I’m writing this on Saturday August 12, 2017. I only mention this because I’ve noticed that many of the blogs I’ve written since November 8th 2016 about the “Orange Fuehrer” (yup, I’m going there) which I thought were specific to that week or day, have become “evergreen”. By that I mean if it’s re-posted six months later, it still seems like I wrote it yesterday. Today may be different. But somehow, I doubt it.
Cognitive dissonance is defined as one mind simultaneously holding two or more conflicting beliefs, ideas or values.
I experienced a variation of that today. Ellin, my daughter Sarah and I went to see the movie “Dunkirk” this afternoon.
It’s a very good movie. It documents the reality of what 400,000 English troops experienced for a week. They were trapped by German forces at the beach of Dunkirk. The Germans, no excuse me, to be more specific, THE NAZIS, chose to send the Luftwaffe to bomb and shoot them like fish in a barrel.
They bombed RED CROSS HOSPITAL SHIPS FILLED WITH WOUNDED SOLDIERS! NAZI U-Boats sank every ship they could find overloaded with troops. What eventually saved the English troops were hundreds and hundreds of private citizens. These people owned small fishing boats, small pleasure boats, any kind of boat, and sailed them across the English Channel, risking their lives to rescue British troops.
Churchill hoped to save 30,000 troops. Out of 400,000. The boats that went over rescued over 350,000. They had no guns. The troops only had rifles to fight back against U-Boats and dive bombers. Dunkirk was both one of the worst moments for the allies and the best moments for the allies. When the troops reached England, there was a volunteer who was handing out blankets to the soldiers. He told each one “Well done.”
One of the soldiers replied. “All we did was survive.” The man replied “Sometimes, that’s enough.” The NAZIS went on to do more horrific things before the war was over.
My point is. The Nazis were the bad guys. I mean, really REALLY BAD GUYS. It’s rare in human history to have really, really bad guys with no redeeming qualities. The best thing you could say about Hitler was that he was nice to his dog. And we sort of need really good bad guys. After the Nazis died out, we briefly had the Klingons.
They were really bad guys. Until Star Trek Next Generation where they became not so bad guys.
But Nazis? They have ALWAYS BEEN REALLY, REALLY BAD GUYS. Hell, in German schools, from grade school on up, they are upfront with their history. They make sure every German is aware of exactly what happened in WWII to make sure that it never happens again.
At least, in Germany. I bring all of this up because when I came home from watching Dunkirk, I started watching the news. White nationalists, waving NAZI flags and Confederate flags, were rioting in Charlottesville at what they called a “Unite the Right” rally. A NAZI, drove a car into a group of counter-protesters, killing one and wounding 19 others. These were not Germans. White men, born here.
I cannot call them Americans. Their leaders claim that “they are fulfilling the promises of Donald J. Trump. They are taking back America.”
They led a nighttime rally reminiscent of Hitler’s rallies of the 1930’s. But they did it in polo shirts and with TIKI torches! TIKI torches! Are you kidding me??? I went to a Luau clam bake and a KKK rally broke out!
The Governor of Virginia gave a stirring speech saying that these NAZIS were not welcome in Virginia. They were not welcome in America. He is right.
What did our Asshole-In-Chief say? He said a lot of people are to blame — but never mentioned …. THE FUCKING NAZIS!!!!!
Here’s the dissonance.
We fought a war against these assholes. My dad and his generation served and died fighting against these assholes. For those few who are still alive, what must they think watching the news — today, Saturday, August 12th. 2017?
What has happened to us? NAZIS ARE THE BAD GUYS!
I usually try to be funny with my posts.
I try to find the humor in the insanity that has become our reality. But not today. Maybe tomorrow.
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Categories: #American-history, #Photography, Culture, evil, Government, political parties, Politics, War and battles
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
I have read of the Battle of Dunkirk, probably more than once, and at least once in an old Readers Digest… maybe more – we had them around the farm going back to the 30’s at least… I read a lot of them… especially from the ones during the war years. ..
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Go to you tube and search “911 Boat Lift” Tom Hanks. It’s a10 minute documentary on what the boats on the Hudson River did on 911. 350,000 people were rescued from Dunkirk in 9 days. 500,000 people were evacuated from Manhatten by private boaters in 9 hours. Amazing story.
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It’s hard to find the humour in the insanity.
Leslie
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I’m working on it.
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🙂
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I think what made the Nazis really really bad guys was they they were following actual, real, legitimate, recognizable evil. And I think in our days which have been so influenced by subjectivist morality, it’s a bigger challenge to identify that, especially as evil can cloak itself in some of the appurtenances of reason, even of good. 😦 Someone on Twitter posted an interesting photo showing how many of the Nazi marchers were wearing khaki pants, white polo shirts and red MAGA hats. The comment was “The new KKK robes.”
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And Tiki torches! Really?
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It’s so hard to find rags and pitch these days… Sad.
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Really!
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There’s so much evil in our “normal” world. We’ve made everything relative, diluting good while obliterating evil. Once there was a big kerfuffle at my college about bringing an American Nazi to speak, I posited the possibility that the guy was simply EVIL, an opinion shared by several professors I knew.
Everyone (except Garry) laughed at me, as if I was from the Dark Ages, suggesting we throw witches in the water to see if they can swim.
I do believe in evil and I’m pretty sure we know it when we see it, if we choose to see it. I may not be sure about God, but I’m positive the Devil’s paw prints are all over this world.
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I know there is evil. I have seen people fight it and lose. Individual people, good people, people I loved. I’ve also been hooted out of the room for positing the existence of evil, but never by anyone who had met it. Tolerance can be fallacious as much as intolerance. There are things that are intolerable. I know that I fight evil every day for myself. It is a constant battle. There is a nasty, itchy weird thing that pulls at me from time to time. I know what it is. Trump has awakened it.
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It’s good to know I’m not alone. I don’t know that the people who hooted you out don’t know evil. Maybe they like it. Many people do. That’s what makes it so powerful.
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Evil is easier than good and less lonely. 😦
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Garry spent a lot of years getting a really good look at evil. It still gives him nightmares.
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When evil appears in my dreams, it scares me. I know that’s not what you mean, still… I think C. S. Lewis wrote very well about evil. I just read an article in the Guardian (British paper) that said that White Supremacy has always been part of American culture. Never once does it say Britain and Holland worked hard to create that culture. I think the fucking around of history is evil. I read a post today by a child that was — to me — the end result of sanitized history. I just don’t know any more and I’m very sad. 😦
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Right now, it seems like everything is so wrong and getting worse. History is always changing. As things get worse, they begin simultaneously to reverse. Not to make less of our current reality, but this world has gone to hell and back more than once. Even if we can’t be sure we’ll live to see it, I think we can be sure it WILL turn around. And around. We’re a damaged, polarized species, heading for the best and worst of ourselves. I don’t know if we will ever get it entirely together, but this ugly patch will turn the other way. For a while.
I’m less sure about the earth and its salvation. Making humans better will happen … but this planet? Don’t know about it There are too many fools who believe what we do to the earth doesn’t matter.
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I don’t really think anything else matters. Without earth, we’re fucked. 😦
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Pretty much, yup.
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Yes, but here’s the thing. The planet wil always be just fine. We could be like Venus with temperatures around 500 degrees and the atmosphere ammonia. The planet doesn’t care. We just wont be here. Earth could care less.
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I know. And I realize we are nothing really, in the greater scheme of things … but I have a nostalgic commitment to existence. Call me sentimental.
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Same with Ellin’s parents and her Grand parents.
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Or as the Dolphins said at the beginning of The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy at the end of the Earth.
“So long, and thanks for all the fish.”
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I can not begin to think what either of my parents would say about an administration aided by Russians and a city holding a NAZI rally. It is best my father is not here to see what he risked his life fighting against.
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I try to imagine my mother who was always sure there was a Nazi hiding in the closet somewhere. She’d be nodding her head. Yes, Mom, you were more right than I imagined possible.
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Sad, but true.
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I know. It’s appalling.
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News from the USA are getting more and more worrying me. However, I do not understand why you take this special historical recourse on the history in Germany of the last century. All what is ongoing now for several months is to great extent pure American nationalist stuff, beginning with the slogan “America first” or actions by the KluKluxClan whenever whereever. We do not have such a clan with us in Germany, we also do not have fundamentalist Christians in Germany killing doctors of abortion clinics and arguing that they are entitled to do so according to the old testament. So the question should be: what is going wrong in the US American society? Comparisons with Hitler and the Nazis are not really helpful in this regard. Wishing you all the best from Berlin.
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It’s helpful as a comparison, to remember that we fought them and so did a whole generation worldwide — and to now act as if they were heroic, is totally bizarre and wrong. If we are looking for a country to emulate, there are quite a few countries to which we could easily compare ourselves. We are not — by far — the most advanced country — not socially, culturally, scientifically or even economically.
My current deep worry is — what are we going to do RIGHT NOW? We have never been good at dealing with North Korea. We’ve narrowly avoided war in the past and this is NOT looking good.
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Right now is VERY scary! The POTUS inflammatory “taunts” to North Korea are no longer immature schoolyard stuff but provocative rhetoric that is leading us to a cliff.
Pancho, great post! We have “Dunkirk” on our short “must see at the movies” list.I just returned from a short drive to the Deli. I had a sports station on the radio. No scores. Just yahoos yelling about the Charlottesville rally. Some for the Klan, others screaming about the Black protestors. Very scary!!
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White supremacy and nationalism is no German invention, it is existing also in your country for centuries now! Therefore, your reference on Hitler Germany is not really helpful for an analysis and also completely misleading, as the problems in the USA are much older and deeper. What is worrying not only me, that Donald Trump is really doing a lousy job as a president (running the country like the CEO of a middle-sized economic company) mostly driven by emotions, egomania, testosterone and the greed for having autocratic power. In case of North-Corea this now turns out to be really dangerous because idiocy knows no borders.
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Thank you. You have become the worlds leader in rationality and sanity.
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Thank you. That is very eye opening. I have to completely agree with you. It was these idiots marching with both Confederate and Nazi Flags side by side. They have co-opted that era in your history to blend in with what America has been doing, well, since we started. Slavelry, bigotry. The Klan. Your right it is all American Home grown.
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Well, an evil and dangerous ghost has been awaken in case. But, Donald Trump’s policy can be more compared with the right-winged nationalist policy of the actual government in Warsaw / Poland. They both want to protect their nation which has to come first or so, they both do not like the period and spirit of Englightenment, liberal values, the EU or demogracy in general, and appear to still live in the 19th century (or even earlier?). But these governments in Poland or the USA do not have imperialist plans like Hitler had definitely which can all be read in his Mein Kampf. Take care.
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I’m not arguing that it’s bad but this has been brooding in this country for a long time. Probably since before we started having a country. And it’s not going away quickly, either. There’s a lot of race hatred here and there and in your own home country, too. There’s a lot of this going around which, for me, makes it much worse than it was because it’s an international trend … and that’s what gets you into world wars. One sick leader is bad but a handful of them leading major nations? That is very very much worse.
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It is getting pretty hard to find and keep the humour alive in our society’s lately.
Sometimes we just need to take a ‘time-out’ and avoid listening to the news it would seem?.
On the positive(?) side – Trump has managed to make us worry less about ISIS – right?? Who knew that his plan to get them out of the headlines was to push us to the brink of Nuclear War with North Korea and raising the possibility of another Civil War?
love.
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I could not agree more and I concur that in Germany they are not trying to whitewash their history. Friends of mine just came back from there and they said the very same thing that you did.
It is hard to believe that the President of the United States would not condemn these haters outright but then this is one of the most self absorbed people in the world we’re talking about. Off the track a bit can I say how annoying it is that he seems to make all his major announcements via social media. I really do not want to hear about the beginning of WWIII on Twitter!
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We have never stopped whitewashing our history. Australia and the U.S. share an unwillingness to admit what they did and how bad it was and for that matter, is. But this is where the buck has to stop. Whatever we did is in the past. What we do NOW is going to matter to everyone and soon.
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When I read about the way we treat refugees it makes me embarrassed to call myself Australian.
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We are living in what the Chinese used to call “interesting times.” I’m glad I’m not young. What a confusing mess the world has become.
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“I have the best nuclear holocausts! Nobody has bilglier nuclear holocausts than me!!
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Not as funny as it was a couple of weeks ago, eh?
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Fire and fury like no one has EVER seen before. BIGGEST fire and fury — Fabulous Fury and Fire.
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Today was truly insane! If this is what Trump means by making America great again, he’s got to have another thought coming! His comments were super brief, and were only to be used as a prelude to how wonderful he is, and all the progress he has made in the lst 7 months — disgusting!
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And he was insincere — and we all know he didn’t write it himself. He look disinterested when he spoke.
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Have you noticed that he’s no longer as animated as he used to be when speaking — scripted or not — he almost seems to be drugged with some sort of relaxant.
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I wouldn’t be surprised. There’s more than one way to control an uncontrollable lunatic. He does look drugged, now that you mention it.
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Trump using the word ‘egregious’ told me loud and clear he did not write the speech himself and his tone/posture was saying he could not care less.
What a wonderful and sincere man he is!
love.
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You could tell he didn’t write it. It contained a complete sentence.
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And big words.
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He looked like he was reading his remarks obviously written by someone else. He had all the emotion of someone ordering dinner off a menu.
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Yup
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True. He is beyond disgusting.
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Beyond, beyond and beyond disgusting!! Ugh! Terr’ble!!
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