I Now Better Understand “The Good German"
Essay by Dennis Prager earlier this year and shortened by Lewis Smith, May 15, 2021
How does one explain the “good German,” the term used to describe the average, presumably decent German, who did nothing to hurt Jews but also did nothing to help them and did nothing to undermine the Nazi regime? The same question could be asked about the average Frenchman during the Vichy era, the average Russian under Lenin, Stalin, Brezhnev and their successors, and the millions of others who did nothing to help their fellow citizens under oppressive dictatorships. I no longer quickly judge the quiet German or Russian. Of course, I still judge Germans who helped the Nazis and in any way hurt Jews, but the Germans who did nothing? Not so fast.
What has changed me has been watching what is happening in America. The ease with which tens of millions of Americans have accepted irrational, unconstitutional and unprecedented police state-type restrictions on their freedoms, including even the freedom to make a living, has been sobering. The same holds true for the acceptance by most Americans of the rampant censorship on Twitter and all other major social media platforms.
Half of America, the non-left half, is afraid to speak their minds at virtually every university, movie studio and large corporation, virtually every place of work. Professors who say anything that offends the left fear being ostracized if they have tenure, and being fired if they do not. People are socially ostracized, publicly shamed or fired for differing with Black Lives Matter, as America-hating and white-hating a group as has ever existed. And few Americans have the guts to speak out against them.
So, then, who are we to condemn the average German who faced the Gestapo if he didn’t salute Hitler or the average Russian who faced the KGB, or later the NKVD, if he didn’t demonstrate sufficient enthusiasm for Stalin? Americans daily face the hatred of the left’s cancel culture, but left-wing secret police and reeducation camps may be in our future. I now understand that the average German living under Nazism and the average Russian living under communism did so because of the power of the media to brainwash them.
I believed that only in a dictatorship could a society be brainwashed, but I was wrong: mass brainwashing can take place in a nominally free society. The incessant left-wing drumbeat of The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and almost every other major newspaper, plus The Atlantic, The New Yorker, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, NPR, all of Hollywood and almost every school from kindergarten through graduate school, has brainwashed at least half of America every bit as effectively as the German, the Soviet and the Chinese communist press did or still does. Thousands of schools teaching the “1619 Project” lie is just one example.
I notice that people look around to see if anyone is within earshot and say in almost a whisper: “I support Trump” or “I’m a conservative.” The last time people had to look around and whisper like that was in the Soviet Union. In Quebec, a family was fined and members arrested because six people gathered to celebrate the new year. A neighbor snitched on them, and the celebrants were arrested. The government lauded those snitches and asked for more public “collaboration.” Snitches were likewise lauded and encouraged in other states and cities. Plenty of so-called Americans were happy to snitch on people who refused to lock down their lives.
All this is taking place without concentration camps, or the Gestapo, or the KGB. That’s why I no longer judge “the average German” like I used to. Apathy in the face of tyranny turns out not to be just a German or Russian characteristic. I just never thought it could happen in America.
Source:
"Prager's Column: I Now Better Understand the 'Good German.' " The Dennis Prager Show, 5 Jan. 2021,
https://dennisprager.com/column/i-now-better-understand-the-good-german/
What has changed me has been watching what is happening in America. The ease with which tens of millions of Americans have accepted irrational, unconstitutional and unprecedented police state-type restrictions on their freedoms, including even the freedom to make a living, has been sobering. The same holds true for the acceptance by most Americans of the rampant censorship on Twitter and all other major social media platforms.
Half of America, the non-left half, is afraid to speak their minds at virtually every university, movie studio and large corporation, virtually every place of work. Professors who say anything that offends the left fear being ostracized if they have tenure, and being fired if they do not. People are socially ostracized, publicly shamed or fired for differing with Black Lives Matter, as America-hating and white-hating a group as has ever existed. And few Americans have the guts to speak out against them.
So, then, who are we to condemn the average German who faced the Gestapo if he didn’t salute Hitler or the average Russian who faced the KGB, or later the NKVD, if he didn’t demonstrate sufficient enthusiasm for Stalin? Americans daily face the hatred of the left’s cancel culture, but left-wing secret police and reeducation camps may be in our future. I now understand that the average German living under Nazism and the average Russian living under communism did so because of the power of the media to brainwash them.
I believed that only in a dictatorship could a society be brainwashed, but I was wrong: mass brainwashing can take place in a nominally free society. The incessant left-wing drumbeat of The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and almost every other major newspaper, plus The Atlantic, The New Yorker, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, NPR, all of Hollywood and almost every school from kindergarten through graduate school, has brainwashed at least half of America every bit as effectively as the German, the Soviet and the Chinese communist press did or still does. Thousands of schools teaching the “1619 Project” lie is just one example.
I notice that people look around to see if anyone is within earshot and say in almost a whisper: “I support Trump” or “I’m a conservative.” The last time people had to look around and whisper like that was in the Soviet Union. In Quebec, a family was fined and members arrested because six people gathered to celebrate the new year. A neighbor snitched on them, and the celebrants were arrested. The government lauded those snitches and asked for more public “collaboration.” Snitches were likewise lauded and encouraged in other states and cities. Plenty of so-called Americans were happy to snitch on people who refused to lock down their lives.
All this is taking place without concentration camps, or the Gestapo, or the KGB. That’s why I no longer judge “the average German” like I used to. Apathy in the face of tyranny turns out not to be just a German or Russian characteristic. I just never thought it could happen in America.
Source:
"Prager's Column: I Now Better Understand the 'Good German.' " The Dennis Prager Show, 5 Jan. 2021,
https://dennisprager.com/column/i-now-better-understand-the-good-german/
