Goering (shouting): “Why did you not kill 200 Jews instead of destroying so many valuables!”
Heydrich (defensively): “36 Jews were killed.”
[Words uttered during ministerial discussion with a representative of the German insurance industry after Kristallnacht.]
Kristallnacht was pretty-well the last of the Nazi’s anti-Jewish exercises that were more incentivised than directly commanded and supervised. They had learned the habit in their pre-power days. As the party court (the Uschla) reported afterwards, old party comrades understood that “certain hints meant more than their mere verbal contents”, so when told that “von Rath’s murder was a crime of Jewry as a whole … every party comrade should know what to do”, they went out and – to the great annoyance of Goering when he realised the economic impact – did a fantastic amount of property damage while only killing, by later standards, a derisory number of Jews.
BLM operate the same way. The stormtroopers broke glass and smashed things up, only burning Jewish property when they had fire engines standing by, because fire could spread to ‘aryan’ properties, whereas BLM don’t care if black-owned businesses burn. But with the exception of that very peculiar way of not making racial distinctions, BLM have shown the same common tendency of an incentivised but loosely-commanded Western/European mob to do a lot of property damage for each life they take.
Inflation adjusted, I think the direct financial cost of Kristallnacht far exceeded that of all BLM’s destruction to date. On the other hand, by murdering the eight-year-old black girl Secoriea Turner, the black man David Dorn and various others, it looks like BLM can get into the ballpark of Heydrich’s figure just in killing ‘Lives That Matter (TM)’ – and if you also count lives that don’t matter then maybe they can compete with the higher number that were actually murdered during 9-10 November 1938.
However, BLM needed many nights of rioting to achieve this, whereas ‘Crystal Night’ was done in a day and a night. So I leave it to readers to decide “the point of precedence between a louse and a flea” – or to take Dr Johnson’s advice not to bother – as my focus here is on the specific similarities of technique I’ve mentioned.
(Just a ‘seasonal’ thought prompted by the time of year. I apologise to any who are distressed by the very dark humour of this ‘Godzilla versus King Kong’-style comparison.)
Antifa and BLM are two paramilitary wings of the Democrat Party, much like Sturmabteilung was a paramilitary wing of the National Socialists of Germany.
Almost all political violence in the USA is committed by the Left, though the media hardly ever covers it.
Wasn’t the KKK the former paramilitary wing of the Democratic Party?
Almost all political violence in the USA is committed by the “”Left”” because the media hardly ever covers it.
https://nypost.com/2020/11/13/cnns-amanpour-slammed-for-comparing-trumps-term-to-kristallnacht/
In todays topsy turvey world we should not be surprised when Kristallnacht is (mis)used to make an entirely different point.
The Germans are nothing if not efficient.
It also helps if your political allies clear the streets of police and refuse to respond to emergency calls during the time of the planned “Riot”. Not having plod arresting your for Burn, Looting and Murder helps to accelerate things nicely, like adding gasoline to the flames.
This “political capture” of the police is one of the main problems I have with the buggers. It’s led to the being useless, ineffective, paralysed with indecision and weak. Plus female offices are about as much use as tits on a bull.
This “political capture” of the police is one of the main problems I have with the buggers.
Well look at the UK police.
They indulge XR, kneel to BLM, pander to LGBT, twerk at the Notting Hill carnival, and kick the crap out of white elderly lockdown protestors.
“It’s led to the being useless, ineffective, paralysed with indecision and weak.”
Nope. They’ve become violent enforcers of political ideology.
The one good thing I know about Kristallnacht is that it convinced my wife’s grandfather, a successful Jewish tailor in Vienna with blue eyes (!) to take the family on a “vacation” to Paris. They skipped through Havana and Haiti before finding a relative in NY and making it into the US. Families in Minneapolis are now going through that same calculation, with thankfully less dire threat. Don’t ignore the warning!
Naw. If they stay out of a couple of specific small neighborhoods (where they likely wouldn’t be looking anyway), they’ll have no problem. (So long as they don’t put out Trump signs. Even Norwegians don’t put out Trump signs.)
@john galt: for sure the police in the UK has been captured by the woke, not so sure that is true in the USA though, from the media it does not appear that the US police is as wokified
Isn’t the left’s tendency towards violence down to the fact that they can never win the war of words? For all the claims that their ideas will lead to a fairer society in theory, these ideas are always a disaster when put into practice. They can’t gain power by legitimate means in a functioning democracy because enough people are aware of the track record of their policies. If they do manage to gain power they are generally voted out again at the earliest opportunity.
Another point of similarity can be seen in media silence about BLM/Antifa violence at the ‘Million MAGA’ march. Not “silence is violence” but “(our friends’) violence needs (and gets our) silence”.
The Kristallnacht media silence/spin achieved little since it happened all over Germany and was seen by all. During Germany’s wobble of morale in late summer 1943, when for a brief time nervous Germans wondered what the holocaust could mean for them if they were defeated, it is noticeable how often ordinary Germans mention Kristallnacht, not the far more murderous later actions. Partly, it may have been a euphemism – and something acknowledged that one could mention – but also it was their last almost-universally-shared experience of witnessing violence against Jews where they had all had the choice of cheering it on, turning away, or of being able, pretty safely, to protect the lives, if not the property, of Jews, as some Germans did on that day.
What the silence and mostly-peaceful-riots spin achieved is yet to be fully known. For comparison, one recent poll says that almost 40% of those who voted for Biden now say they had not heard of the Hunter Biden laptop when they voted. Over a tenth of these (4.6% of Biden’s voters) say they would have changed their vote if they had. (I’m not sure it is clear what proportion of them voted early so had less time to hear of it.) Not long before the election, another poll said that only three-quarters of Americans had heard of it – with most who had heard of it believing it was genuine – so I’m guessing media censoring of it achieved something.
Of course, we know to take polls with caution. And if some who did hear about it were persuaded to believe and change their vote because of the media blackout, then its costs will have offset some of its gains.
First it must be pointed out that according to the “mainstream” media (the television networks, the despicable Economist magazine, most newspapers….) the SUPPORTERS of mass looting, burning and MURDERING (the shooting of David Dorn and others, and the burning alive of store owners in their stores) won the American election.
Make no mistake – Joseph “Joe” Biden and K. Harris supported this campaign (even bailing out BLM Marxist thugs when they were arrested – so they could commit more atrocities), if “Biden/Harris” won then this campaign won.
As for the Big Business types who funded Marxist “Black Lives Matter”, founded in 2014 and always clear in its intentions – “What do we want? DEAD COPS! When do we want it? NOW!” – I can remember when even some people on Samizdata defended Jeff Bezos (Amazon) and the rest of them. I trust no one would do so now.
The Big Business types – from the Wall Street Bankers (Hello BLM supporting Bank of America) to the Silicon Valley types (Google and the rest of them) have been revealed to be utter vermin. They sit in comfort in places such as “Davos” planning every detail of the lives of ordinary people (which they HAVE NO RIGHT TO DO) whilst the movement they fund burns small store owners alive.
Yes I know the Big Business types are not really Marxists – the totalitarianism they support is closer to the ideas of Saint-Simon than Karl Marx, but I do not really care any more.
The position of “you do not understand, we are just USING the Marxists – we have a different form of totalitarianism in mind” is no defence.
These Corporate vermin (for vermin they are) must not take control of the United States of America – their massive ELECTION FRAUD must be exposed.
An honest businessman is someone who when asked to go to somewhere like Davos (or the Legion of other conferences) replies – GO TO HELL.
And an honest businessman is someone who when asked about Marxist Black Lives Matter replies – “they are thieves, arsonists and MURDERERS”.
The question is – are there any honest Big Business types left?
Any at all?
A long time ago, when I was in school, we were taught that the pre WWII German population was the most educated in Europe, yet they were not resistant to the Nazi propaganda. Is it that they were better at rationalizing or was it like today’s USA, where counter factual information is suppressed. Did the Nazis get away with claiming up is down, black is white………?
Amanpour is nothing more than a shill for soft fascism, the top down power of government partnered with their allies in business. They loathe privacy, free choice, free expression. Ironic, no, that she smears the ones who resist giving up their Enlightenment ideals.
Some commenters here may be aware of the Conservative Treehouse site which has been in existence for some 10 years and claims to have over 500,000 unique readers daily.
It has now been informed by WordPress that it will be de-platformed next month for violating their terms of service under section 5 – prohibited content.
https://wordpress.com/automattic-ads-tos/
CTH, as it is known, has a strong Christian outlook and is about as far from promoting violence, obscenity etc as you can get. What it does do, rather well, is to dig down into governmental and establishment corruption and malpractice and painstakingly post the actual evidence of its findings. You can only imagine what they have been making of the last 4 years of deep state action against President Trump culminating in the election.
Irrespective of how much sympathy or otherwise you may have with their views deplatforming the site is a major escalation in the ongoing campaign against free speech on the internet, yet another indication that the establishment has abandoned any residual attempt to appear neutral and gone all-in to suppress potentially troublesome opposition once and for all.
John (November 17, 2020 at 11:33 am), plus one.
At least the warning of ‘next month’, if honoured, means Treehouse should be able to archive their content and update direction to their new location (Instapundit advised them to move to HostingMatters).
HOWEVER it ensures that they will be very busy during the rest of this month, when the voter fraud debate will be fiercest – which may well be the point.
Of course, we should all be archiving our content anyway – and doing a lot of other precautionary things which are often understandably neglected or deferred.
I predict a niche for hosters that can defy PC takedown.
Meanwhile, giving them a few clicks is an easy way to send a small message.
Exasperated – the Germans were indeed the most highly educated people in the world. And it was the STUDENTS and the TEACHERS and the ACADEMICS (hundred of academics) who were the first to support the National Socialists.
It is not different in the United States – the “educated” tend to support all sorts of evil, because they have been taught to support it.
The faith in mass Collectivist schooling (the bizarre idea that would mean a more independently minded population when, or course, it leads to the opposite) was, perhaps, the worse mistake of recent centuries.
As for business – the “libertarian” Charles Koch turns out to have been working with George Soros for years.
Working with him on what? On, for example, internet censorship – not fighting it, PUSHING IT.
Yes John.
Which is why the people who say “we can fight back – a Biden Presidency will be good for us” are so horribly misguided.
WordPress is just the start – Big Business is determined to utterly crush dissent, servers will deny access, banks and payment servers will hit people to (at first “racists”, they are already that, then ANYBODY who dissents).
And “Reason” (paid by Charles Koch) will just, if it mentions the censorship at all, say “they are private companies – they can do whatever they like”.
It is clear now that President Donald Trump was our last hope.
I am ashamed, deeply ashamed, that I did not do more to help.
President Trump can still do a lot of good even if he loses. Just taking all his 70m supporters onto alternative media platforms would be massively beneficial to our side.
And we have the Reform Party to look forward to in the UK, although 3 years is still far away.
Jon Eds – there will not really be “alternative media platforms” under “Build Back Better” Agenda 2030 (“Sustainable Development” “Stakeholder Capitalism”).
Servers will not carry them, banks and payment providers will not do business with them – and-so-on.
And people who dissent will LOSE THEIR JOBS and not find alternative employment.
The Chinese Social Credit System with a Western “Woke” (i.e. Frankfurt School of Marxism) twist – so, actually WORSE than the Chinese Social Credit system.
You do not seem to understand – if they can get away rig an election (and it seems they can) then they can get away with ANYTHING.
And it will be the same in the United Kingdom – any dissent (any opposition to Agenda 2030 – international “Build Back Better”) is likely to be denounced as “racist” or “Islamphobic” or “Transphobic” or whatever.
I would like to think there is going to be a big fight back for freedom – but I see little chance of this happening.
The Corporations that are pushing Republicans (yes Republicans) to support the Election Fraud in Georgia and Michigan are not supporting Election Fraud for the fun of it – they are supporting Election Fraud as a means-to-an-end to deliver the totalitarian “Build Back Better”, Agenda 2030, society they have been “educated” to believe in.
It was not just all those international conferences (Davos and so on) – it was their basic EDUCATION (at school and university) that made so many top Corporate Managers totalitarians – gave them “Progressive” (i.e. pro tyranny) attitudes. They call it “Social Responsibility” (the bastard child of “Social Justice”) at Business School.
Besides – a world where their salaries and perks would protected by the GOVERNMENT would be so much nicer for them than a world where some “uneducated” person can set up in business in competition with established interets.
Remember these people have long loved such things as “Business Licenses”.
Big Business loves regulation – especially international (world) regulation. They want to utterly crush freedom – and it looks like that is exactly what the “educated” are going to do.
Their are broadly two models of government.
In one the citizens get their firearms, are sworn in as a posse (from the Latin for Muster of the County) and go to hunt down the criminals – people who have violated the property of others.
In the other model of government the “citizens” are CATTLE – and the government is the farmer.
The education system naturally leads to attitudes associated with the latter, not the former, model of government.
Remember Corporate Managers (not just government Civil Servants and academic “experts”) are highly EDUCATED people.
It is natural for such people to think in terms of “lockdowns”, “mask mandates”, “Climate Change Emergencies” and so on.
Klaus Schwab, and the other totalitarians, have always been pushing at an open door – the “educated” want to be told they should control the lives of the “common herd” in every detail – for our own good, of course.
Otherwise when the international conferences were organised – no one would have come.
It is absurd to think this started with Covid 19 – of course it did not. The international establishment elite are only interested in this disease as an excuse for what they have long wanted to do anyway.
Nor did it start with the Climate Change doctrine of the 1980s (“last chance to save the planet” says Prince Charles – in 1993). After all the book of Klaus Schwab was published in 1971 – and the “New Atlantis” (Sir Francis Bacon) was published back in the 1600s.
The idea that an establishment elite should control the lives of everyone, in the name of “SCIENCE”, is ancient.
Woodrow Wilson summed it up.
Professor (later President) Wilson held that the goal of education was to “make the sons as UNLIKE their fathers as possible” – the fathers believed in freedom, and he hoped that the sons would believe in the “New Freedom” (i.e. TYRANNY). Not just in government – but in the business world as well. After all modern parents (moving to the present day) send their children to “good schools” and “good colleges” to NETWORK – to get “good jobs” in the Corporate bureaucracies (which are not really different from the government bureaucracy).
The Founders of Black Lives Matter in 2014 were also highly educated people – as they said of themselves “we are trained Marxist organisers”.
Sorry, apologies to the author for not keeping track of your name.
You can almost understand the indifference of the trust fund babies; those who can court on a federal, state, county, or municipal paycheck directly or indirectly, such as public sector workers, vendors and contractors; media (incl sports and entertainment) and academia; foundations; people whose livelihood comes out of globalism or are employed in the distribution of third world consumer goods, like Amazon or big box stores; financialists; the creative and the gifted, and, of course, RINOS. They will all be fine.
I suppose there is educated/credentialed and then there is smart. China Joe had support from those who were bombarded with obvious nonsense by media. Example, I have had a conversation with someone who was outraged that Trump was making billions off of HCQ and really believed that’s why Trump publicized it, despite HCQ being risky and harmful. It was spitting into the wind to correct the record. It didn’t matter that HCQ was approved by the FDA in the 50s, that it is generic, hence minimal profits, that it was distributed to millions world wide for 70 years, frequently available over the counter… What alarmed me the most was the unconscionable and cavalier dismissal. IF HCQ worked, it would be a Godsend to the millions who didn’t have access to Western medicine, in that it was easily distributed and didn’t require special handling (refrigeration), specialized personnel or specialized equipment to dispense (IV bag). I think of this when I think of a Biden voter.