OUCH! 😳 (X & Text) Colbert: "Do not compare ICE or Border Patrol agents to the Nazis.

[malthaussen]

31. Ya know, I don't think we're going to come to a meeting of minds on this.

FYI, I didn't buy the "Clean Wehrmacht" myth when I was 10, and I sure don't buy it now that I'm 70. So you're already flogging a dead horse.

Not stereotyping Germans has nothing to do with the merits or desserts of the Nazis, which are non-existent, but with my own intellectual honesty, which doesn't like painting people with a broad brush. Your logical fallacy (whataboutism) has nothing to do with my position. Yes, indeedy, the Nazi state committed uncountable atrocities. And they were committed by people who were not Nazis. I think this is a very important point. I think tossing them all into the bin of "Nazis" is a comfortable excuse that leads to "It can't happen here" fallacies. "They did bad stuff because they were bad people, and us good people won't do it." I'm pretty sure Hannah Arendt and Deitrich Bonhoffer would agree with me, but perhaps I shouldn't take their names in vain as they are no longer around to defend themselves.

Saying "X" was not a Nazi is not a claim that the Nazis weren't bad guys, nor does it excuse "X" for obeying the Nazis (and sometimes participating enthusiastically). It is making a very specific point, which you apparently don't want to hear: that normal people do terrible things not because they themselves are terrible, but because they want to keep on living themselves.

A comparison of a Hans-average Heer soldier and the Hilfswillige is invalid; you might as well be comparing a German draftee with an SS volunteer, or the draftees in Vietnam with hard-core CIA and SOG members. But the Hans-average soldier did commit atrocities, that is the central lesson of the refutation of the "Clean Wehrmacht" myth. Moreover, any casual reading of the history of the Russian front leaves one with the certain knowledge that the atrocities and brutality were systematically applied: they were features, not bugs, not the acts of isolated individuals. Which lesson arguably applies to Minnesota today. But consider Minnesota, for a moment: the idea is going around that the people who are committing these atrocities are all new hires, unqualified, possibly recruited specifically because they are fanatics whom can be relied upon to violate rights they probably know nothing about. It ignores the fact that many of these agents are long-term members, and that institutionally, the department of Homeland Defense expects and encourages one kind of conduct, while claiming their training doesn't allow it. These people are not hard-core fanatics, and they're resigning in droves, but many of them stick around because they have families to feed and it's a paycheck. This is how institutions like DHS and the Nazi Party get people to do stuff they wouldn't choose to do if they had their druthers, and I suggest that if one wants to find out a way to stop it, he find a way to eliminate that leverage, rather than call them all Nazis. But if calling them all bad people floats your boat, then by all means do whatever gets you through the night.

-- Mal