In 1943, Hitler issued a directive to the German press that was crystal clear in what he was expecting to see from them. The directive stated that "Jews are criminals by disposition." There were two reactions to this: on one side, you had brave journalists who stood up to Hitler--some of whom paid with their lives. On the other end of the spectrum, you had the Breitbarts of the day. These publications happily disseminated the hateful Nazi rhetoric promoting Hitler's directive. One awful example of this was entitled "The Criminal Jew", which went so far as publishing photos and personal information of Jewish people accused of a range of crimes (pickpocketing, swindling, etc.)
The purpose of that disgusting publication goes to the heart of what bigotry is really all about: indoctrinating people into thinking that someone's ancestry determines their genetic disposition towards crime. It is a misguided belief that I had thought was forever banished from mainstream civilized society--relegated to history books that I could write off as having occurred during a less enlightened time for humanity.
Yet now Trump has not only managed to regress our society backwards, but is bringing back these tools of oppression and hatred. On Friday, which was ironically International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Donald Trump issued an executive order to our Department of Homeland Security that they are now required to publish a list of "criminal actions" by immigrants on a weekly basis.
And not just undocumented immigrants, mind you. The order makes no distinction whatsoever between documented and undocumented immigrants.
From Trump’s Executive Order for DHS:
To better inform the public regarding the public safety threats associated with sanctuary jurisdictions, the Secretary shall utilize the Declined Detainer Outcome Report or its equivalent and, on a weekly basis, make public a comprehensive list of criminal actions committed by aliens and any jurisdiction that ignored or otherwise failed to honor any detainers with respect to such aliens.
It should be very obvious what Trump is doing. Continuing his campaign of fear and paranoia, Trump wants Americans to hear Mexican-sounding and Middle-Eastern sounding names associated with criminal activity every single week. This is straight out of Hitler's playbook, and he hopes this will lay the groundwork for more obscene measures later---like a citizen registry, or perhaps worse.
Hooten tweet comparing “The Criminal Jew” with Trump’s new Executive Order for DHS
This should frighten (and anger) the hell out of you. It does me.
I have little doubt where this directive really came from. The alt-right chief of staff, Steve Bannon, was the CEO of Breitbart, which is a case study in Nazi propagandist thinking. In fact, Breitbart even has a section entitled "Black Crime", which does the exact same thing as that Nazi rag did 75 years ago--which is the exact same thing this executive order did yesterday: attempt to promote the failed ideology of genetic bigotry. The American public cannot afford to be silent against this atrocity, lest they get more frequent and worse.
With Bannon's open declaration of war against a free press and Kellyanne's introduction of "alternative facts", it was understandable that this story didn't get the attention it should have. Make it a point to contact your representative today and demand that he or she fight these Nazi tactics. We have to push back hard now.
If we don't, Nazi propaganda won't be the only thing making a comeback.
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