politics

Exactly. "I thought -I- would be allowed to get an abortion when I needed to, because I'm not evil or poor like the babykillers I talk about in church. I'm a good person - it's just a baby would ruin my life (usually = disclose my cheating/premarital sex/be inconvenient) so it's different." It's the classic "rules for thee but not for me" of extremists.

In illustration of that point:

Only one of my ten Nazi friends saw Nazism as we—you and I—saw it in any respect. This was Hildebrandt, the teacher. And even he then believed, and still believes, in part of its program and practice, “the democratic part.” The other nine, decent, hard-working, ordinarily intelligent and honest men, did not know before 1933 that Nazism was evil. They did not know between 1933 and 1945 that it was evil. And they do not know it now. None of them ever knew, or now knows, Nazism as we knew and know it; and they lived under it, served it, and, indeed, made it.

As we know Nazism, it was a naked, total tyranny which degraded its adherents and enslaved its opponents and adherents alike; terrorism and terror in daily life, private and public; brute personal and mob injustice at every level of association; a flank attack upon God and a frontal attack upon the worth of the human person and the rights which that worth implies. These nine ordinary Germans knew it absolutely otherwise, and they still know it otherwise. If our view of National Socialism is a little simple, so is theirs. An autocracy? Yes, of course, an autocracy, as in the fabled days of “the golden time” our parents knew. But a tyranny, as you Americans use the term? Nonsense.

When I asked Herr Wedekind, the baker, why he had believed in National Socialism, he said, “Because it promised to solve the unemployment problem. And it did. But I never imagined what it would lead to. Nobody did.” I thought I had struck pay dirt, and I said, “What do you mean, ‘what it would lead to,’ Herr Wedekind?” “War,” he said. “Nobody ever imagined it would lead to war.”

The evil of National Socialism began on September 1, 1939; and that was my friend the baker.

Remember—none of these nine Germans had ever traveled abroad (except in war); none had ever known or talked with a foreigner or read the foreign press; none ever wanted to listen to the foreign radio when it was legal to do so, and none (except, oddly enough, the policeman) listened to it when it was illegal. They were as uninterested in the outside world as their contemporaries in France—or America. None of them ever heard anything bad about the Nazi regime except, as they believed, from Germany’s enemies, and Germany’s enemies were theirs. “Everything the Russians and the Americans said about us,” said Cabinetmaker Klingelhöfer, “they now say about each other.”

Men think first of the lives they lead and the things they see; and not, among the things they see, of the extraordinary sights, but of the sights which meet them in their daily rounds. The lives of my nine friends—and even of the tenth, the teacher—were lightened and brightened by National Socialism as they knew it. And they look back at it now—nine of them, certainly—as the best time of their lives; for what are men’s lives? There were jobs and job security, summer camps for the children and the Hitler Jugend to keep them off the streets. What does a mother want to know? She wants to know where her children are, and with whom, and what they are doing. In those days she knew or thought she did; what difference does it make? So things went better at home, and when things go better at home, and on the job, what more does a husband and father want to know? The best time of their lives.

There were wonderful ten-dollar holiday trips for the family in the “Strength through Joy” program, to Norway in the summer and Spain in the winter, for people who had never dreamed of a real holiday trip at home or abroad. And in Kronenberg “nobody” (nobody my friends knew) went cold, nobody went hungry, nobody went ill and uncared for. For whom do men know? They know people of their own neighborhood, of their own station and occupation, of their own political (or nonpolitical) views, of their own religion and race. All the blessings of the New Order, advertised everywhere, reached “everybody.”

There were horrors, too, but these were advertised nowhere, reached “nobody.” Once in a while (and only once in a while) a single crusading or sensation-mongering newspaper in America exposes the inhuman conditions of the local county jail; but none of my friends had ever read such a newspaper when there were such in Germany (far fewer there than here), and now there were none. None of the horrors impinged upon the day-to-day lives of my ten friends or was ever called to their attention. There was “some sort of trouble” on the streets of Kronenberg as one or another of my friends was passing by on a couple of occasions, but the police dispersed the crowd and there was nothing in the local paper. You and I leave “some sort of trouble on the streets” to the police; so did my friends in Kronenberg.

• They Thought They Were Free- The Germans, 1933-45

At 80%, a lot of people who aren't conservatives are ill-informed.

I've said this plenty and people tend to agree with me even if their first reaction is to fight me on it, conservative women are some of the most if not the most stupid people in the US. At least conservative men have something to gain by voting the way they do, but conservative women literally vote to get their own rights taken away.

I don't even say this trying to be mean, I wish they got what they deserved and by that I mean healthcare, education and whatever social program they needed to be happy and safe. Unfortunately they constantly vote against me wanting the best for them.

My wife's mother told her not to worry about abortion being banned because "people won't let that happen". Umm. Except it already has.

Most ignorance is willful

WILLFUL IGNORANCE OF OTHERS PAIN IS EVIL

Sounds like a direct quote from George W Bush, which is a fucked up version of the original idiom: "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."

I'm certain the Democrats have purposely put off abortion rights and housing prices so they can promise something for the next election. I don't even think Biden has really talked about abortion in any meaningful way between his election and last March.

This sounds like a failure on Democrats to get information out.

Actually, yes! I haven't even read the rest of your comment yet.

God damn the DNC needs to go harder.

I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley.

Vote for Leopard Leopold Facemuncher 2026! 🐆

It's not a big, it's a feature!

Yeah, came here to say "money" 😁

The 3 shown are part of evil; the ones who "don't see it, don't speak of it, don't hear of it." They are the banility of evil, the enablers.

I've never heard of a 4th accompanying the 3. It seems to me that they would not travel together.