Revisionist Dummies

 This comes as a reminder to absolutely no one who has read the blog more than once: In World War II, the United States fought alongside a group of its allies to defeat a group of cruel borderline humans who called themselves "Nazis." We decided to call the generation that defeated the genocidal nutjobs The Greatest. This was a consensus vote, by the way. Not a lot of arguments from Gens X, Y or Z. Maybe Baby Boomers complained a little, but saving the world was a pretty cool move. 

It's been eighty years since then, and a lot of water has passed under the bridge. In this model, the bridge is us and the water is time. During that flow, there have been those who have cherry-picked certain events and decisions that have provided the "yeah, but" arguments to this distinction. Like the way that Henry Ford may have been a better capitalist than a Nazi-hater. Or the way that Franklin Roosevelt's anti-Semitic tendencies may have slowed down the response to the Holocaust. All of which makes the eventual outcome all the more impressive, in my mind. 

When the chips were down, the Nazis were worse than any greedhead car maker or career politician. The United States got off the bench, eventually, and went on to crush the Wehrmacht and induce Adolf Hitler into gargling with a pistol. When it was all over, there was dancing in the streets. Real, actual dancing. This response is quite natural when one considers that evil had been vanquished and the good guys won. 

Us. Or rather US. The United States. 

Which is why I sit in slack jawed  wonder at the display of Nazi flags outside the Most Magical Place On Earth.  Yes, this past weekend at the front gates of Disney World, a group of pointy headed agros rallied with their swastikas and (checks notes) DeSantis 2024 banners. This band of mostly masked individuals yelled "White Power" and other even less pleasant vituperation. It's America, after all, and the Constitution provides us with freedom of speech and assembly. Why not go ahead and take a walk on the wildly out of touch side by glamorizing both the losers of a World War and a guy who has decided to pick a fight with a giant rodent. 

This generation is sadly lacking. Very sadly.