Uneducated Potatoes

... or we are all doomed.

I don't often rant but this is a bit of a rant.  So what am I ranting about?  The general state of education I think, and how easy it is to forget things, big things.  So here we go.

I like Rammstein and just recently saw their music video Deutschland.  What an absolutely amazing video.  The production, and cinematography, the concept is incredible.  I am not afraid to say that I teared up during parts of it; I mean how can you not?

I was watching the video on YouTube and fell into a 'reaction video' rabbit hole.  Oh My Gods.  Most of the reviewers have absolutely no fucking idea what this is about.  And I know, it's a hard video to follow. If you don't know the video covers about 2000 years of German history, mostly the bad bits. I understand if some of the scenes pass you by; its ok but there are some that everyone should know.  

Did you not see the Hindenburg?  How do you not recognize the Hindenburg bursting into flames?   This has to be one of the most identifiable disasters of the early 20th Century.

Did you not recognize the nazis and the concentration camp.  Did you not recognize the V2 rockets?  Did you not understand why the prisoners on the gallows were to die?  There is absolutely no excuse for that.  One reviewer stated, on seeing this scene "what did they do?"  They lived and were the 'wrong' people!  That was their crime - living.  Jesus Christ people ... there are still people alive who remember this, people who were there and already we are forgetting. 

I'm not picking on that particular YouTuber, he is just a symptom of a larger problem. That problem is that we have a majority who are unable to recognize these historical disasters.  And make no mistake, Nazis were a disaster for many reasons.  They are also fascists and in the last US election, a lot of people voted for fascism.  Why? I suspect a lot of it was fear and ignorance; the same thing that got Hitler elected German Chancellor and thus the defacto dictator of Germany. 

The current slew of voter dis-enfranchisement legislation in the US, can only lead in one direction; our own version of the Kristallnacht, if we are not vigilant.  But it's really hard to be vigilant when you have no idea what you are looking for. 

So, I despair for the future and hope that enough people realize this shit is wrong even if they have not seen it before. My fear is America is going to be the next fascist state.  My fear is that people have a tendency to jump on bandwagons and go with flow even if that voice inside says this is wrong.   Once that happens, its too late, and for those who would say, that cannot happen here; it almost already has.  A few more years and it might well happen - sometimes people suck.