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The tragic events at Charlottesville and UnPresident Trump’s embrace of Nazis and KKK members provides for a teachable moment on fascism and race. The rise of the American fascist and racist far right-wing, of the sort that festered and spread from the state of Wisconsin, threatens national and global well-being and security. Historically lynching and gassing of individuals based upon their race or religion have been strongly resisted in America (albeit sometimes disturbingly late) at the cost of nearly a million U.S. anti-fascist lives. Yet major political figures such as Government Walker of Wisconsin refuse to repudiate the hate of his voters. Listen closely: under no circumstances will threats of murder and enslavement of non-whites and non-christians be tolerated. Nazis and KKK are UnAmerican, and will be resisted using all means necessary. Start by refusing to vote for candidates whose supporters include Nazi and KKK members. There is no backing down when faced with fascist hate; and we must seek love-based, yet forceful, unity in resisting such monstrous evil.

“Jewish Americans and immigrants should not have to worry about whether their children will be gassed. Nor should black Americans fear lynching and enslavement. This is evil incarnate… It is duty of all true Americans to resist fascist, racist and anti-science hate as if our shared survival depends upon it, it does.” — Dr. Glen Barry

By Dr. Glen Barry, EcoInternet

THERE IS NO GOING BACK

Centuries of human progress are at risk as fascism and racism are again resurgent in America. Enormous strides have been made in recent decades towards racial, sexual, and religious equality. The world is a more just and fair place as slavery has been largely eliminated, religious guarantees (including the right to not believe) solidified, and non-white ethnicities’ political rights established.

Sadly the societal diseases of state-based racism and fascism are flaring up again, in no less a beacon of perpetual self-improvement than the United States. Appallingly this occurs as humanity is faced with a plethora of social and ecology crises – such as climate change, ecosystem collapse, inequity, and perma-war – any one of which could kill us all. At this critical juncture, the human family cannot afford the distraction of again having to fight monstrous evils which it was thought had been long banished.

Let’s be clear. Nazis murdered 6 million Jews in WWII and in total over 80 million deaths resulted from the rise and defeat of the fascist disease. In the American South over one-third of a million Africans were kidnapped, tortured, and brutally enslaved; as the lunatic confederacy fought to continue this savagery. And over 4,000 human-beings have been lynched by the KKK in the past 150 years as the promise of racial equality went unmet.

We are one human family. And such filthy and vile ideologies have no place in civilized society.

The rise of the American fascist right is one of the gravest threat to global peace, stability, and well-being the world has ever known. Their grotesque ideology threatens the terror of mass murder and enslavement. In recent years in the United States there have been twice as many terrorist incidents by right-wing extremists as by Islamist extremists. In recent decades 74% of US domestic terror attacks are by far right wing violent extremists, who have murdered 106 people in 62 attacks.

Jewish Americans and immigrants should not have to worry about whether their children will be gassed. Nor should black Americans fear lynching and enslavement. This is evil incarnate.

The lesson from German Nazism and America’s post-Civil War is that you highlight, resist, and destroy fascism and racism immediately as it arises or face much worse problems later on. Such horrendous evil flies in the face of all that America stands for and aspires to be. Villainous Nazis and KKK have no place in American politics and efforts to again murder and enslave blacks and Jews will be met by The Resistance and vigorous Anti-fascist counter-measures.

America’s and the world’s hard fought gains in human rights will not be so easily erased. Under no circumstances will psychotic homicidal hate of the terrorist far-right be allowed to trump the peace and love found in vibrant and tolerant multi-cultural communities based upon universal principles of equality, social justice, and basic human decency. There is no going back to Nazism and the KKK.

HOW DID WE GET HERE

Like many I have been appalled by the resurgence of Nazism and KKK white supremacy (collectively referred to accurately here as “the fascists”), and their recent murderous rampage in Charlottesville, Virginia. And I have been shocked by the failure of the GOP – including such leaders as UnPresident Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan, and my own state’s second-tier Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker – to condemn in uncertain terms rising right-wing hate.

While it is true that historically the Democratic Party was the home of Southern racism including tolerance of the KKK, there has been a political re-alignment. For decades now racists and fascists have become a vital GOP voting bloc in the rise of their extremist right-wing hate politics. There is a long established tradition in the GOP’s electoral strategy of a wink-and-nod promotion of racial intolerance for votes and funds. America’s current political malaise whereby we even have to consider the re-emergence of the KKK and Nazism is the logical consequence of decades of GOP bigotry mined for political advantage. What sort of people vote for candidates whose supporters include Nazis and the KKK?

The American government has been seized in a fascist coup by treasonous UnPresident Trump. America’s government is in the hands of the fascist wing of the GOP party. UnPresident Trump is emotionally unstable, politically inept, morally bankrupt, and these traits along with his fascist demeanor make him unfit for office. It is truly shocking that UnPresident Trump can’t bring himself to condemn Nazis and the KKK, for fear of alienating his political base. This and a whole slew of other actions have shown #CreepyDonald to be a filthy, vile, charlatan, authoritarian demagogue, madman bent upon waging war on non-white men, international security, and even science.

Again, all peace and truth loving Americans are called upon to find meaning in nature and #TheResistance to Trump Fascism.

I have been an anti-fascist campaigner since first witnessing fascism’s rise in my home state of Wisconsin nearly a decade ago. There Governor Walker – a former college classmate of mine for which I have only derision – has a long record of racist campaigning. After decades of using suburban hate of Milwaukee blacks for political gain, it is not surprising that Walker supports UnPresident Trump’s warm embrace of Nazi and KKK ideology. Walker’s decade of race-baiting show that Trump’s political ascent is far from an aberration, and reflects the heart and soul of the Republican Party.

I remember well when racist Scott Walker was in college running for office and compared himself to Martin Luther King. Since then Walker’s political ascent has been built upon consistent race-baiting with support from racists. Walker’s political rise in Wisconsin has created the current environment where Nazis and the KKK are ascendant. Authoritarian fascism began to re-emerge with Walker’s war on workers, the environment, and education; and Trump is of the same ilk. It is not unusual to hear racial epitaphs in rural Wisconsin, something I never encountered as a child or young man.

Both Walker and Trump are fascists.  Governor Walker is complicit in UnPresident Trump’s treason, anti-science, racist, war-mongering hate. As the Gubernatorial election nears in Wisconsin, we must never forget the current intensity of GOP hate started with Walker’s attacks upon workers. It is hardly surprising Walker refuses to condemn Trump’s white supremacist bigotry, as he is a long-time race-baiter too.

My warnings of fascist Wisconsin were widely ridiculed and ignored. It doesn’t seem that my decade long predictions of American fascism were so wrong after all. Nor should me avocations on what is required to address fascism be dismissed. There is no backing down when faced with fascism.

NEVER AGAIN

There is a lot of nonsense spouted by the right regarding political ideologies. Nazis were not socialist, they were right wing extremists. Fascism is a political ideology based upon nationalism, militarism racism, corporatism, scapegoating and more. Similarly anti-fascism is a philosophy, not a physical group, with many divergent tactics to strategically destroy right-wing hate.

Over one million Americans died defeating the twin monstrous evils of Nazism and the confederacy. And under no circumstances must such vicious and intolerable ideologies be allowed to resurface and spread. There will be no American concentration camps where fellow human being are imprisoned, overworked, gassed, and burned. Nor will any Americans of any ethnicity ever again fear being enslaved.

As Nazi fascism and KKK racism again rise in GOP America, there is no neutrality. You are either anti-fascist, or a Nazi and KKK collaborator. At first it is up to all stable and confident Americans to ask nicely for rhetoric promoting the murderous hate based upon race to stop. But at some point, more direct actions to utterly destroy the metastasizing disease of racist fascism are entirely justified. It is up to each of us to decide to what extent and how we will resist fascism and take responsibility for doing so.

One thing I know for sure – fascists must be confronted and revealed as the monsters they are, or their political extremism becomes established and regularized. Under no circumstances must they be allowed to rule the streets unchallenged, or their fascist hate will win, and we will all live in fear of arbitrary detention, work camps, and murder.

Grieving fascist resurgence and establishment within American government, I have been vacillating between which is the best response; ridiculing, counter-protesting, or punching Nazis and KKK members. For now it is best to show up in massive displays of pubic counter-protests, and ridicule such repugnant ignoramuses given any opportunity. But let’s not fool ourselves, these are violent terrible ideologies, whose adherents are indeed deplorable, evil filth. Under no means can we surrender the streets to these fascists. And we may need to fight fascism again to remain free and just, and we must be ready.

Of course non-violent peaceful protests are always the best means to achieve lasting and just social change. There are numerous creative means to protest, that stand up to fascism with community displays of solidarity and love; including displays of righteous ridicule, such as recently Tubas playing cartoon themes to troll fascist protests. Yet sadly, realistically stopping the rise of fascism in America may once again require meeting force with force.  Anti-fascist punching of Nazis may be required. Anti-fascists must never stand down, particularly when Neo-Nazis hold the reins of governmental power.

THE ANTI-FASCIST WAY FORWARD

Being a Nazi or in the KKK is never OK. Hate towards non-whites and non-christians is never OK. Maybe if Hitler’s jack booted thugs had been asked nicely to stop hating, war and mass murder of innocents could have been avoided. Probably not though.

Standing up to medieval anti-Semitic, white-supremacy, fascist hate is the duty of all civilized people. All Nazi and KKK supporters should expect to be resisted, and if their hateful threatening of others does not stop, to be destroyed.

It is duty of all true Americans to resist fascist, racist and anti-science hate as if our shared survival depends upon it, it does. There are some simple steps that can be taken now to minimize the risk of fascism.

Join me in calling upon Twitter to shutdown UnPresident Trump’s account for his support of fascist and racist violence. Please take the time to report his tweets, which clearly violate the Twitter terms of service. Many other accounts including my own have been shut down for far lesser reasons.

We must ensure that Trump’s reign is short, and even as we work for impeachment, seek to minimize the damage. The fascist-in-chief must not be allowed to use nuclear terror to advance his far right-wing GOP fascist and racist agenda. To avoid global nuclear war at the hands of a madman, the US Military must under no circumstances obey emotionally unstable UnPresident Trump’s orders to launch nuclear weapons. There must be no nukes for Trump. We must call upon the military to join the resistance.

Even as we confront fascism, and work to urgently address other global emergencies such as climate change, we must all to lower the tone of our political rhetoric. It is time for a political force to arise in Wisconsin and the nation that shuns political extremes, and seeks to compromise and find truthful solutions from all sides. And we must vote out of office all fascist and racist sympathizers.

In highly polarized Wisconsin, both Madison Congress and Wisconsin Governor’s race would benefit from candidates from the political center. Imagine Wisconsin and American politics free of Republican fascism and Democratic elitism; finding truth, justice and well-being in the political center. Let’s start by voting twin authoritarian fascists Scott Walker and Donald Trump out of office.

It is the SACRED DUTY of every true American to resist rising fascism and racism with every ounce of their being. Never forget what happens when Nazi fascists and Confederate racists seek to gain full state power. The result is inevitably reigns of terror, mass genocidal murder, and justified wars of resistance.

Let’s together end this Nazi and KKK bullshit and get back to saving the Planet.