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In the face of extremism, liberals must snap out of their complacency
With neo-Nazis on the steps of Victorian Parliament, liberals can tolerate intolerance no longer
Several years ago I found a copy of Mein Kampf in a second-hand bookstore in country Victoria. Better my bookshelf than a neo-Nazi’s, I figured, so I coughed up the $90 asking price. I confess I thought about burning it, but the irony of doing so would have simply been too much.
I didn’t think it was possible to like Hitler any less, but the preface in which he wrote “every great movement on earth owes its growth to great speakers and not to great writers” did the trick. His diatribe now sits alongside other reference texts filled with hateful nonsense that condone genocide, and which so happen to prove Hitler was wrong about the power of the written word to change the world — the so-called ‘holy books’.
It’s no coincidence that political and religious ideologues inevitably find themselves bedfellows. It’s also no surprise that neo-Nazis turned up in support of a hateful anti-trans rally held recently on the steps of Victorian Parliament.
In 1919, a gay, Jewish doctor called Magnus Hirschfeld founded the world’s first gender clinic in Germany. The Institute of Sexual Research provided LGBTIQ+ people free counselling and healthcare until Nazis destroyed it in 1933 and burned all the books in the institute’s collection along with thousands of others (pictured above). For someone who didn’t believe in the power of writing Hitler sure seemed to fear it.
As this understanding of history makes clear, attempts by some in the media to suggest the neo-Nazis “gatecrashed a women’s rights rally” are complete and utter nonsense. It was an anti-trans rally with a neo-Nazi cheer squad, complete with a large banner saying “DESTROY PAEDO FREAKS”.
Almost as shameful as this behaviour is the fact our laws do nothing to deter it. Comparing trans people to paedophiles and calling for them to be destroyed is serious vilification and incitement to violence, but Victoria’s anti-vilification law doesn’t recognise it as such, because it only protects people based on race or religion. This needs to change.
