IBM, Disney, Bush: Nazis?

[Terrance]

Maybe we can reconstruct this mess. 

We can begin with this statement from Robert: 
 
[[Isolating "corporate collaborators" alone misses the
larger revelation I
think. (It is also a reflex of self-absolution.) As long as
"we" can keep
saying it was someone else -- "They" -- that it was "Their"
fault, "Their"
guilt, "They" who are the criminals (and not "Us"), then we
can rest easy in
our own superiority and smugness (as we sit in that Orpheus
Theatre and
watch the spectacle of historical evil and "Their"
complicity unfold). But I
think that the culture of blame which is being perpetuated
in these
so-called "reports" is also quite despicable, and that it is
the same
"culture of blame" on which Nazism thrived, which they
exploited,
manipulated.]]

It's the last sentence here that Doug called flame bait.

Are the two so very different? 

davemark says, 

[[[Is that kind of legal activism in the wake of
genocide really so horrible that it warrants equation with a
"culture of
blame" that fueled the genocide itself?  I think not.  It's
more in the
tradition of civil rights struggles that seek to empower the
persecuted and
protect others against similar persecutions.]]]

What are we talking about here? People that are taking their
cases to the courts, seeking reparations for the crimes of
the Nazi regime and their collaborators or the
tabloid/yellow journalism that includes Bush and IBM
bashing? The the two are not the same thing. In fact, much
of the latter, while it may take it's moral high ground from
some tentative and superficial and yes even despicable
association with the former, actually helps to maintain the
status quo and is the opposite of what civil rights activism
is all about. It the drudge and grudge of American politics,
it's nothing civil and it's not about rights. 

You see, once genocide is introduced, the killing of six
million Jews, all bets are off. The person that makes this
argument here,  moves to higher moral ground, the  reflex of
self absolutism that Robert notes. Is it so absurd to
suggest that the blame game here, blame  Bush, IBM, Disney,
the Oil industry, the CIA, may have more in common with the
blame game of the Nazis than civil rights activism? 

Robert said, 

[[As long as "we" can keep saying it was someone else --
"They" -- that it was "Their" fault, "Their" guilt, "They"
who are the criminals (and not "Us"), then we can rest easy
in our own superiority and smugness (as we sit in that
Orpheus Theatre and
watch the spectacle of historical evil and "Their"
complicity unfold).]]