Look again. These are bodies.
What are you looking at?
Lately, as political debates reach ever higher summits of the ridiculous and maniacal, a common name hurled at people we don’t like is “Hitler“. Now, we can all understand getting passionate about issues. The strength of our convictions and raging adrenaline gives us overwhelming courage to raise our voices and pump our fists. But to call your nemesis “Hitler” just because you don’t like him/her or don’t agree with his/her ideology is very immature, reactionary and truly tasteless.
It is very concerning to see OUR leaders act in such an irresponsible and inflammatory manner. It almost always plays out the same way no matter if it happens in lee Belize or the big ole United States. Some high profile politico calls an opponent “Hitler”; it causes fierce controversy; the aggressor backs down but by then, the damage is done. That name, that image is forever linked in the voters’ minds.
Even people who are shocked and aghast at such vitriol, like the Germans in the 1930’s, we tell ourselves, “Oh, he didn’t mean that. It won’t turn into anything. After all, I know him. He is my cousin. He is a nice guy.” But that is the frog boiling. You know the metaphor: A frog, dropped into boiling water, will frantically try to escape. But if you place that same frog in a pot of tepid water and gradually raise the temperature, he will languish in stupor and smile his way to death. Is that what is going on here? I think so.
People with malintent and less than stellar ethics, are trying to colour our vernacular with the blood of millions of people who were murdered under the directive of a lone, evil %$#&@!$*!@^#. Do you understand that when you use the name “Hitler” in vain, you insult the victims and the survivors of the most monstrous acts committed against humanity, EVER? When we call others “Hitler” we minimize the horrors the whole world had to fight to overcome.
Imagine YOUR family portrait. Do you see your mother; your grandmothers; your father; your grandfathers; your aunts and uncles; your cousins; your baby brothers; your four year old sister. Do you see your mischievous 10 year old cousin pulling his sister’s hair? She is the one with her mouth formed in an “O” in surprise and pain. And then there is your tomboy of a 12 year old sister making googly eyes at the camera. Are you smiling? Now imagine putting an “X” on each and every face and telling your grandchild, “Hitler killed him”; “Hitler killed her”; “Hitler”; “Hitler”.
Lemme ask you something: Has any one of our leaders ever told millions of people they had to identify themselves by wearing a distinctive symbol signifying that they are the scourge of their nation? Have you ever had to watch your children being taken from you and put on a train to a concentration camp, your son is 4 and your daughter is a screaming 2 year old? Did you have to watch as soldiers lined up hundreds of the old and sick, each one being riddled with bullets in the blink of an eye? Did you have to watch your mother shrivel up from hunger and die slowly from the simple flu because she has no medicine or the strength to fight? Did you have your gold teeth ripped out of your mouth so some bastard can take the gold and melt it down? How about skinning your neighbour so a General can have a lamp shade made of his skin? Did you have to watch your daughters/sisters rounded up and sent to labs where there insides were mutilated and injected with poisons in “experiments”? Were you made to give up all your clothes and warm shoes then left to shiver in negative 30 degree Fahrenheit bitter cold winters? And you better not stop working because you will be butted in the head by a gun.
No. You haven’t. And you won’t.
And before you dismiss my plea because you are telling yourself that it will never get to this point so why bother discussing it? It didn’t start with the gassing and the shooting. It started with toxic rhetoric. Beware words like: dictator, imperialist, unilateral, uncaring, supremacist, socialist, or phrases like “threat to our freedom”; “if you are not with us, you are against us”; “it’s us versus them”; “take back our country”. And whenever you are not allowed to criticise a political proponent’s ideology and in turn are accused of being a “traitor” or identified as being partisan and blind, that is a huge signal that true democracy is NOT that proponent’s intent. Then, there is the actual poster with our Prime Minister dressed as Hitler himself. I’m not showing that picture here. That would give it more press and I refuse to be a part of that. Go look for it yourself.
It is a shame that politicos with self serving agendas are playing on people’s fears and emotions. Hitler took advantage of a depressed Germany to push his hate filled objectives. At first, the Germans didn’t even like him. He was unsuccessful at his early attempts. As the environment became more desperate and people sought a leader, he became their saviour, their knight in shining armour. None of them realized what they were heading for. Is this what we want for our people? More hate? More violence? More devastation? Check yourself. Check your motives. Check your tactics because it might turn out that “Hitler” is YOU.
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Point taken… I would not lay the entire blame at Hitler’s feet. The German people were more than willing. As you point out, we must take care not to ascribe evil to those who dissent with our opinion. Human beings as a mob are capable of many atrocities, once they are fed what makes them roar. Barrow has not singled out his opposition overtly like Hitler, but all of us are calculating by nature. Never underestimate what we can factor into our calculations once we believe our goals are just a la Chavez, Castro, and many others.
If u do ur own research, u”ll find many sources debating the holocaust.
In some countries, denying the holocaust and debating it, will land u in jail and some hot water. No freedom of speech over arguing history? The truth only hurts those who lie.
After decades and generations of negative campaigning and jewish propaganda, they villified and demonized Germany and the Germans.
The same iss happening with Cuba’s and Venezuela’s leaders.
As for the pictures, these are jews AND GERMANS who died of typhus and had to burned to prevent further contamination.
I implore you to do ur own research on the holocaust and Nazi Germany. & stop misleading urselves & the Belizean ppl on the jewish falsehoods and lies of what was a great empire; Germany.
Lies, fear propaganda, inflammatory rhetoric, ugly, murderous, raping = jew
http://www.666blacksun.org/satanic-national-socialism/questions-and-answers-on-the-holocaust/
HOLY MADAZZZZZZZZZ…..I feel stupid just for having read that! I can’t imagine you are serious so I will just tell myself and my readers that you are up to mischief and that you will reply with a J/K, right?
You can deny and debate in this one… So I grant you the pics are as you say. Apparently the truth hurts you. Germany AND THE GERMANS attacked Austria, Chechoslovakia, Poland, Holland after signing non-agression pacts with them and killed millions of Jews, Poles, and others as testified by Germans, and many many others. And you’re right, Germany was a great empire until it chose to follow a lunatic corporal.
All those witness victim accounts must all be lies too!
Who the cap fits – Egocentrism is a personality trait which has the characteristic of regarding oneself and one’s own opinions or interests as most important or valid. It also generates the inability to fully understand or to cope with other people’s opinions and the fact that reality can be different from what they are ready to accept despite any change in their personal belief.
There is so much wrong with this article that this time I truly don’t want to comment, except to say that the passion against Hitler by the author is justified and gets the point across. This article would have better served people by being just about Hitler and his atrocities. Hate that it was spoiled when the author suggested that it is an absolute travesty for anyone to dare to criticize Dean Barrow by calling him a dictator and likening his egocentrism to that displayed by Hitler.
My opinion (note, this is only my opinion and so is the above comment) is that the writers of these blogs, whenever they delve into politics, come across as apologists for Dean Barrow. Because of that, anyone who disagrees is seen as partisan and everything goes downhill from there on in.
Ain’t nobody can tell me that when I call Dean Barrow a dictator I am perpetuating the atrocities committed by Hitler in some form or fashion. That is just so much bullshit. If Francis Fonseca becomes Prime Minister and behaves like a dictatorial asshole who thinks his way of looking at the world is the only way, I will levy the same criticism at him.
When I say Dean Barrow sometimes behaves like a modern day Hitler, according to the author, I am insulting victims and minimizing horrors. What a monster I have become, I guess. I promise, I will never again criticize Dean Barrow no matter what he does for fear of unleashing toxic rhetoric on Belize and subsequently the world.
that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Oh almost forgot…to borrow your words – “And whenever you are not allowed to criticise a political proponent’s ideology and in turn are accused of being a “traitor” or identified as being partisan and blind, that is a huge signal that true democracy is NOT that proponent’s intent” – Ask anybody from the unions to the cane-farmers to the Bar Association to the private sector. Hell, ask the common folk who stood up against the proposed 9th Amendment what all they were called by Barrow and the U.D.P.
So Faye, since Barrow did exactly what you are warning us to beware of, and since by your own argument democracy is not his intent, what am I supposed to say about him since I can’t criticize him? Pray enlighten me.
You just missed the whole point.
Had an old English teacher back at John’s…he used to tell me that if you wrote something and a reader missed the point completely it is because (a) they deliberately missed it or (b) your point wasn’t properly and clearly made.
I didn’t deliberately miss it.
LOL…he deliberately missed it….but I wasn’t about to go point for point….the seed is planted…you cant ever “unknow” what you done know 🙂
Or they’re too dense.
“When we call others “Hitler” we minimize the horrors the whole world had to fight to overcome.”
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