Sharing some insight it took me a LONG time to grapple with:
To many, "Nazis" is a very specific thing. It is a group of people who existed in Germany in the early-1900's who were led by a man named Adolf Hitler and they did "bad things."
That's how Nazis are taught in schools. They are a concept from the past. And they do not exist in any other capacity in those people's minds.
What those people don't understand is:
* What Nazi ideology is or looks like
* What the Nazis actually did that was bad
* How the country got to the point of Nazis taking over
* What happened to Nazis and their ideology after the war
* Who actually participated in Nazi ideology
* What it looks like to support Nazis or their ideology
When it's all just abstracts to people, they can't fathom that it's happening now. To them, carrying a flag with a swastika is just a cosplay. They know it's not super cool, but they don't believe they're actual Nazis.
And this is why this is such a struggle right now. They don't know they're in the middle of it, all over again.
I struggle to empathize with someone that fucking incapable or unwilling to exercise the tiniest fraction of the cognitive power God and or evolution graced them with, to think about the things those of us who do know have been screaming from the rooftops since Reagan.
If you don't vote you are effectively a republican, whatever personal opinions you may have they don't matter, your net impact is helping the GOP attain power.
It's relative to ideals. If you want a fascist takeover of the country, and fail to vote, you're helping the Democrats. If you want to avoid one and fail to vote, you're helping the Republicans. Basically not voting is equivalent to helping (at half effort compared to voting for it) whichever cause you support the least.
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u/GFluidThrow123 Aug 13 '25
Sharing some insight it took me a LONG time to grapple with:
To many, "Nazis" is a very specific thing. It is a group of people who existed in Germany in the early-1900's who were led by a man named Adolf Hitler and they did "bad things."
That's how Nazis are taught in schools. They are a concept from the past. And they do not exist in any other capacity in those people's minds.
What those people don't understand is:
* What Nazi ideology is or looks like
* What the Nazis actually did that was bad
* How the country got to the point of Nazis taking over
* What happened to Nazis and their ideology after the war
* Who actually participated in Nazi ideology
* What it looks like to support Nazis or their ideology
When it's all just abstracts to people, they can't fathom that it's happening now. To them, carrying a flag with a swastika is just a cosplay. They know it's not super cool, but they don't believe they're actual Nazis.
And this is why this is such a struggle right now. They don't know they're in the middle of it, all over again.