18 January 2020
Who Killed All Those People?
It May Not Be Who You Think.
Please bear with me, there is a major point made here.
The total number of non-combatants killed by the Nazis is about 11 million.
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2011/03/10/hitler-vs-stalin-who-killed-more/
Over six million Jews were murdered.
http://www.auschwitz.dk/holofaq.htm
From the web page: Prior to the collapse of the USSR and the archival revelations, some historians estimated that the numbers killed by Stalin's regime were 20 million or higher.
A quote: In 1957, he launched a campaign known as the Great Leap Forward that aimed to rapidly transform China's economy from agrarian to industrial. This campaign led to the deadliest famine in history and the deaths of 20–45 million people between 1958 and 1962.
Quoting: Pol Pot was a political leader whose communist Khmer Rouge government led Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. During that time, an estimated 1.5 to 2 million Cambodians died of starvation, execution, disease or overwork.
When we speak of those times we say that Stalin killed all those people In a very real sense, he did. That many people would not have met an early and ugly death if Stalin had not risen to power. In our quick sound bites, we rightfully accuse them of those deaths.
However, it is easy to forget that Chairman Mao, or any of these dictators, did not take a knife, gun, or anything else and commit that many murders. It is very important to remember individual people did take knife, gun, and any implement that chose and end the lives of those people. They committed cold blooded murder. Knowing full well exactly what they were doing. And from more recent genocides, and including the Nazi SS and others, their position was often: I was just following orders. I had to do it.
My position is: No, you did not have to. For various reasons, you elected to do that. It was your choice.
The people that did all these killings were the leader’s lackeys. The sycophants. The people that were in mid-level authority that had not the courage to say No. These are the people truly responsible for the up to 67 million murders just referenced. They did the murders, therefore they bear greater responsibility than the leaders. Whether or not they admit it, or own up to it, they bear that responsibility. They cannot abdicate it.
We have elected Trump. He has shown himself, time and time again to be a Tyrant. (Please look it up, he is not fully successful yet, but not for effort.) He is a Racist. He spews hate.
Now ask the question: How does it get away with it?
That is an incredibly important question.
The answer is that there are two groups that enable him. The most obvious are the elected Republicans in Congress. With very few exceptions, they are his lackeys. His sycophants. They are, day by day, enabling him to continue his regime of hatred.
And if he continues in office, these are the people than can begin to commit crimes in his name. These are the types of people that supported Hitler, Mao, Stalin, and others. They are more than complicit. They are active associates.
The second group is much larger, and much more pernicious. They are the members of this country that support Trump. They have the evidence in front of them. It cannot be denied. Yet they continue to deny. Each and every one of them is adding to the destruction of our democracy.
There is a subgroup of those voters. These are the people with apathy. They just don’t care. They will not do anything. Each has their own little justifications. They are complicit. I am not sure how to quantify how complicit they are, so make your own conclusion.
The situation is grim. I would like to write that we are at a cross-roads. That is not the case. We have selected and taken a path. The wrong path. Now that we are there, we must exert even greater effort to backup and find the right path. This will be difficult. But our democracy depends on it.
If things go completely bad, a large portion of these people will say and claim: But we did not know!
That is flat our wrong, and merits two responses.
The evidence is abundant, clear, and plain. You made a choice to pretend you did not know.
That is the second part of the response. If we get to the point where people say: But we did not know, it will then be too late. And it won’t matter anymore because it cannot be fixed.
Please do something.