Hitler copied segregation from the Jim Crow South. Also, before that is even worse in the US. A sizeable part of the US population was forcibly taken from their families and subjected to a lifetime of hard labor and rape. This was considered legal and normal at the time.
Every so often you hear about some freako who has kidnapped someone and kept them alive for years chained in a basement. Maybe they have to work or do sexual favors for their captor. We now consider that person a victim and their captor the worst kind of criminal. That disgusting criminal was an average slaveowner in the US South.
As someone else said, the secret is that the US isn’t ‘turning into’, it’s been bad for at least a century. We’ve finally gotten to the point where racism is starting to get unpopular enough that it’s not just normal and largely ignored.
We have gone through cycles where the racists are unpopular enough to have to hide their intentions or “true feelings” behind convoluted rhetoric (red-lining housing, welfare and food stamp rules, or just blue lives matter, for instance), or just plain hiding (like the nighttime hooded gatherings).
We knew about them, but kept them marginalized. Now they are less marginalized, but also encouraged by a right wing nationalist Republican Party that has far too much of a chance of controlling the country in a few months.
The problem is that they are loud, and have majorities in places where their vote literally counts more. Low population red states especially (Wyoming, Idaho, Dakotas), and districts that have been gerrymandered around to weaken liberal democratic representation that overall outnumbers the racists, is seriously dangerous and un-democractic.
All countries have their crazies. Currently we’re seeing a wave of said crazy minority rising up (Duterte, Bolsonaro, AfD, Mussolini, RN). Sometimes we become so complacent as a people that we forget these kinds of ideologies exist. So they fester and attract others. Hopefully this time we don’t have to fight a war to top it and can change the tides peacefully.
As someone who looked up to the US as a kid in totalitarian East Germany, I feel so sad about what this country is turning into.
Hitler copied segregation from the Jim Crow South. Also, before that is even worse in the US. A sizeable part of the US population was forcibly taken from their families and subjected to a lifetime of hard labor and rape. This was considered legal and normal at the time.
Every so often you hear about some freako who has kidnapped someone and kept them alive for years chained in a basement. Maybe they have to work or do sexual favors for their captor. We now consider that person a victim and their captor the worst kind of criminal. That disgusting criminal was an average slaveowner in the US South.
Hitler mentioned Jim crow with praise in mein kampf.
Black GIs came back from killing nazis to be tied to trees and tortured.
The south lost a war, then ignored everything and went right back to doing what they were doing for 150 years.
George Washington bypassed multiple state laws about runaway slaves being granted their freedom in an effort to get his slave Ona Judge back.
this is literally the guy that’s supposed to be freedom incarnate violating state rights to get his fucking slave back illegally.
USA was truly fucked from the beginning.
He also died a hilariously painfully long death at least.
As someone else said, the secret is that the US isn’t ‘turning into’, it’s been bad for at least a century. We’ve finally gotten to the point where racism is starting to get unpopular enough that it’s not just normal and largely ignored.
We have gone through cycles where the racists are unpopular enough to have to hide their intentions or “true feelings” behind convoluted rhetoric (red-lining housing, welfare and food stamp rules, or just blue lives matter, for instance), or just plain hiding (like the nighttime hooded gatherings).
We knew about them, but kept them marginalized. Now they are less marginalized, but also encouraged by a right wing nationalist Republican Party that has far too much of a chance of controlling the country in a few months.
The problem is that they are loud, and have majorities in places where their vote literally counts more. Low population red states especially (Wyoming, Idaho, Dakotas), and districts that have been gerrymandered around to weaken liberal democratic representation that overall outnumbers the racists, is seriously dangerous and un-democractic.
Time to do a Bleeding Kansas again. But a bunch of them
All countries have their crazies. Currently we’re seeing a wave of said crazy minority rising up (Duterte, Bolsonaro, AfD, Mussolini, RN). Sometimes we become so complacent as a people that we forget these kinds of ideologies exist. So they fester and attract others. Hopefully this time we don’t have to fight a war to top it and can change the tides peacefully.