Hump-Day Handouts: Nazi version

Not even trying to tone it down:

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been accused of “Nazi” rhetoric by his own entourage after he spoke out over the weekend against creating “peoples of mixed race”.

One of the prime minister’s longtime advisers, sociologist Zsuzsa Hegedüs, on Tuesday handed in a resignation letter in which she described Orban’s words as “worthy of Goebbels” – a reference to the Nazi politician who served as propagandist under Adolf Hitler.

And before you say, "But Steve, we've got too many problems here to be worrying about Hungary," Orban is intricately tied to some of the problems of which you speak. If you spoke them...Did I just create a Red Strawfish? Anyway, not only did several elected Republicans go hear him speak at the CPAC conference in Budapest this Spring, they invited him to speak in Dallas in less than two weeks:

Among those listed on the four-day convention’s website this year are former Trump advisor Steve Bannon, who’s on trial for defying a subpoena from the Congressional committee investigating the Capitol riot in January 2021, and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who’s been criticized for promoting QAnon and other conspiracy theories.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who heads the right-wing Fidesz party and has led an anti-refugee push in Europe, is scheduled to deliver the opening speech at the convention. Orban’s government has also been accused of clamping down on civil society. Earlier this year, CPAC held an event in Budapest, the Hungarian capital.

He's opening the f**king conference. And the grapevine sez his latest Goebbelism has not twitched an eyebrow, so apparently CPAC thinks having a Nazi is cool. Or something.

Speaking of Nazis, they are literally everywhere in the United States:

Hood and MacNeil, now 23, are part of a tiny but growing group of white nationalists who have begun publicly announcing their presence across New England through a rising wave of racist and antisemitic demonstrations, attacks and vandalism. The groups appear to have escalated their activities in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, attempted insurrection in the U.S. Capitol, where members of these groups were present. It’s a rise that worries local law enforcement and community members, spurring them to respond.

In April 2020, John Michael Rathbun, now 38, was charged in federal court in Springfield with trying to blow up a Jewish assisted-living residence with a five-gallon gas canister. The federal government connected Rathbun to an unspecified white supremacist organization, and said that a user posted a message on one of the group’s social media channels suggesting an attack on “that jew nursing home in longmeadow massachusetts.” Rathbun of East Longmeadow was convicted on two federal arson charges and sentenced to five years in prison.

And there has been a wave of racist incidents in communities around the state, including antisemitic, homophobic and racist taunts by fans at a Franklin High School baseball game in May and a Westford Academy basketball game in January.

If that last part didn't make you immediately think of Hitler Youth, you're probably an outlier. These kids are being groomed by somebody, whether it's their parents or some other adult "influencer." And the older the child, the more likely they will be recruited by groups like the Patriot Front:

Michigan Tech University students urging school officials to take a stronger stance against racism are sounding alarms over a white supremacist group’s recruitment efforts on campus. After months of debate about institutional racism in the predominantly white university, stickers for the Patriot Front, a rapidly growing hate group, began popping up on and around the university’s Upper Peninsula campus in Houghton in February.

The stickers appear to be part of a national recruitment campaign by the Texas-based group that tries to preserve the “ethnic and cultural origins of their European ancestors” and was most active of its kind in the country last year, according to a report released Wednesday by the Anti-Defamation League.

“Extremists target college campuses because that provides them with an opportunity to recruit young followers, and that’s essential for the sustainability of any movement,” said Carolyn Normandin, a regional director for the ADL. “It’s a way for a small group of people to inject their views at places they view as sort of bastions of liberal thinking.”

Teachers (and parents) reading this, be on the lookout for symbology. Kids doodle all the time, and decorate their notebooks and other stuff. Don't ignore it. Yes, it might very well be an artistic talent emerging, but that doesn't mean something else isn't emerging with it. If you notice something, check here to see if it's tied to one of these groups.

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