Stop whinging

If you ever had the opportunity, however long ago, to speak with a survivor of the Nazi camps, you may have heard firsthand accounts of, among other things, the activities of the Brownshirts (the SA). They were thugs who used violence and intimidation to further the Nazi cause, until the Night of the Long Knives, after which they were largely supplanted by the SS. Anyway…

You can, if you choose, call the progressives who arguably engage in suppression of conservative and libertarian thought on social media platforms Brownshirts. Doing so will mark you as an idiot to anyone who has any sort of real grasp of history, but you can still use the name. Here’s the problem. If that’s what you are doing, I see only three things that can be true, whether individually or in combination.

1. You don’t really mean it. You just think you’re being edgy. You’re not, but that’s what you think.
2. You don’t love the United States and the freedoms we have.
3. You are a coward.

See, if you really, truly thought those folks were a present-day equivalent of the Brownshirts, you wouldn’t be complaining about it on Facebook, or Twitter, or anywhere else. Instead, you’d be taking more “definitive” action*. But you aren’t of course. Because you don’t really mean it. Or you don’t really love our country and our freedoms. Or you are a coward. Or maybe all three. I’m guessing that at least the third one is true.

With the above in mind, I have a suggestion. Something you can do. Do it for yourself and for all the rest of us.

Shut up.

*Note: I am absolutely not encouraging any sort of violent action. It is unnecessary and would be both illegal and wrong, and deserving of the law enforcement response it would get. Nor am I suggesting no one complain about biased treatment by various social media platforms. I’m just not impressed by the whinging on the part of those who diminish the suffering of those who lived through the real Brownshirts. If that’s you, go back to  your mom’s basement and cry into your pillow instead of inflicting your keyboard commando outrage on the rest of us.