“"Oh, that could never happen here” is precisely how things happen."
I think what's extremely worrying is people forgetting it DID and DOES happen here!
Did - in terms of we had our very own home grown fascists and were at points scarily close to allying ourselves with nazi Germany.
Does - in terms of we STILL have our very own home grown bigots and racists who are extremely vocal and visible and are gaining support.
As per pastor niemöllers poem "first they came for..."
As someone born Catholic, proudly working class and socialist and also disabled and mentally ill and with an also disabled dd who is starting to have her own MH struggles it TERRIFIES me the way the narrative is heading!
If you think you aren't "other" - yet! I suggest you carefully consider the strong likelihood of you becoming so! Remember in nazi Germany eventually the only truly "ok" people by the end were white, wealthy, Protestant, blond, blue eyed men! We may not end up with that particular situation but it's entirely possible from what I can see that the only "ok" people would be white, wealthy, Protestant men with a proven uk heritage going back hundreds of years! So even JRM (supposedly Catholic) needs to watch his back!!
What's your class? Heritage? What religion would the likes of Johnson assign you? Are you in good health and therefore of value in terms of productiveness?
I also lived in Germany for several years and saw some German made documentaries on WWII (they really don't shy away from shining a light on what happened with a view to preventing it happening again) this was in the 90's and in it they were interviewing people who had reported friends/neighbours to the authorities. These were people who's children they had cared for, their children played with, they had loaned each other "cups of sugar", they'd been to school together etc and yet they betrayed them. Why?
"It was the law at the time I didn't want to be caught breaking that law" so fear - somewhat understandable if not wishing to condone.
But also
"It had been explained to us how 'they' were not contributing to our society. We're fraudsters and con men and thieves. Had stolen from the govt" so people believing the propoganda
"They would have killed us if we hadn't" this said by a woman who when challenged had ZERO reason to believe the FAMILY she reported were any threat to her other than her believing propaganda and horror stories.
The worst?
"They were vermin! I didn't want them near me or my family" - now I am SURE people will come on and say Brits would never think like this - I've met and conversed with people who DO think like this about Muslims. I had nothing more to do with the people concerned they were vile racist arseholes but I can assure you they ARE out there!
The Germans are really not so dissimilar to us in terms of family, culture, what we consider is right/wrong, so if you think a situation like there was in the lead up to WWII couldn't happen? You're deluded!
"Boris isn't Hitler and he won't become Hitler." Perhaps not - but he could pave the way for one, even unwittingly. Look at the history of how countries have ended up with violent dictators - those periods are usually preceded by political disruption & division, economic downturns, high unemployment, a population that feels not just disenfranchised but completely ignored... Sound familiar?
Then comes along a charismatic, decisive, seemingly logical leader who says "things are a mess, you're all suffering, I can sort it ALL out if you just give me the power to do WHATEVER I say is needed however unfair that may seem to what is really a tiny minority of a certain type of people within the population, who, come on, they don't really matter as much as you do they?"
"Theres no SS enforcement" yet
"no mass arrests of remainers" yet "no disappearing of opponents
to the system" yet/that we know of
"no murders, no court cases where politicians are linked with violent deaths." Erm...you might want to rethink that one slightly. Johnson has certainly been strongly linked to a plot organising a hit on a journalist iirc
There IS already
Strong moves to allow intelligence agencies access to ALL electronic communications
Strong moves to "monitor" the population as a whole REGARDLESS of whether they've done anything illegal - facial recognition, CCTV monitoring by intelligence agencies, we've already got teachers basically being expected to "identify" children who are "potentially being radicalised" - can we say "Orwellian nightmare"?
A monopolised press - we don't have CLOSE to a free press or balanced msm in this country.
Our children (and we ourselves) have/are already being taught wrong information in history lessons about the uk, ireland, britains role in colonialism and the effects that are still very much being felt around the world today.
They're NOT being taught properly their rights, responsibilities, how to assess right from wrong, understanding of other cultures and societies.
So...do you really still think "it couldn't happen here"?