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The amount of people I see on social media sharing and supporting the recent ‘Reclaim St Kilda’ rally on the weekend is frankly, disturbing.
It’s pretty confronting to look at photos taken at the event and see people clearly displaying SS and Nazi symbols and throwing up their hands in Nazi salute all under the guise of talking about ‘African gangs’.
The event was organised by far-right, United Patriots Front activists, Blair Cottrell and Neil Erikson and was attended by roughly 100 of their supporters.
It was somewhat relieving to see people passionate enough to come and oppose this group peacefully on the Melbourne beach but the fact that anyone turned up to support a far-right gathering like this is worrying.
It has been more than 70 years since the end of World War II, when over 993,000 Australian’s served in the armed forces. These people fought to protect Australia and the world against the real threat of fascist rule and the spread of Nazi ideologies.
The holocaust saw millions of people killed or tortured in concentration camps and many countries now have laws prohibiting being or associating with neo-Nazis.
Senator Fraser Anning used taxpayer money to travel to Queensland for the rally and when asked about attending the event he said simply that these were ‘just ordinary hard working Australians who pay their taxes.”
Famous writer, chemist and holocaust survivor, Primo Levi once said:
“Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.”
Perhaps we’re too far removed from history now that were doomed to repeat it, but the worst people in history were just that, people.
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They weren’t ‘monsters’ as many like to call them, that puts them into a different category, people not like us. It makes us feel like we couldn’t too end up like those people, but it doesn’t take much work to look at the St Kilda rally and be worried that some are falling into the same traps.
To people that think these people ‘have a point’ or are ‘speaking the truth’. Dig a little deeper and think about what they’re pushing and what their real motivations are.
These people aren’t Australian, they’re simply racist, ignorant and we can’t let history repeat itself and let dangerous movements like this gain any more ground.
Did our diggers fight for nothing?
