When the head of the FBI wrote articles in a Nazi-magazine

in #life5 years ago

EXTREMISM. What did the head of FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, and the future leader of the American Nazi Party, George Lincoln Rockwell, have in common 1957? The answer is the magazine ”The American Mercury”. Rockwell was employed by and published articles in the magazine, an important megaphone of the ”alt-Right” of its time, led by the vivid anti-Semite Russell Maguire. The then head of FBI, J. Edgar Hoover wrote articles for the magazine.

In the USA of the 1950s, the far-right viewed atheists and socialists as they view Muslims and Islam today. ”Atheistic immigration” was viewed as a threat to national security, atheists were vilified as potential Soviet agents, and were regarded as having ”dangerous morals”, and being prone to child abuse, ”free sex”, ”homosexuality” and other things that were viewed as ”un-American” and evil.

You have all heard about McCarthyism. When the FBI and American authorities wanted to stop communism in the 1950s and in that process violated the most fundamental human rights in existence. In the name of ”fighting for God and Liberty” hearings were arranged by the House Un-American Activities Committee”, where several artists and celebrities were attacked for being ”unamerican”, ”Marxists”, ”communists”, or… Atheists. Like Frank Capra who directed the classic American Christmas movie ”It’s a Wonderful Life”. Back then FBI regarded it as atheistic and communist propaganda. Yes, atheism. If you read the hearings, you will see that communism and atheism were regarded as basically two sides of the same coin.

McCarthyism worked very similarly to the way that the alt-right, and islamophobia-industry functions today. To some degree, the enemies are still the same, but if the enemies back then were communists and atheists, and of course immigrants and for many also the liberals and the Jews, the enemies today are ”cultural Marxists” and Muslims, and still of course, the immigrants and, for some, the liberals and the Jews.

The problem with McCarthyism was never that they were against communists, as the problem of the alt-right today is not that they oppose radical Islamism. Stalin or Mao were no nice guys! Communists butchered millions at the time. The problem was that the McCarthyists were ready to violate human rights in the attempt to crush communism and that they widened the definition of communism to groups and people that had nothing to do with totalitarianism, like socialists, like liberals, as well as immigrants and of course atheists.

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