Nazis and White Supremacists in the Mainstream

Since Donald Trump has been elected president, the hate groups seem to come out of the woodwork. The Klu Klux Klan and the neo-Nazis have been showing up to what should be peaceful rallies and causing harm and agitating crowds. They have been actively recruiting online, although a lot of them have went on the dark web, in order to remain hidden.

Quite a few of them have been identified online, and it has caused many of them to lose their jobs and reputations. They are posting flyers all around the country claiming it's ok to be white, while advertising their specific hate groups. A lot of this goes back to fear-mongering and propaganda spread by the Nazis when trying to build their party up.

After Charlottesville, Virginia, where a young lady named Heather Heyer was killed by a white supremacists, along with many more injured, the president gave a speech. In his speech he said that there were very fine people on both sides. Those were his exact words. Not condemning the actions that left a girl dead, but very fine people on both sides. In doing so, he enabled the white supremacists to roam free as if hating others is American as apple pie. (Sometimes I worry that people think it is.) The guys who jumped an African American man, very fine people. The people waving Nazi flags, very fine people. The people marching with torches and threatening people of color the night before while chanting, “You will not replace us,” very fine people.

I don’t understand how that could even equate, when you have protestors on one side as asking for equality and peace, yet the other side wants a full on race war. I understand that there is some ignorance and fear among white supremacists and a desire to belong, but for some reason, they pick groups that already lost during their time, yet they cling to them.

The anti-fascists among the groups are true anti-heroes. While most are just there to protect the innocent, there are some others who participate in activities such as black blocs. Generally these type of activities are counterproductive. They cause destruction and chaos without reason, and take away from the problem at hand. That’s not to say that all anti-fascists are bad. As I said, most are just there to protect the innocent and jump in when things get to one-sided or out of hand. If you think about it, theoretically we were anti-fascist during World War II.

Another thing I don’t understand is how they can belong to these groups and not see it as treasonous. (I don’t think they understand it for the most part either.) If you are for the confederacy than you are an enemy of the state. Plain and simple. If you are pro-Nazi, you’re going against everything we fought for in World War II. I am really surprised that none of these groups have been considered terrorist, they have committed more acts of domestic terrorism in the US than all other countries combined.

However, we let them continue their propaganda and recruitment. They hold government offices and positions. People elected Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond. There is currently a holocaust denier running in Illinois, and I believe he is currently unopposed. How terrifying is that? All the World War II veterans can tell you differently from what they saw in Nazi Germany. There are photos, books, movies, all dedicated to the holocaust. We have the diary of Anne Frank. I could be called a conspiracy theorist at times, but come on. You can’t deny this.

Until we continue to drive them back underground with the worms where they belong, they will continue to spread hate and propaganda. It’s up to us to say enough is enough and call them out when necessary. I don’t condone violence except in self-defense, but there are many ways to get their networks of communication shut down. Just look on twitter for white pride hashtags, Nazi codes such as 88 ("h" is the eighth letter of the alphabet, so it’s hh for heil Hitler). If they post racist stuff report it. I have taken quite a few down myself in order to stop them from spreading their hate via social media. It’s easy to do, and anonymous. If you’re brave enough and computer savvy enough to try to infiltrate their networks, make sure you use a VPN or IP blocker, and under no circumstances should you ever use your real name, email address, or give them any personal information. It’s up to us to stop the hate, and we should do so sooner rather later.