TO THE EDITOR:
This morning I was disturbed to see that someone had used a whiteboard in the Undergraduate Library to advertise a neo-Nazi website.
Responding to a survey question about which newspapers they read, someone wrote this website’s name.
I will not repeat that name because I do not want to give it additional free advertising.
To be clear, I am not simply labeling it Nazi propaganda because I disagree with it. It glorifies Hitler and promotes a race war.
I notified the library staff, who agreed to erase the whiteboard, but it did not feel like enough.
Since at least one of our fellow students thinks a neo-Nazi website is a valid source of news, it is worth considering how Nazism draws people in and why you should reject it.
Here is how Nazism works — when you feel alienated and isolated, it whispers reassuringly that your failures are not your own. It gives you an easily-identifiable target, then presents that target as a powerful global conspiracy.
Conveniently, you can destroy this powerful conspiracy by attacking the most vulnerable members of society.
Nazism lets you imagine yourself as a misunderstood victim while you harass, beat or even kill innocent people.
It tells you you’re reclaiming your power, but all it makes you is a coward. It makes you complicit in hate crimes.
It asks you to threaten other people’s safety — and even their lives — and all you get in return is a perverted sense of pride.
Lindsay Ayling
Graduate student
History
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