Entry 2419, on 2025-11-24 at 17:01:10 (Rating 2, Comments)
There's a classic Mitchell and Web sketch where two Nazis are preparing for an attack from the Russians during World War 2, and one notices the skull emblems on their caps and says "Hans, are we the baddies?" They then go on to discuss the significance of the skull, why their enemies have more positive symbols, and conclude there is nothing much worse.
Now this is comedy, of course, but naturally I used this as a symbol of how some modern groups might not realise they are the "baddies". Note that most of these groups aren't as bad as the Nazis - I don't believe in indulging in that popular pastime of labelling everyone who disagrees with me as a Nazi - but they still might be called the "baddies".
Now until they have this revelation we might assume that the Nazis really did believe they were the goodies, and that their cause was good and noble, and that's where I am going with this post: too many people think they are on the side of good, but never notice the (metaphorical) skulls they might be wearing.
When you believe you are on the good team you can justify almost anything, because anything you are fighting must be evil and it is OK to use any means available to win the battle. What I am saying is that the most dangerous people are not those who know they the baddies but are determined to use whatever tactics are necessary to win anyway, they are the ones who think they are the goodies so using those tactics is "the right thing to do".
There's nothing new about this: I can be fairly sure that the Crusaders were confident that they were doing God's work and that violence was a fully reasonable way to achieve their aims. I think that Stalin must have been fairly certain that eliminating his political opponents was an example of "the ends justifying the means". There are many examples from history as well as Hitler and Stalin: there is Mao and Po Pot, for example. And there are examples in fiction as well, especially in dystopian novels like 1984 and Brave New World.
Many people have noted how the political left have, in recent years, become violent and aggressive, while at the same time preaching about being on the "right side". I wonder if they have checked for the modern equivalent of those Nazi skulls, like an Antifa symbol, for example? Or what about the Muslim extremists? Do they not see the Jihadist flag as being equivalent to the Nazis' skulls?
Again, I am almost certain that both Antifa and the Jihadists really do believe they are the good guys even though any sensible and unbiased person would see the truth, which is they have deluded themselves into thinking that. Because self-delusion is the hardest type of false belief to fix. When a group thinks they are on the path to a utopia they are usually heading towards a dystopian future instead.
It's important to know that it can be hard to know who are the goodies and who are the baddies. For example, indigenous people are often seen as innocent and virtuous, and the colonisers are evil and self-centered. But let's have a think about this. For example, when the Spanish conquered the Aztecs, who were the goodies? If it was the Aztecs how would we explain their liking for human sacrifice, or how they invaded from further north and "colonised" Central America? Sounds like it's not as simple as good and bad.
The same applies to almost every indigenous culture. Many North American native tribes were well know for their brutal warfare and constant invasion of other tribe's territory. When the European settlers arrived and conquered them, were they really any worse than the earlier native invaders?
And my opinion of pre-European Maori culture is well known (if you read this blog) so I would never see the British colonisers as the "baddies" in that case, either.
In reality, there is good and bad in every person and every group, but I still think that there is a tendency towards good and bad, so labelling the Nazis as the baddies is fair. And anyone who says Churchill was worse than Hitler (yes, believe it or not, some people seem to really believe this) is just deluding themselves. Churchill wasn't perfect, but I think he would at least tend to the side of good.
There are cases where it is less clear, of course. In the case of colonialism it is trendy to label the colonisers are the baddies, but I think a case could be made to support the opposite view.
I think it's important for everyone to check their status in this way. Have a look at the symbolism your favoured group or belief uses: is it a cross, a crescent, the atheist "A" symbol, the Antifa logo, a Jihadist flag, your favoured political party's logo. What does it really symbolise? Maybe you should ask yourself: are we the baddies?
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