Recently, I posted something about how when Trump wins a presidential election, it always seems that a wave of incidents of hate and even hate crimes follows.
Here we go again.
I posted on November 13th about apparent neo-Nazis displaying the swastika during a showing of the "The Diary of Anne Frank" in Michigan a day or two earlier.
Now, we have had yet another such incident over the weekend. Once again, it involves masked neo-Nazis displaying the swastika prominently.
This time, it was in Ohio, rather than Michigan. Also, it was not near a showing of "The Diary of Ann Frank," although it is still clearly meant to be a display of hatred and intolerance.
My question is that if these guys are so big and tough, and want us to know that they are proud neo-Nazis, why do they feel the need to wear masks? One might come to the conclusion that they are cowards, or something.
Also, if Trump fans were scoffing at the notion that Trump and what has come to be known as Trumpism is ushering in a wave of fascism and/or racism, as they seemed to be doing now for the past nine years or so, then why are they not making more of a point of condemning these incidents very loudly and clearly? This is a chance for them to clear the air, and show that these kinds of instances of hate on display are not what they are about, and are not acceptable? If accusations of Trump being a potential dictator and a polarizing political figure - not to mention accused numerous times of having racist tendencies - why is his team also not very loudly and clearly not condemning these kinds of incidents, and bending over backwards to prove that this kind of thing is not acceptable?
More troubling to me is the trend for these kinds of hate mongers to feel so emboldened and empowered to display their hatred like this following Trump election wins? We also saw this kind of behavior after Trump won in 2016, and during his presidency. And it seems that no sooner does he win another term in office in an election which was less than two weeks ago, when we already have numerous things like this occurred yet again.
Possibly most troubling of all? I was admittedly not really shocked to see this, and I suspect that this is true for many other people, as well. Sure, it was shocking back in Charlottesville in 2017, which was the first time that images of people who outright identify as neo-Nazis marching on American streets was a fairly new thing. But we have seen this now numerous times. We have outright white supremacists like Nick Fuentes who have become prominent in social media and have proven very influential. Can this really be surprising anymore?
Yet after asking myself this, it is difficult to accept that we are being desensitized to this kind of thing. I mean, we have normalized a lot of things - a lot of things - in the past decade or so in this country now that we likely should not have allowed to be normalized. But will the image of neo-Nazis outright marching down American streets and shouting blatantly racists slurs and displaying swastikas going to be yet another thing that we kind of shrug at, like we have done with, say, mass shootings?
The country is going through some dark times right now.
Below are links to two articles which covered this story, which includes some short video clips. Take a look and see what you think:
'Trump America' shocked as masked neo-Nazis take out march in Ohio with swastika flags; use racist slogans by Web Desk, Updated: November 17, 2024:
Ohio's Columbus city witnessed a neo-Nazi march in broad daylight; the participants shouted abuses at people of colour, kicking up a social media stormWeb Desk Updated: November 17, 2024 17:
https://www.theweek.in/news/world/2024/11/17/trending-trump-america-shocked-as-masked-neo-nazis-take-out-march-in-ohio-with-swastika-flags-use-racist-slogans.html
Masked group marches through Ohio neighborhood with swastika flags The police are investigating the incident. ByIvan Pereira November 16, 2024:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/masked-group-marches-ohio-neighborhood-swastikas-flags/story?id=115937210
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