streets.
What fucking weird days we live in.
I'm saddened by the efforts of others to divide the nation and pit us against each other. Sometimes it feels like there are too many interests trying to use fear and division to achieve their own ends.
I refuse to buy into that way of thinking. I'm an American and so is everyone that shares our values. Everyone.
A lot of the left and right wing talking points are very divisive.
Can't we all just denounce extremist ideologies of every stripe without needing to softball the people we are closer to aligning with?
And what extreme left are you talking about anyway? What domestic ideology on the left, exactly, are you referring to? Where are they marching down the street to restrict the rights and freedoms of your fellow Americans, to stop individuals living happy and prosperous lives? Do you mean BLM marchers asking not to be victimised? Is that an extreme ideology?
Don't be a sucker.
But you're insane if you're comparing a student protest at Berkeley with a bunch of literal neo-Nazis and alt-righters celebrating white power with symbols of racism and genocide.
Not for the level of violence. But for what the violence was in service of.
One recognises diversity and embraces it, including "the others".
Another promotes distinction and faction, and turns these against one another.
As with much else, there's a good kind and a bad kind.
Fascism is the bad kind.
I count myself as decidedly 'of-the-left' but feel very excluded by the type of identity politics practiced by, for instance, The Guardian.
B) One thing does not invalidate the other.
Don't get your hopes up that things will ever get better (though I've read and agree, racial division in US was lowest in Bush Sr years, so perhaps a little better is doable), though do continue to work so that it doesn't get worse (here and elsewhere, it's been way worse).
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,
Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,
Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,
Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,
Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,
Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.
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Please read the whole document, proclaimed 1948 (a year after this film): http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/