Nazification of the GOP Is Why There's Serious Discussion of Killing Off The 'Unfit'
Last edited Sat May 2, 2020, 12:38 PM - Edit history (3)
"Trump's Nazification of The GOP Is Why There's Serious Discussion of Killing Off The Unfit," by SemDem, Daily Kos, May 1, 2020.
Under Donald Trump, the Republican Party is racing toward a transformation that mimics the greatest evil of the 20th century. Long before the Nazis fully engaged with genocidal murder against the Jews, there were persecutions of people deemed "unfit." These were people whom Adolf Hitler’s extremists arbitrarily deemed insufficiently able to contribute to the greater German society. They included the infirm, people with learning disabilities, the mentally ill, those suffering from epilepsy, the physically disabled, and those struggling with alcohol issues.
According to the Nazis' white supremacist ideology, those people were not only impediments to their quest in perfecting their master race, but were also economic burdens to society. The Nazis started a campaign of propaganda to mock them. They were called "unworthy of life” and labeled as "useless eaters." The propaganda even expanded to math textbooks, which were revised to include arithmetic problems on how much it costs to care for these undesirables. This was the first stage. Then the Nazis moved to the next stage; they worked with political and medical authorities to divide communities between who they deemed as the “fit” and “unfit” members. The arbitrary classification system would serve a deadly purpose.
- 'Very fine people' at the deadly Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Va. in 2017.
This ultimately led to the final stage: the systematic, targeted killing of those labeled as a burden. At that point, the Nazis had groomed the German population by getting a little bit worse every single day—just enough to normalize the inhumanity. By the time the Nazis reached this stage, the populace had gotten so used to the cruelties, it seemed like murder of “the weak” was simply the next logical step. They had justified it in their minds.
-> *Sacrifice the weak was the policy of Aktion T4, the Nazi euthanasia program that exterminated the disabled. https://t.co/cxIq22R2n3 — Dylan (@dyllyp) April 22, 2020
*NOTE the sign, "Sacrifice the Weak" - the Nazi Aktion T4 eugenics slogan.
The concept of social Darwinism and arbitrary human classification is based upon Friedrich Nietzsche's Übermensch theory of superhumans. These are people not impeded by the needs of others deemed inferior. The weaker humans—characterized as the burdens of society—are to be left to fend for themselves. Hitler used this theory as the ideological foundation for his belief in a master race. Another person known to borrow heavily from this theory is the prophet of American conservatism, author Ayn Rand. Born, raised, and educated in Russia, Rand’s entire philosophy is centered around the concept of individual supremacy and radical free market fundamentalism. Rand and her ilk applied the Übermensch theory to capitalism, which justifies the wealthy’s belief that they have an absolute right to plunder. She called it ”the virtue of selfishness.” Her philosophy was simple: The weak are weak and should be taken advantage of, because it is the natural order of things. Therefore, society needs to focus only on developing the strong, and allow the weak to suffer or die.
Rand’s theory did not spare anyone, even children. Two years before her death in 1982, she appeared on Phil Donahue’s eponymous talk show to explain why it was wrong for our government to ever consider the needs of “subnormal” children and the “handicapped.” ...Ayn Rand isn’t the sole driving force behind the right-wing’s belief in their superiority over others, but she is probably the most direct and honest about it—and the Grand Old Party loves her for it. Rand’s brand of social Darwinism can be found in the right-wing support of eliminating social safety nets for the poor in order to support massive tax breaks and subsidies for the top 1% of the wealthiest Americans. It’s this sort of mindset that forces the poor in this nation to fight for the crumbs that rarely trickle-down. (*SEE Interview Video Below).
Randian capitalism hit the mainstream in the 1980s. It was the Reagan era, when a new crop of right-wing devotees adopted the principle that good governance, which is supposed to work toward the collective good, was no longer an ideal. Conservatives during this timeframe focused heavily on deregulation for big business, giving tax cuts to the richest Americans, and ending antitrust protections against monopolies. Ever since, Republicans have retooled their party to only serve the interests of the ultra-rich. Their destructive policies on everything—from education, health care, and shifting the tax burden away from the wealthy—has made U.S. income inequality the highest it’s been since the Census started tracking it over a half-century ago.
You would be hard-pressed to find any Republican today who doesn’t speak fondly of Ayn Rand. White House officials like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pay homage to her ideals. Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said he got into politics because of her. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul was even named after her by his father, former presidential candidate Ron Paul. But it’s Donald Trump—infamously known for hating to read—who said that The Fountainhead was one of his favorite books of all time, because it glorified the alpha male capitalist who had no regard for human consequence...
Read More, https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/5/1/1934455/-Trump-s-Nazification-of-the-GOP-is-why-there-s-serious-discussion-of-killing-off-the-unfit?utm_campaign=trending
- Aktion T4, Nazi Euthanasia Program, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aktion_T4
- Nazi poster c. 1938: "60,000 Reichsmark is what this person suffering from a hereditary illness costs the People's community during his lifetime. Fellow citizen, that is your money too."
- (3 mins.). Ayn Rand on 'subnormal' children & the handicapped, interview with Phil Donahue, 1982.
AYN RAND: “The newest proposals of having special, millions spent on subnormal children and on the handicapped. You are getting the so-called "needing" [school] buses is the attempt to bring everybody to the level of the handicapped. [...] But it includes the mentally retarded which is the subnormal, which is the children who are unable to learn, so that at the end of spending thousands or millions of taxpayers’ money, you're left with a half-idiot who MAY learn to read and write. MAY.”
She goes on to explain how she values some human lives over others … to applause.
= new reply since forum marked as read
