The Rise of Hate & Where I Stand

Please share this post as widely as you like. It’s time we say what we mean.

I can’t stop thinking about how, when I was young, I never understood how the Chinese saying “may you live in interesting times” was a curse.

I’m sorry I ever found out. These interesting times are wearing thin, but they’ve only just begun.

When I was a teenager, I’d been a big reader and it got me boosted from regular “social studies” to International Baccalaureate World History in senior high. But it was really all about Europe and America, not so much the “world.”

Still, there was a whole lot of totalitarianism and social upheaval in them there classes, and it set the stage for being a reasonably well-informed adult on how sideways civilization goes when the wrong leaders hold the reins.

I stayed interested in history and, for kicks, would soon read William Shirer’s opus The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. At the time, I worked retail in a job on Granville Island, in a wooden toy store. I was reading Shirer at the counter one day around 1995 when a couple German tourists came in and saw the book.

Now, it was not subtle. The book was red with a giant Swastika on it and just the title/author’s text. In Germany, Nazi symbols were banned in 1949, so I’m sure it was a jarring sight for them.

The woman looked at me as I set my book down, the Swastika cover face-up. She pointed at the book, and asked, “What does that teach you about us Germans?”

It took me aback, as I wasn’t exactly expecting a pop quiz.

“Um…”

I thought carefully.

“Well, it tells me that Germany was incredibly weakened and poor, with many people feeling that was unfair, after the end of WWI and all the sanctions were in place. It explains how charismatic Hitler was at giving people someone to blame for their problems, and how easy it is for that to happen when people are poor, struggling, and possibly not well-educated on the causes behind it all. And then, as the whole world got poorer, and Germany even more poor, Hitler was in the right place at the right time, blaming all the right people, and here we are.”

We talked for 10 or 15 minutes after that, them explaining how weird it was to see the Swastika in the open like that, how much Germans still felt like they were still emerging from that dark history, and how much truth there was to him being “in the right place at the right time, blaming all the right people,” and how dangerous that could be. They admonished me for thinking it could never happen in Canada.

And back in 2014, I was already thinking about how I wanted to travel because of the environment changing so quickly, but there was also a rise of right-wing escapades in Europe, and I figured the continent might be flexing its war muscles again soon.

It’s all part of why I wanted to go nomadic in 2015.

I never imagined I’d be watching all those trigger points in the Third Reich unfolding in America in 2022.

I certainly never thought I’d see it under a Democratic President.

But it was widely known that Trump was stuffing judges in posts at a rapid clip. (Less discussed now is how Biden is quietly exceeding the pace at which Trump did that – except on the Supreme Court, so as much as it’s benefiting the lower courts, it’s not hitting the highest court of the land.)

It’s terrifying watching as fascism slowly creeps into the country once thought to be the world’s freest nation.

And still there are folks who scoff at voting being the answer, who think there’s no point in protesting or fighting back or making a stand.

There are men who still think there are bigger issues than what happens to women.

There are straights who think the loss of gay and trans rights is nebulous, doesn’t impact them.

They are wrong. They are fools.

People often quote varying versions of the poem by the German Lutheran minister Martin Niemoller, and with good reason.

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

Look at the rhetoric out there.

They’ve already come for the socialists, the communists, and the Jews. The fight for trade unions is on, and they’re coming for the gays, for the women, and for so many else.

How many signs of a freefall into fascism can you possibly need?

How can you be so naive to not see what’s all around us?

Unfortunately, I was taught about fascism and totalitarianism in an elevated history class. The average Canadian student didn’t learn the things I did. And the average American has learned even less, because it’s an America-first education.

A writer on Twitter today wrote about how their readers said they should “stay in their lane” and not get political because politics are a personal matter.

No, they’re not.

Not when politics are about basic human rights, like women deciding what happens to their bodies. Not when it’s about how we live on a daily basis, what we’re allowed to speak of or do in our own lives.

You get one chance at life.

Will you be able to live with yourself in 20, 30, 40 years if you ignore this opportunity to speak up for what’s right?

Will you be able to live with yourself if you don’t stand up because it’s not you that’s being affected today?

If you are not ALARMED TO THE CORE OF YOUR BEING right now, then you do not know history well enough. Period.

You are naive if you don’t know how easily a society can shift from free to totalitarian. You think it can’t happen here — but it already is.

These last five years should have shaken you to your core and changed how you are as a person.

From climate change to the erosion of human rights to the rise of belligerence and racism, from wealth disparity to worker oppression — you should absolutely be questioning everything you ever believed and standing up for things you know are morally right today.

People say how we should all be able to be “friends” because “politics are politics,” and we shouldn’t let the parties divide us.

Look, if you disagree with me on bike lanes, that’s fine. I’ll shrug it off and move on with life.

But when your politics celebrate the denial of basic human rights to anyone, you’ve become my enemy. Full stop. You’re not just “not my people,” you are that which is the worst of humanity because you would deny other people the right to live their life on their own accord, all because you believe in some religious principle in some book that pretends to represent the views of a God of “love”. What idiocy, what cruelty.

If you would deny anyone their human rights, you are my enemy and I will fight you with everything I possibly can. Believe me.

Does my being political bother you?

I don’t care.

If you fall into the category of people I deem my enemy because you’re anti-gay, anti-trans, or anti-abortion “because religion,” you may be offended because you think you’re a nice person.

You’re not. You’re hateful. You’re evil.

You believe the same things that Nazis did, and they killed over 10 million people because they had the wrong skin colour, sexual orientation, religion, or heritage.

If you are Christian and you believe these things, you are both hateful and stupid, because, in the very first book of the Bible, God gave people free choice.

Who the fuck do you think you are to deny them that which God provided them?

I’m done being nice.

If your beliefs would deny people their human rights, I’m putting you on notice right now. You’re on my list and I’m just getting started.

For those who are my allies in this battle against evil, I salute you. Stand your ground. Get louder. We got a long fucking way to go.

And for Canadians who think these are American problems, I’m reminded of Margaret Atwood’s words once, that when America sneezes, Canada catches a cold. We already have promises of a long summer of far-right protests in Ottawa. If you think America’s slide toward extremism is not our problem, you’d better open your eyes fast.

Love Steff