The problem isn't that Nazis are speaking freely, it's that so many USians are listening to them and acting on what they hear. Why might that be? Well, I can't help noticing that nearly all who rally around the Nazis and neo-Nazis, for instance at Charlottesville in 2017 and at the Capitol on 1/6/2021, are white and most of them are men. Could it be that the popularity of Nazis and neo-Nazis in some quarters has a lot to do with backlash to civil rights gains of earlier decades?
Consider, too, the damage done to the middle and working classes by Reaganomics. Unfortunately but all too naturally for too many white USians, 2 + 2 = 3. They're itching to blame people of color and uppity women for the consequences of the Reagan administration's tax cuts, union busting, etc., and for the Clinton administration's repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in the late 1990s.
White supremacy is absolutely the problem, yes. But economic anxiety isn't the cause and never has been, that's just an excuse that Nazis use to give themselves a paper thin veneer of legitimacy.
The larger problem is that Christianity has always been fascist adjacent at best, and it's influence has gone completely unchecked. Fascism came to this country wrapped in a flag and carrying a bible. Because churches have always had carte blanche to do whatever they want, along with their tax exempt status, they've been able to take even more undeserved political power than they already had.
In the past few decades the church, which has always been a bastion of white supremacy and authoritarian, anti-intellectual bullshit, saw it's power start to erode. It became possible for people to leave the church without dooming themselves to becoming pariahs, and church leaders lost their ability to functionally run the country. Then the church reacted the same way it always has when it felt threatened, it fully embraced violent authoritarianism and white supremacy.
Good point -- but I'd add that this doesn't apply to the Black church. Black churches were crucial bases for the civil rights movement, and to this day they also play a major role in getting "souls to the polls" on election days. In fact, it sounds like you're speaking primarily of the Roman Catholic Church. Is that the case? It also applies to much of (white) evangelical Protestant churches.
The black church isn't as bad as the white church, but Christianity itself is the problem. Homophobia, white supremacy, antisemitism, and anti-intellectualism are just as fundamental to Christianity as Jesus. The black church isn't as evil as the white church, but that has more to do with Christianity's inherent racism than anything else. Black folks made the church better because they literally had no choice.
Christianity is inherently authoritarian and sadistic. Unfortunately this country got stuck with puritan assholes to begin with and there's never really been the kind of bloody internecine fighting between sects like there was in Europe to force a degree of restraint in the regional church cultures. So, with few exceptions, American churches have never had to temper their bloodlust with a degree of practicality or humanity.
Letting Nazis speak freely and without consequences is part of how we got here.
The problem isn't that Nazis are speaking freely, it's that so many USians are listening to them and acting on what they hear. Why might that be? Well, I can't help noticing that nearly all who rally around the Nazis and neo-Nazis, for instance at Charlottesville in 2017 and at the Capitol on 1/6/2021, are white and most of them are men. Could it be that the popularity of Nazis and neo-Nazis in some quarters has a lot to do with backlash to civil rights gains of earlier decades?
Consider, too, the damage done to the middle and working classes by Reaganomics. Unfortunately but all too naturally for too many white USians, 2 + 2 = 3. They're itching to blame people of color and uppity women for the consequences of the Reagan administration's tax cuts, union busting, etc., and for the Clinton administration's repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in the late 1990s.
White supremacy is absolutely the problem, yes. But economic anxiety isn't the cause and never has been, that's just an excuse that Nazis use to give themselves a paper thin veneer of legitimacy.
The larger problem is that Christianity has always been fascist adjacent at best, and it's influence has gone completely unchecked. Fascism came to this country wrapped in a flag and carrying a bible. Because churches have always had carte blanche to do whatever they want, along with their tax exempt status, they've been able to take even more undeserved political power than they already had.
In the past few decades the church, which has always been a bastion of white supremacy and authoritarian, anti-intellectual bullshit, saw it's power start to erode. It became possible for people to leave the church without dooming themselves to becoming pariahs, and church leaders lost their ability to functionally run the country. Then the church reacted the same way it always has when it felt threatened, it fully embraced violent authoritarianism and white supremacy.
Good point -- but I'd add that this doesn't apply to the Black church. Black churches were crucial bases for the civil rights movement, and to this day they also play a major role in getting "souls to the polls" on election days. In fact, it sounds like you're speaking primarily of the Roman Catholic Church. Is that the case? It also applies to much of (white) evangelical Protestant churches.
The black church isn't as bad as the white church, but Christianity itself is the problem. Homophobia, white supremacy, antisemitism, and anti-intellectualism are just as fundamental to Christianity as Jesus. The black church isn't as evil as the white church, but that has more to do with Christianity's inherent racism than anything else. Black folks made the church better because they literally had no choice.
Christianity is inherently authoritarian and sadistic. Unfortunately this country got stuck with puritan assholes to begin with and there's never really been the kind of bloody internecine fighting between sects like there was in Europe to force a degree of restraint in the regional church cultures. So, with few exceptions, American churches have never had to temper their bloodlust with a degree of practicality or humanity.