I truly find what Trump is saying is execrable, though I have to admit I find those who agree with him far more scary, even if I count some of them my friends.
Still, have we really come to the point where we find it necessary to censor ideas that we find objectionable?:
Isn’t one of the great hallmarks of fascism and totalitarianism the inability to tolerate alternative ideas lest they “infect” the masses with their beliefs? That somehow those who behave badly have to be “radicalized” rather than radicalizing themselves?
Adolf Hitler was terrifying in his rhetoric, but it is convenient to blame his oratory skills and propaganda rather than give agency to those who chose to follow him, “chose” being the operative word. Hitler was not a sorcerer, those who followed him were not bewitched into their actions. It was their personal moral failings not his that led them to the crimes they supported, or worse, committed. Figures like Hitler and Trump don’t make the people evil, they just expose the latent evil within.
Yes, we must speak out, but we need to speak out with the strength of our arguments, not by using the same tools of those we object. If nothing else we should be cautious for we provide the very tools by which we too may be censored in the future.
If anything Trump shows is that “what goes around, comes around”. We see the the tools populists have used for centuries turned on themselves. Let’s not hand him another.
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