Guys.
Offensive or not, these units were real. These units were soldiers who believed in what they fought for, and they were bloody good at it, unfortunately.
The men of Waffen SS had a strong belief in the nazi ideology with all its twisted twirks and warps, no doubt. So had the U-boat crews (with a few captains being the exception).
The bombing crews dropping bombs and killing tens of thousands over Italy, France and Germany had a very strong belief in their ideology, i.e freedom and democracy.
I have no idea about how many innocent civilians the Waffen SS executed with military precision. I DO have an idea how many the American bombers killed in the very same way - planned and executed in cold blood, be it from some 25k up in the air. The firebombing of Dresden took 30 000 innocent women, children and elderly men's lives (no young men there since all where fighting).
Yet I feel compelled NOT to loathe thse pilots, even though they knew exactly what they were doing. A dead civilian is a dead civilian, be it in the name of freedom or the name of racial purity.
One of the worst possible enemies of democracy is censorship. I understand that some people find the name Waffen SS offensive - I personally don't, and I live in a country that was ocupied during WWII, and my grand grand father was a resistance man storing explosives under my grandmothers bed. But. Offensive as they may be to some, if we start on this journey, we will never stop. I occasionally find the word Christian offensive (I am sure some of you have met the Christians I'm talking about, if not, go to
http://www.godhatesstudmuffins.com and
http://www.tencommandments.com). And Jew, and Muslim. Hell, throw in any organised religion and I'll probably dislike it, due to the way it is used by some to control the masses and propogate hatred and bigotry. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely and all that. The Christians in particular have a very bad track record going back in time, yet I do not think we should censor that word. I even loathe the word "dweeb".
Censor anything, and you've started walking down the path that leads to units like Waffen SS. There is, however, a difference between Waffen SS and my fictional squad Evil Atheist Conspiracy Lion Feeding Squad (Death to All Religions). The latter has one intent only; to be offensive, whereas the former can be both. I.e what we must establish here is intent, and if it is malicious, we deal with it *as a group*, not by censorhip.
It's the principle of censorship I am against, and I will even defend freedom of speech even though it sometimes repulses me. And would probably fight and get injured (only the good ones die young, and I am not one of those
) for someone's right to use the words Waffen SS.
To me, nazism is another ideology amongst others, but being amongst the worst of them. No educated intelligent emotionally stable man will adhere to it due to its inherent flaws - if we call it what it is instead of hiding it because we are sensitive to such issues.
No, I haven't got any relatives I know of that got killed by the nazi's. Only relative I have who fought as an active soldier fought for the Wehrmacht and was killed in 1944, and that is one distant relative.
But I am not trying to make an emotional beg to the heart argument. My whole foundation rests on the idea that censorship to protect democracy or anything else does just the opposite. Censorship to protect sensibilities the same.
To end it up, I feel there is a difference between censorship and some of the hate crime laws, but that is an entirely different matter.
Hope I haven't inadvartently offended anyone belonging to the religions I mentioned; the vast majority of theists I've met have been good people with objective minds and I even *gasp* like some of them
.
This is my position, don't hate me for it. I just have issues, but other than that I am the normal non friendly StSanta you'v grown to loathe.
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StSanta
II/JG2
