Nazis In Miami-- Lox Them Up
Nazis In Miami-- Lox Them Up
Miami has been historically a major destination for Jewish retirees and snowbirds from the Northern US. My parents retired there for a time and I have family in the area. They have some of the best Deli's outside of New York and Philly. Because Miami has traditionally been heavily Jewish, that is why the Nazis are having their conference there, as a provocation.
Trump's Hotel contracted with them, and Eric Trump is appearing on stage with them. As a provocation.
This is one of the things which shocks and outrages a normal person, but has been largely normalized in the age of Trump. But the worst thing which has been "normalized" is the passivity and acceptance of it by those people who claim to be shocked and outraged.
What are we going to do after we are finished watching Rachel Maddow? Do we have a list of relatives, friends, others who are Trump supporters, donors, voters, who claim to love Jews and Israel, claim to be "pro-life," pro "freedom," or anti-racist that we are planning to reach out to in order to confront them? Have a conversation with? To throw out of our lives altogether if they defend it or are indifferent? Or force them to look at who and what kind of evil they are in bed with in the hope for some kind of epiphany? Do the sick and deluded people that you know personally have a bottom to reach? If they can't be moved on this, then their souls are dead and gone.
The question for us is, are we taking this personally enough to do something about it, or is one of these 😡 sufficient. Does this make your stomach hurt? If it doesn't, you are missing something.
The Nazis are doing what they always do. But now they are doing it in our faces, because a former POTUS has their backs, and they have institutional back up from the GOP, Fox, OANN, Newsmax, Elon Musk's Twitter and groups like CPAC. They are being funded or enabled by Billionaires such as Kanye, Musk, Mike Lindell, and a list of others.
What are we going to do besides cheerlead for Jack Smith and the prosecutors? Are we going to confront the pro-fascist former human beings in our lives that are funding Trump's legal defense? And will we do so personally, not by proxy through sharing of other people's memes on Facebook or Twitter, and hoping someone out there will be convinced by it? It is easy to delude ourselves and keep doing the same things, and other things which are diversionary in order to avoid confronting this.
For example, I have friends that have MAGA friends as clients and are helping them make money, money which in turn they are turning around to give to Trump. How they can sleep at night I have no idea. Why "do business" with people who fund Nazism? This is one example of passivity and acceptance by people who posture as feeling shocked and outraged. They just keep doing what is socially acceptable and personally convenient, not what is needed.
Feeling powerless, cynical, and confused is the luxury of the privileged. Those who are simply afraid need to come to grips with the reality that the things we are most afraid of pale in comparison to what we all face, both in the present and the future if we let this monstrosity grow. Those who claim that they have suffered indignity and oppression haven't suffered enough yet to understand why their efforts are needed, or need to be upgraded.
Those who argue in defense of the free speech of Nazis do so because of their sympathies for them, not because they believe in the First Amendment. They are defending the right to incite violence, not freedom of expression. Anyone who is soft on this question is a huge part of the problem, because they are deluded to believe that Nazis stand for something other than violence.
Posting on Facebook is more like opinion polling, not active resistance. It matters very little what we do here, but what does matter is what we do when we turn off our devices. And unfortunately, when left to our own devices, we all too often return to our devices to do nothing or very little. We know this is a problem, though not with everyone, yet it persists.
Honestly, the time for bullshit excuse-making is over. Anyone who wants to organize effectively and could use some mentoring from a couple of battle tested political veterans with a combined 80 years of experience will know how to find us.
But in the meantime, don't tell us that there is nothing you can do, or how what you are already doing is successful. Whatever it is we are doing, It's not good enough. And if it is "successful" we aren't doing enough of it. The proof is staring us in the face in Miami. What exactly, in light of today's news, is it that we are waiting for?
