Perceptions and Prejudice: Drawing Lines Between Nazi Germany and the Pandemic Era
Exploring the Uncomfortable Parallels in Public Attitudes Towards the 'Unclean'
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
The COVID-19 pandemic changed how many in the Western world work, travel, socialize, and fundamentally live. However, as we wrestled to gain control over an unseen enemy, the steps taken, restrictions imposed, and social divisions accentuated have sparked an uncomfortable comparison that few are ready to acknowledge. Some have begun comparing the treatment of those who refuse or are unable to follow the stringent public health measures to the marginalization of certain groups in Nazi Germany.
The likeness may seem far-fetched and the comparison distasteful, but the common thread tying the two scenarios isn't necessarily rooted in the cruelty or brutality of the actions themselves. Instead, it's about the implications of an 'us-versus-them' mentality and the vilification of a subset of society.
In our pandemic-stricken world, we saw the rise of a new category of people labeled as "unclean" - individuals who are unvaccinated or refuse to adhere to the established guidelines. These individuals were met with varying degrees of social ostracization and public reprobation. The resultant societal divides bear an eerie resemblance to the gradual isolation and demonization of Jewish individuals during the rise of Nazi Germany, drawing forth uncomfortable reflections on our collective reaction to the pandemic.
This parallel raises a critical question about our moral compass as a society: Did we unknowingly slide into a disturbingly similar mentality that allowed the atrocities of the Holocaust to take place? More importantly, are we able to confront and learn from these parallels without succumbing to fear and prejudice?
As we delve deeper into this comparison, we must tread carefully, maintaining respect for the victims of the Holocaust while seeking to learn invaluable lessons from our shared past to navigate our tumultuous present. The aim isn't to equate the two events in their severity or horror but to identify patterns of social behavior that can become dangerously harmful if unchecked, reminding ourselves that it's our responsibility to prevent history from repeating its darkest chapters.
Read the following tweet and let me know what you think.
From Don Wilson: https://twitter.com/DNSWilson/status/1655819673756389376?s=20
“A lot of people are getting upset having their conduct during covid compared to Germans supporting the rise of Nazism.
Let's recapitulate.
A fifth of the population was legally classified as unclean. They were barred from most public spaces, including theatres, restaurants, movies, pubs, clubs, swimming pools, sporting events, concerts, conventions, etc.
To access public facilities, people had to carry a digital mark with them so authorities could confirm they weren't unclean.
The unclean were fired and barred from most jobs: education, healthcare, courts - all public sector work, most major union jobs and a wide smattering of major private employers. When they were fired, the unclean were denied employment insurance, the reasoning being that they had been fired for cause on account of being unclean.
The unclean were banned from travel on trains, planes, and chartered boats. They had no legal means of leaving the country. Even if they wanted to, they could not escape the country that obviously hated them so.
It became illegal to socialize with the unclean. They weren't allowed to attend weddings or funerals, or visit sick relatives or friends in hospital.
Special laws were made for the unclean subjecting them to house arrest if they were around a person who had recently had a positive PCR test. The unclean had to continue to cover their faces in public when universal masking was dropped.
It became socially acceptable to wish death upon the unclean in social media and in major news organizations. Public health figures and other politicians gave press conferences to shame and insult the unclean. The public developed shared pejorative names for them, and relished in insulting the unclean.
News media regularly ran polls asking if the unclean should be arrested or fined. Public figures openly and proudly spoke about witholding medically necessary healthcare from the unclean - letting them die. The unclean were removed from organ transplant lists, condemned to almost certain death.
No end date for these measures was ever suggested, no timeline given. To the contrary, this was called the "new normal".
Criticizing any of these developments made you a social pariah, and likely cost you most of your friendships and family relations, if not your job.
The lesson of the Holocaust - and of covid - isn't that Germans or people of the 21st Century are uniquely gullible or evil. It's that for most people, "morality" is not a matter of principle, but rather of adopting what they perceive to be the dominant group ideology - even if that ideology is marked by wanton irrationality or brutal inhumanity.
Indeed, as in certain cults or gangs, the brutality or irrationality of the acts or beliefs required to signal group inclusion further entrench people into the ideology, rather than repel them; a kind of perverse sunk cost fallacy writ large.
So, yes, if you're a typical person - it is overwhelmingly likely that you would have been a Nazi if you were born in Nazi Germany. If you cheered along lockdowns and mandates, that likelihood approaches certainty."
Clayton is the founder and publisher of the social and political commentary newsletter Think Things Through and the host of the Think Things Through Podcast.