Very true. People often get an incomplete picture of things, which leads them to make the same kinds of mistakes that led up to WW2.
I still run into people who think the logic Nazis used only existed in the Germany of the era, but othering logic is deeply embedded in human culture. It comes out like this in our darkest moments, but all of us are vulnerable to it. Treating someone who commits atrocities as a monster keeps us from realizing how terrifyingly human they are and how short the path can be.
Pride month is a good time for this discussion because the Allies left a certain kind of person behind in the camps to serve out their sentences under laws based on the same kind of dehumanization the Nazis preyed on.
I still run into people who think the logic Nazis used only existed in the Germany of the era, but othering logic is deeply embedded in human culture. It comes out like this in our darkest moments, but all of us are vulnerable to it. Treating someone who commits atrocities as a monster keeps us from realizing how terrifyingly human they are and how short the path can be.
Pride month is a good time for this discussion because the Allies left a certain kind of person behind in the camps to serve out their sentences under laws based on the same kind of dehumanization the Nazis preyed on.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/gay-prisoners-germany-wwii...
The famous Nazi book burning photo was of books taken out of an era-equivalent gender clinic/LGBTQ+ center.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institut_f%C3%BCr_Sexualwissen...