Following on from the discussion started in the “happy” thread (You know what really makes me happy? - #133 by bob)…
I have been to Sachsenhausen, I have seen the ovens, and I have felt the eeriness. I have visited many of the memorials and museums in and around Berlin.
From a different era, I have been to Langemarck and Tyne Cot alike and stood in awe at the scale of those places - also Ysselsteyn which is mostly WW2 - and was shocked at some of the ages on the graves.
…
Now for the GMG bit:
Considering the Mash is satirical, it merely plays on much of the charged language in use by the MSM and politicians - look at how they all attempt to slur and demean each other and how political reporting, acclimatisation, and propaganda have skewed our understanding of “left” and “right”, pushing a narrative that policies and behaviours are far more extreme than they actually are - especially previously centrist or only marginally liberal ideas being “extreme leftist”.
Corbyn is painted as a communist while the Conservatives and Farage have hoovered up the likes of the BNP and Britain First. The Conservatives ran a mayoral campaign attacking the opponent’s ethnicity and have a problem with islamophobia (but let’s not mention it and focus on Labour’s antisemitism issues). Then there’s the complete and utter disdain shown towards the EU and its representatives, the “hostile environment”, demonising of immigrants, polarisation of classes with ideological and politically calculated attacks on the poor, attacks on the judiciary in the press and by politicians… these are all fairly right-wing kind of ideas. The only thing the Conservatives fell short with was where the balance fell on police numbers and they opted for austerity over control.
No, these people aren’t Nazis, and I utterly despair at the state of politics and political discourse in this country (and around the world - the USA is no different). But we have been incrementally creeping further to the right and using divide and conquer type messages, untruths, and smears straight out of their playbook for so long that we are at risk of normalising right-wing ideals and not being able to restore any degree of integrity to politics. And it’s not just us - Far Right groups are in the ascendancy in Europe and the States, too. If we don’t recognise and satirise such use of charged language, what can we do? You can’t fight fire with a water pistol.
That people get so hung up at satire, but are less vocal about the actual media and political propaganda baffles and depresses me.