Sunday, May 26, 2013

An observation

Not to sound pro-Nazi or anything, but I was thinking on this after Mark Shea revisited a post by Simcha Fisher denouncing Holocaust deniers.  Now, for me, denying the Holocaust is as stupid as denying the moon landings.  But for me, it's no more evil than ignoring or denying the Communist horrors of the last century, which are often downplayed if not outright ignored. Or the Armenian genocide which is open to academic debate and political denial.  Or even the meaner aspects of the non-Western world in pre-imperialism days, or the atrocities committed by those cultures as they battled Western Imperialism.  To me, denying any of those things, or downplaying them for whatever reason, is just as stupid, or just as wrong.

But then, I don't believe that the only evil of the 20th century belonged to the Nazis or Americans over the skies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  I believe evil did quite well in other corners of the world.  Denying, qualifying, excusing, or whatever in those other cases is just as bad as ignoring or denying the terror of the Holocaust.

So I saw this and it made me wonder.  The headline is championing a soccer league for embracing its anti-Nazi past.  And I thought on that for a minute.  If you are anti-Nazi, it's hero time.  If you are proudly and passionately anti-Communist?  Why, it's Archie Bunker time, at best.  Or Jo McCarthy time.  Or blacklist time.  You're really the baddie.  Why?  Why the difference?  Why is standing against Communism likely to get you ignored or argued with at best, and downright condemned at worst?  Why are those actors and writers who actually loved Communism and the whole Communist ideal treated like martyrs and heroes, while actors who had even some connection to the Nazis, even if they later renounced everything, dogged by it their entire life, if not ostracized and shunned?

All the gold in the world didn't keep him from having to prove he helped Jews escape the Nazis,
and still his Nazi ties plagued him through his career

Blacklist hero and closet Communist.  Just watch 1960's Spartacus
through a Communist lens and it all makes sense.
I don't know.  There are probably reasons, but some of them might be unknown, part of ulterior motives and therefore unable to be proven, or something.  But I've noticed it over the years.  And it's not changed, even in the Catholic blogosphere. 

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