With the rise of neo-fascist movements in the United States and around the world, living in Texas, working as a disability practitioner, and parenting neurodivergent young adults, I have been searching for the most anti-fascist country and religious organizations in the world with the most influence. I believe that these are undoubtedly Germany and the German Catholic Church.
Unlike the United States, Germany has learned from its past sins of racism, bigotry, misogyny, marginalization, and oppression. Germany doesn’t parade Schwastikas like parts of America parade the Confederate flag. In fact, anything which glorifies Nazism is illegal in Germany unless it is done for educational purposes. Germany has a strong interest in combating historical revisionism by criminalizing Holocaust denial and Holocaust sympathy although it still tries to balance democratic freedom of speech and values.
The Holocaust, like no other event in history, has forever changed the way Germany conducts herself, including the German Catholic Church. Most of Germany and the German Catholic Church don’t play patty-cake with neo-Nazi fascism because Germany actually learned from its mistakes, unlike the United States. Germany doesn’t dabble in discrimination, racism, antisemitism, anti-Islamism, homophobia, transphobia, and hate, which is again on-the-rise in parts of our American society and other parts of the world like Russia and Poland.
A small, yet powerful percentage of Americans, are also trying to spread deadly conspiracy theories and misinformation through right-winged media, deliberately fight against scientific and historical facts, elevate racism to dangerous levels, destroy the lives of the disabled, LBGTQ+ people, and their families, destroy US democracy, and demonize anyone who is unlike most Americans and most Christians/Catholics in the country. Undoubtedly, parts of the USA are in the early stages of fascism. Small but powerful parts of the USA right wing must have scapegoats to target, and one of the primary scapegoats is tragically transgender children.
Below we have a quote of a father of a transgender child who is also a Jewish Rabbi. Please read the actual reality of what is happening to innocent families who have transgender children in parts of the USA. Parents of a particular minority group, and in the current case transgender children in certain USA states, shouldn’t have to plan escape routes out of their home state and even out of the country to protect their children’s safety and have access to life-saving reversible healthcare. Surgery is rarely done on a child under the age of 18 which is only the family’s business.
My family is going to Germany in November. I want to personally see what they have done to combat fascism and a repeated variation of the Holocaust. Not only has Germany learned not to repeat the Holocaust, Germany and the German Catholic Church make structural and administrative efforts to fight discrimination, racism, antisemitism, anti-Islamism, homophobia, transphobia, and hate through radical love and inclusion, not military force. This is also why the German Catholic Church is LGBTQ+ affirming. LGBTQ+ people were euthanized just like Jewish people during the Holocaust.
Native transgender Texans and their families and other politically-weaponized groups shouldn’t have to make escape plans to protect their families, but they are. This is due to the disastrous results of melding right-winged politics with parts of the conservative white American Church. Anyone who is not white, straight, Republican, “Christian,” and neurotypical is in danger in certain parts of the USA, especially transgender children and their families.
As we review the definition of fascism and the traits, let us Never Forget the history of the Holocaust. Germany and the German Catholic Church truly defend marginalized and oppressed groups through action and actually take pending fascism seriously.
Once a political power turns to genocide, which is exactly what they are doing right now to trans children in certain states, we have stepped into the early stages of fascism. I believe that the current legislative actions of some far-right Republican politicians (not all) are now falling in fuller alignment with fascism, especially in Texas. Ohio, and Florida. According to Encyclopedia Britannica and The Washington Monthly, I close with these primary traits of fascism once again. I believe we are now inside the outer rim of a fascist state and moving closer to a variation of the Holocaust, at least in Texas.
1. sources and capitalizes on economic woes and anxieties
2. shifts political blame on to scapegoat groups like minority groups, the Democrats,
immigrants, and other groups while taking away blame from where it belongs, on the leadership
3. propagates extreme nationalism going hand-in-hand with racism and militarism
4. a melding of church and state when there should be a separation
5. subjugation of women and sexism
6. a disdain for human rights except those of the elite, especially a disdain for those who identify as LGBTQIA+
7. obsession with crime and punishment
8. identification of enemies as a unifying cause for political action
9. disdain for intellectualism, science, history, and the arts
10. control of different types of media, including books
11. rampant cronyism and government corruption
12. attempt to control elections, like through voter suppression
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