Post No. 3,376 - xenophobia, hate, and genocide - then, and now

Photo by Mary Skrynnikova 💛💙 on Unsplash 
(an outdoor cafe just off screen to the left backs, as it waits for customers, a central open air walkway and sandy coloured buildings to the right and in the background, with healthy, cheerful green plants on the right) 

 

I am watching the PBS & Ken Burns series "The US and the Holocaust", and there are a few points that I particularly noted (I have one more episode to go as I write this): 

• FDR was careful not to get too far ahead of public opinion, but he was ahead, and working out ways to get the people of the US to be better people. 
  This is why I consider humanistic human rights advocacy to be as essential as legalistic human rights advocacy; 

• the fear around survival during the Depression was a key part of the negative emotions towards immigrants that blocked many Jewish refugees from being accepted - and that was not helped by the racism/xenophobia of  some wealthy people; 

• while public opposition in the USA to being part of World War Two ended after Japan attacked Pearl Harbour, there is a comment, after describing a public talk by Lindbergh that so badly received it ended his movement, that he may have been voicing views that were held by others. 

Coming back to now, I also note that something I’ve watched in the last few days (I think one of Richard Murphy’s videos) stated that around ⅓ of US citizens still support their current fascist leader - despite the atrocities his ICE thugs and goons are committing against US citizens and others. 

I think that a similar proportion likely applies here in Australia too - especially in terms of the support for shutting down immigration, racism, etc that is most volubly screamed by the far right. 

I note that attempts to address those fears are being made on an intellectual level by activists, albeit without any compelling data, but the emotions need to be addressed ... and to do that, I personally favour: 

1. teaching the history of human rights, using a human face, in high schools - especially in neochristian schools; and 
2. enuring all people are taught emotional competence in schools. 

This is also where religion should be taking a constructive role, by promoting a better (more inclusive) spirituality - but neochristianity (which is not Christianity) is an active block to that. 

Mr religion, Paganism, is far better on that aspect.  

 

I also note our PM made one statement yesterday (a repetition of that remark) that was wrong, and another that I consider unrealistic and shows his lack of familiarity with refugee reality. 

The first is that the modern nation-state of Australia was founded on a sense of unity. That was a factor, certainly, but there were also powerful economic drivers, and the desire to be able to exclude Asia workers - which led to the infamous Dictation Test after Federation, and an Immigration Restriction Act within a year. 

It took half a century to start reversing that evil - and, in that period, the policy contributed to the evil apartheid policies of South Africa. 

The second comment was a nonsensical statement that people who come to Australia make a deal to “leave their hates behind” when they come here. 

Rubbish. As far as I am aware, there are no forms stating that, although there is a requirement to agree to living in accordance with Australia’s laws (including our anti-discrimination laws), and there are security assessments that look at the risk of the extremes of hate which manifest as t_ror_r_sm, but that still leaves massive amounts of room for hate in-between those two two points - and refugees suffering PTSD cannot walk away from or suppress the anger and hate (especially under misguided notions of “forgiveness” - which often allows the abuses to continue) they feel about what was done not only to them, but to loved ones. 

I consider that remark shows a Prime Minister who is either somewhat out of his depth, or being badly advised. 

My opinion is that it would be better to admit that Australia, both the modern-nation state and the prior British colonies, had make serious mistakes involving hate, racism, white supremacism, and genocide, and had to some extent learned to address those (e.g., renouncing the White Australia policy, anti-discrimination laws, and Victoria’s Yoorrook truth-telling process and Treaty), although the actions are as yet imperfect ... maybe the incoming refugees could add to our insight and toolkit so that we could address those flaws more effectively. 

 

 

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider: 

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”;  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

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Remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, to mind our Mӕgan, and to acknowledge that all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering” (just as binary gendered [men’s and women’s] sporting teams are either both given the gender descriptor, or neither).

#PsychicABetterWorld   and  

Note that I am cutting back on aspects of my posts - see here, and Gnwmythr is pronounced new-MYTH-ear  

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