tw: discussion of abortion.
Many argue that the usage of the Nazi salute at Trump’s inauguration as well as at the pro-life summit fyesterday was an isolated incident. But it sets a dangerous precedent.
It’s not as though we as progressives in general didn’t know they had authoritarian tendencies, supporting figures in government who push white Christian supremacy and nationalism in our country. But I suppose they’ve decided to stop pretending, even as they say they’re “joking.” How can anyone joke about groups like the Nazis? It trivializes them in a moment in which they cannot be trivialized. I suppose that’s where we are nowadays.
The most egregious example, to me, is the pro-life man who did the Nazi salute at a ‘pro-life’ anti-abortion rally. As a person who leans pro-life myself, I am horrified to not hear pro-life organizations and leaders condemn the recent Patriot Front march at the March for Life, or the Nazi salute at the pro-life summit yesterday.
Ignoring the Trump administration’s betrayals of Americans, especially minorities, betrays, if not our shared values, then my deepest convictions. The Trump administration, especially in this second term, has decided that human life that has been born takes a backseat to their ideologies – or in many cases, quite simply, to profit.
These last nine years, the Trump team has proven an extremely ungodly administration. They are not our savior by any stretch of the imagination. Trump is not here to save the unborn, he is not here to save any of us as Christians. He is here to pillage our country and stir up hate. It’s already turning potentially into atrocities, most notably against immigrants and Latine people. Mass deportations, revoking anti-racist policies, signing a federal executive order citing a desire to execute more people… Donald J Trump is not the patriotic leader our people need right now.
It is a disgrace to the memory of all those who’ve died because of abortion, to then disregard those who are born. Invoking the deaths of abortion victims to then betray the memories of those who died in the Holocaust is a mockery of all those who we should stand for.
The pro-life movement very frequently utilizes other atrocities to argue that dehumanization of any group of people is dangerous. Most notably, the Holocaust is frequently pointed to as an example of how dehumanization is oftentimes used as the justification of unspeakable atrocities. They’re not wrong. But how. How can one refuse to speak up, loudly, about the trivialization of antisemitic, pro-war, inflammatory Nazi imagery?
Besides, we all need to rehumanize each other, as Americans who oftentimes politically hate and are afraid of each other. Nazi salutes are, uh, not the way to go about that by any stretch of the imagination. Even joking about the Nazi salute, as well as not immediately ending its usage, is dehumanizing towards all the victims of the Holocaust, including the Jewish people, disabled people, and the Roma people (look them up if you need to), just to name a few. May all their souls rest in peace. We need to focus on listening to each other about things which we can reasonably do so on without compromising our values.
Protecting life isn’t just about one issue, that being abortion. Vulnerable people deserve to be protected, from conception until natural death as it’s said. The pro life movement should protect all life, including pregnant people, trans people, people of color, and immigrants. (and the left should include the unborn but that is neither here nor there at this moment).
All of humanity deserves protection unless they present an active threat to someone else. It is a tragedy that those who defend the unborn seem to only ever defend them, and not all people. Abortion has systemic causes in the patriarchy, capitalism and the exploitation of workers, ableism, and other systems of oppression. It is a symptom of the above. The unborn are worthy of explicit advocacy, as they are victims of these systems as well, but so is everyone else. In fact, the unborn are so interconnected to those who are born, that to advocate for everyone else is in some respects to advocate for them.
Ok so I’m pretty sure the whole internet collectively now thinks of my politics as absolutely wild. Maybe I’ve united everyone into thinking, “she’s a hot mess! She’s absolutely losing it!” If so, welp. I’ve done my job. (My job being: calling literally everyone out).
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