Gradually, then suddenly: Authoritarianism

Guest Post by Marty Bent

I woke up this morning and saw this tweet from Michael Krieger urging his followers to read an excerpt from They Thought They Were Free The Germans, 1933-45 and I am very happy that he did so. We talk a lot about the gradually, then suddenly nature of Bitcoin acceptance, adoption and domination. Today, I’d like to turn your attention towards another gradually, then suddenly trend we follow from time to time in this rag but needs more attention at this current juncture; the slow creep towards Authoritarianism. We’ve touched on isolated instances of this slow creep in many issues throughout the past, but I’d like to attempt to bring some of these disparate instances into hyper focus using this retrospective on Nazi Germany as a guide to help highlight how we may be embarking on a similar path at the moment.

There has been a concerted effort from the mainstream media and the entrenched political/academic/banking/corporate class to divide and conquer for some time now. They choose very broad and nuanced topics that stoke strong emotions in individuals, reduce them to black and white issues, and force media consumers to pick sides. The topics chosen by this class of manipulators that are most popular recently are race, climate, Trump, and COVID. When it comes to race you are either a racist or an anti-racist. When it comes to the climate you are either an environmentalist or a climate change denier. When it comes to your views on Donny Trump you are either a member of the resistance or an alt-right fascist. When it comes to COVID you are either helping to stop the spread or a science denying country bumpkin murderer.

There is no room for taking a step back and saying things like “Maybe we should judge and treat people as individuals instead of making broad brush generalizations about their belief and status based on skin tone.”, “Yeah, maybe we are contributing to climate change, but should we really send humanity back to a pre-Industrial Age way of life based off proclamations from people who have been consistently very wrong for decades?”, “Yes, Donald Trump is an ass and I certainly don’t agree with everything he has said or done, he’s certainly hypocritical in a lot of regards, and he fumbled many things while in office, but are we really willing to go as far as to compare him to Hitler?”, and “This virus seems to be affecting people who are either extremely unhealthy or old the worst, do we really need to shut down the global economy and mandate experimental mRNA vaccines on the whole population?”

SHUT UP YOU RACIST CLIMATE CHANGE DENYING FASCIST MURDERER!

This is the current state of discourse at the moment and it does not bode well for society. Slowly but surely, the conversation has been pushed to this black and white extreme and the ability to have open and genuine discussions about extremely nuanced topics has been thrown out the door. Emotions rule the day and, what’s worse, we’re seeing a growing trend of people identifying where they stand on these “black and white issues” with physical markers in meatspace that are eerily similar to some of the physical signaling that went on in Nazi Germany.

It started last year with the “black square” on Instagram and front lawn picket signs in the wake of the murder of George Floyd.

Of course black lives matter, women are humans, humans are human, science exists, love is love, and… well, kindness isn’t really everything. That one doesn’t make sense. These statements are all obviously true, except for the last one. However, these signs weren’t really about articulating the particular statements, they are a signaling mechanism to make it obvious which side of the “black and white” argument that the media has funneled you into you are on. “You’re either an anti-racist or you hate everyone who doesn’t share the same skin tone as you.” Very divisive.

Fast forward a year and we’re seeing the manifestation of physical markers signaling that you are on the right side of the “COVID debate”. Particularly in the form of papers that prove you took one of the vaccines (I know many who carry them around in their wallet with pride) and LITERAL STOREFRONT STICKERS that signal you are a clean, virus-conscious business. If you’ve been watching the NCAA basketball tournament you’ve definitely been inundated with the commercial filled with famous athletes and actors urging businesses to get enrolled in the “WELL Health-Safety” program to signal to patrons that these businesses are safe to enter. They are literally telling people to “look for the seal” before entering businesses unless they want to be sprayed with a virus before they enter an establishment.

“German Firm” stickers are now “Germ-free Firm” stickers. The powers that be are slowly but surely nudging society towards conflict by actively attempting to label and divide us and it seems that COVID is their issue of choice this year to widen the chasm of the division. Nothing makes this clearer than efforts to label businesses in this way and the push for vaccine passports across the country. We are at the precipice of a very slippery slope that will lead to inevitable PHYSICAL conflict and authoritarianism if strong men and women don’t vehemently make a stand today. These programs should be rejected outright by any man or woman who values freedom and liberty because these programs are aiming to take it away from individuals across the country.

First it’s telling people they will only feel safe if they shop in WELL Health-Safety Certified™ small businesses. Alienating business owners who don’t tag along with the virtue signal. Then it’s telling individuals they cannot enter WELL Health-Safety Certified™ businesses without flashing their vaccine passport at the door. Then it’s corralling all of the non-complying “antivaxxers” into physical locations where they either accept the jab or remain isolated from society like a bunch of lepers. And finally, it ends with leper annihilation. “They were too much of a danger to our society, so to make sure everyone is safe we jabbed them with a cyanide jab.” Everyone living in “civil society” is forced to stay on the vaccine passport app, which turns into your CBDC wallet which dictates how much money your are allocated, where and how you can spend it, and how quickly you must spend it.

Sounds extreme, yes. “You have a sick mind Uncle Marty.” Maybe that’s what it is. But there have been instances of similar escalations throughout history and, from my observation, we are repeating some very dark actions. Hopefully I’m wrong, but in case I’m not, I’d like to use this small soap box I have to speak my mind on these issues.

As I’ve said many many many times throughout the history of this rag, 99.99% of people in this world, the Common Man, have much more in common with each other than the media/political/banking/corporate class that is actively trying to pit them against each other by taking extremely nuanced topics and forcing people to view them as “black and white”, pick a side, and aggressively attack the “other” for not demonstrating “same think”.

Don’t give into their games. They are pure evil and they will lead society to ruin.

Turn off the boob tube. Talk to your neighbors. Have open and honest conversations. Don’t let them divide. And most importantly, SPEAK UP against their dividing tactics.

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