Has anybody noticed that the same way Europe went down the trash shoot during the Third Reich is the same way it’s slowly happening now, but not to other western countries like U.S.A, Australia, New Zealand, etc? On first blush, one might dismiss this as an issue of geographic proximity, but on examination of historical patterns, we can identify the pattern as an excess of liberalism, which, thankfully, countries like the U.S. employ relative safeguards against, while still allowing tolerance to the standard of equality and fairness that fits our overall values. The common misconception is that fascist ideologies lead to fascist systems. While that statement is obviously true at its core, the political milieu that permits fascism to emerge as a system or regime is one that is rotted by an excess of tolerance. When a society is tolerant without limitation, it becomes tolerant of intolerance, such as racism, bigotry, discrimination, hatred, and fascism. This tolerance of intolerance is what leads to the rise of intolerant regimes, which eventually supplant the culture of excess liberalism with totalitarianism (see: Karl Popper). This is where the saying, “those who are kind to the cruel will end up being cruel to the kind” comes from. The desperation to foster a culture of extreme tolerance—perceiving it to be morally upright—is ultimately a policy of cruelty that erases the very tolerance that is sought. This is why Canada, which also suffers from an excess of unchecked liberalism, is also realizing the same fate. One might consider me an alarmist for saying this, but the reality is that I’ve always had an extraordinary aptitude for spotting patterns, supported by cognitive testing. Off the strength of that, I really believe Europe will not recover from this, and ultimately fall into dangerous decline unless there are strong measures taken to remedy the steady rise of open bigotry across the continent.
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