When I visited Washington D.C. I was excited to visit all the national monuments and I naturally wondered which monument would be the most memorable. What I did not necessarily anticipate was being the most impacted by the Holocaust Museum, especially the first floor we visited. The first-floor details all the actions the Nazi party took to gain power and to begin the process of the Final Solution. As I walked through the exhibit, all I could ask was how? The whys were listed out clearly with bullet points and scholarly citations but the how was less obvious. How could the most reasoned and intelligent Germans not condemn the efforts of the Third Reich? How did the professors and intelligentsia sit idly by and let the Holocaust happen? How could the media become such a willing participant in the propaganda and how did the public allow such segregation and blatant rights violations happen? As you read through the history of the Nazi regime, you see an obstinance of the majority of the people, a blind eye, a turned cheek. Sides were not taken. Acknowledgment was not given. Death was not honored. But progressivism was prevailing. Nobel Peace Prize laureate and author Elie Wiesel wrote, “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, not the tormented.” Today, it is difficult not to see the parallels in our modern culture; blind eyes, turned cheeks, media bias, a progressivist swept nation. Is it possible that history is repeating itself? Are we capable of the same atrocities within a mere three generations and how can we prevent it?
The Nazi’s could have held a masterclass in how to use propaganda to sway the masses. They not only used the media but also art, theater, films, books, radio, and even educational materials to incite hatred and indifference towards the Jews. It is difficult not to see a similar fostering of indifference and hatred towards Israel in the way the mainstream media has lied to us for decades about the situation in Gaza and Israel. For decades they have manipulated stories and reporting to create the story of the plight of the Palestinians despite Israel withdrawing completely from the Gaza strip and the local population electing Hamas as their government. Despite indiscriminate rocket barrages for decades, the media twisted the narrative and created an “innocent” Gaza population and an “aggressive” Israeli military. This was all perfectly encapsulated by the deceptive reporting of the Israeli bombing of a hospital in Gaza that killed 500 people. Except it was a Hamas rocket. Except that the rocket hit the hospital parking lot. Except that not even close to 500 people died. And then somehow the media still turns to Hamas for its reporting of how many innocent civilians have “died” and how many babies have been “murdered” by Israel. Our media is a sham and is using its propaganda to turn our population against the Jews in Israel. And we are letting it. The media still have an overwhelming viewership that listen to this propaganda and cite it religiously. Inquiring minds wonder if this propaganda is so effectively used in the Israeli war, what else have they been obscuring and propagandizing?
When the Nazi party took control and fired Jewish professors, very few professors quit their jobs in solidarity to this ani-semitic act. Instead, the German academia turned a blind eye and continued to accept money from the Nazi party to pursue their research. In one of the greatest disgraces to the academic world, freedom of thought and expression died when the academics no longer pursued reason and instead succumbed to political pressure. While our colleges and universities have increasingly been trending towards the elimination of thought, I never would have anticipated the 130 Columbia University professors supporting the student led pro-Hamas demonstrations and not a single professor having the courage to publicly support Israel. But perhaps this was foreseeable. After all, conservative thought and speakers have been prohibited and banned from speaking at many of our top institutions. Progressivism and multiculturalism have been fully embraced and taught for decades, ideologies that separate people into groups and create a moral hierarchy based on immutable characteristics like race, sex, and nationality. Instead of teaching pursuit of knowledge or how to lead virtuous lives, these universities instead taught how to be a victim and which victim groups rank highest. Instead of learning from the lessons taught to us by the Holocaust, our institutions of higher learning have instead doubled down on an ideology that can now be turned against Jews and justify actions that would make Hitler proud.
But even with the turn of the intelligentsia and continuous media propaganda, what could cause the general population to turn on their neighbors and friends? What could cause most people to surrender to the barbarism and blatant rights violations occurring towards the Jews? An exhibit that stuck with me from the Holocaust Museum was a relatively obscure one that detailed how the Nazi regime stripped the Jewish population of their guns through gun registration and then confiscation. Bullies fear the threat of their prey fighting back and when the threat of Jews truly fighting back was removed, the bullies descended upon them. How else are we to describe the cowardly UN resolutions against Israel than stripping the nation of their right to defend themselves? All these protestors for Hamas fear no rebukes and no threat of force. What the Nazi’s did so effectively was to initiate such hatred towards the Jews that children thought it was socially acceptable to spit and beat Jews publicly in the street. What could be more hateful than allowing a terrorist organization to exist that murdered indiscriminately? Hamas is an organization that raped mothers in front of their children and even cooked a baby in an oven. And now we have public demonstrations declaring “From the river to the sea” and the calling for genocide of the entire nation of Israel and all its Jews. Multiculturalism is being used as a bludgeon to create a moral equivalence and hatred towards the Jews. And this hate is yet again justifying criminal acts towards Jews. We need to stand up to these bullies and no longer be the silent majority, these protestors need to know and understand that they are part of a despicable minority and are not welcome in our civil society be that our businesses, universities, and homes.
You can no longer claim ignorance; this is not a regional conflict or an occupation- this is an attempt at genocide. This is forward progress towards the mass murder of a specific people, it is happening one progressive step at a time. Hamas publicly advocates for killing all Jews and publicly celebrated the barbarous acts of October 7th. They have shown they are not anti-Israel; they are anti-Jew. There is no longer a middle ground and to claim so is an act of cowardice and an act that enables the continued attempted genocide. We must now come to grips that Progressivism has failed us. Multiculturalism is a dangerous ideology that only encourages hatred and discrimination. These are ideologies our places of higher education have accepted as doctrine and the basis of truth. Our media has failed us and enabled the bullies and the barbarism to continue. Propaganda is lulling us into submission. Justice is the arm of Liberty, without Justice there is no liberty and without the upcoming Israeli justice in Gaza, there will be no peace. We need to support Israel in every action available to them to not only defend themselves but to prevent October 7th from ever happening again. We need to be the majority that creates public pressure against the antisemites who protest in the street. We need to be virtuous and demonstrate that natural rights and the protection of those rights as necessary to prevent evil from rolling across the world. If you advocate for anything less, then you are advocating a position that would have gratified Goebbels and the Nazi regime.
**November 9th is the anniversary of Kristallnacht; let us no longer be a silent majority. Support your local Jewish restaurants and stores. Donate to help the IDF. Let us show the Jews they are not alone and that it will never happen again.
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