Does Brutality Create Respect?

Melissa Hortman's assassination brings to mind Adolph Hitler who said, "Brutality creates respect."

Since Trump's pronouncement to make America great again (and respected again), brutality has taken center stage through his ongoing rhetoric and deeds—including fomenting the brutal rampage of January 6 and pardoning those who tore through the Capitol, jabbing and beating police officers with American flag poles while spraying them with mace.

Hortman's assassin believed he, too, was making America great again when he crossed the Rubicon into spiritual violence as an avowed Evangelical Christian.

What's baffling me is how our news media missed, or perhaps dismissed, this assassin's end goal. The list of nearly 70 enemy targets, along with numerous automatic weapons found in his vehicle, was barely a footnote to the tragedy.

For close to a decade, this kind of violence was foreseen through justice department investigations and Congressional hearings. We were shown all the evidence of what was to come. We were told if we did nothing, democracy might suffer a fatal blow.

We were also warned that social media was the epicenter of social division and hate. We were shown exactly how the burning embers of fascism on these platforms would continue to spread and inflame. But we were unmoved or too busy to protest the use of algorithms that intentionally fanned those flames.

Maybe we didn't believe any of it. Maybe we told ourselves, no, this can't happen in America—just let me scroll.

However, now our rights are disappearing, and as we justifiably fill the streets in protest, our right to assemble hangs by a thread.

Part of the problem is the word, fascism, which apparently connotes strength among newer generations of American men.

On the other hand, another simple word, socialism, has been intentionally tarnished repeatedly and successfully by the Republican party, though it has brought us unemployment insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security checks, not to mention fire departments, police departments, and many additional protective services such as FEMA, CDC, NASA, NOAA. These are the very things that promote the general welfare of our nation, a necessity mentioned upfront in the preamble to our Constitution.

No evangelical church positions itself as fascist, nor do its leaders believe they are fascist. But remaining silent as masked agents yank people off our streets, raid their homes, rip them from their workplaces, and cart them off to detainment camps says otherwise. How do we not recall The Diary of Anne Frank or Stephen Spielberg's Schindler's List as we witness this mind-blowing, nationwide abomination?

Just as Germans looked the other way as Nazis continued to round up Jews, half of Americans don't see the correlation. How can that be? Does it really boil down to people seeing only what they want to see?

Fascism is not so much a movement as it is a mindset. The fascist walks through the world like a camel who can neither see nor get rid of  his humps which, in this case, are filled with distaste for anyone who's not their kind. At the extreme, fascists are elitists who believe they are superior to others, which is why they don't mince words.

To better understand how fascists think, these genuine quotes, simple as they are, speak to the honest belligerence that not only occupies their mind, but drives their unscrupulous actions.

Let's begin with one that reflects the core of fascism—which adds up to a deep disrespect for the average person.

1. What good fortune for rulers that the people don't think.

This next one epitomizes the arrogance of fascism and how little respect it has for an informed citizenry.

2. The victor will never be asked if he told the truth.

And, this one sheds light on how gullible fascists think you are.

3. Make the lie big. Make it simple. Keep saying it, and eventually people will believe it.

As Americans, we believe in liberty and justice for all. But this next statement was also made by a known fascist.

4. Humanitarianism is the expression of stupidity and cowardice.

And here's the fascist's attitude toward elections.

5. It is not truth that matters but victory.

Beyond just an attitude, lies are grist for the fascist's victory mill.

6. By means of shrewd lies, unremittingly repeated, it is possible to make people believe that heaven is hell and hell heaven.

And, the bigger the lie, the better.

7. If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.

Beyond big, the lie must also have mass appeal.

8. All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach.

But what if the lies are hurtful? Does that matter? The fascist mindset thinks otherwise.

9. I do not see why man should not be just as cruel as nature.

But, fascists also understand that brutality will be more palatable once it's sanctioned by the church.

10. Any violence that does not spring from a spiritual base will be wavering and uncertain.

To that end, fascist leaders must give back to the church for its willingness to infuse fascist ideals into sermons.

11. The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation.

Or...

12. I'll put an end to the idea that a woman's body belongs to her... Nazi ideals demand that the practice of abortion shall be exterminated with a strong hand.

Beyond appeasing the church, fascists must discredit the authority of legitimate government institutions.

13. Obstacles do not exist to be surrendered to, but only to be broken.

And they believe it's necessary to break the law in a BIG way.

14. The greater the crime perpetrated by the leadership, the less likely it is that the people will ever believe their leaders to be capable of perpetrating such an event.

But breaking the law in an unthinkable way is not enough to control the state, says the fascist.

15. Let me control the textbooks, and I will control the state.

Notice the fascist who spoke these words said, "me" and "I," which have nothing to do with the state. A fascist leader is all about himself, not the masses whom he enjoys riling up with entertaining crudity.

16. If you wish the sympathy of the broad masses, you must tell them the crudest and most stupid things.

The fascist, of course, seeks pleasure above all else—the pleasure of power, of cruelty, of adulation, of punishing others and seeing them suffer.

Which is why, in addition to all the statements above, Hitler also said,

17. It is quite a special secret pleasure how the people around us fail to realize what is really happening to them.

History repeats itself. It always does. First came the warnings. Then the attacks on those who warned us. Then the big lies, again and again. Then the inculcation through complicit, corrupted religious organizations.

Now, the laws, seen as obstacles, are broken one by one, or tossed like garbage through executive order. And every day, we tolerate the heartless, perpetual removal of certain "undesirable" populations originating from south of our border who diligently have contributed to our society's well-being in countless ways. When we refuse to tolerate it, when we step in the way, when we challenge the brutes, we are shoved to the ground, our wrists zip-tied, then arrested and thrown into the slammer.

Our failure to realize early on may well be this generation's greatest failure, and Trump's greatest secret pleasure.