{"id":13651,"date":"2024-02-08T14:23:30","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T14:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xislblogs.xtreamlab.net\/slwoods\/?p=13651"},"modified":"2024-02-08T15:51:45","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T15:51:45","slug":"mo-republican-embraces-her-inner-nazi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/?p=13651","title":{"rendered":"MO Republican embraces her inner Nazi"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Q: what links an anonymous-looking plot of land somewhere in Missouri with Bebelplatz<\/a> (also known as Opernplatz) in the city of Berlin?<\/p>\r\n\r\n

A: The burning of books.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

On 10th May 1933 , Nazi supporters from the German Student Association gathered in Bebelplatz to burn books. They burned around 20,000 books, including works by Heinrich Mann, Erich Maria Remarque, Heinrich Heine, Karl Marx, Albert Einstein, Erich K\u00e4stner and many other authors.<\/p> \r\n\r\n

\"Nazis
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n

On 6th February 2024, Valentina Gomez, a Republican Party candidate for Missouri’s Secretary of State<\/a> (the state’s public officer whose duties include the oversight of elections, running the state library and the preservation of state archives. Ed.<\/em>), posted a video of herself on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter showing herself using a flame-thrower to destroy 2 LGBTQ<\/abbr>-inclusive books, as reported by NBC<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\"Post\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n

Gomez’s text accompanying the post tells one all that’s needed to know about her extreme right-wing views of the “Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition<\/em>” variety. The books she destroyed were also taken from public libraries in the state, so she is also guilty of vandalism or destroying public property, but as the value of the books is under $750, she’ll probably escape censure under state law.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

To return to Bebelplatz, it now contains an artwork by the sculptor Micha Ullman entitled The Empty Library<\/em><\/a>, which was unveiled in May 1995. The memorial is set into the square’s cobblestones and contains a collection of empty subterranean bookcases. A few metres away is a commemorative bronze plaque containing a quotation by the author Heinrich Heine, whose books were amongst those burned.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

The quotation reads:<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Das war ein Vorspiel nur, dort
\r\nwo man B\u00fccher verbrennt,
\r\nverbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen.<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\nIn English the quotation is equally chilling:\r\n\r\n
That was but a prelude;
\r\nwhere they burn books,
\r\nthey will ultimately burn people as well<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n

As to the Nazi link, LGBTQ Nation remarks<\/a>:<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Whether or not Gomez understands the political and moral implications of book burning is unclear. The video could be a savvy and unsubtle reference, like Donald Trump\u2019s use of terms including \u201cvermin\u201d and \u201cpoisoning the blood\u201d, to Nazi ideology in an appeal to the most extreme of the MAGA<\/abbr> base.<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n

America, history is trying to teach you a lesson. Don’t fall asleep in class or gaze out of the window.<\/p>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Q: what links an anonymous-looking plot of land somewhere in Missouri with Bebelplatz (also known as Opernplatz) in the city of Berlin? A: The burning of books. On 10th May 1933 , Nazi supporters from the German Student Association gathered in Bebelplatz to burn books. They burned around 20,000 books, including works by Heinrich Mann, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,15,34,1],"tags":[36,16,22,20,35],"class_list":["post-13651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-translation-and-language-related-matters","category-politics","category-social-media","category-uncategorized","tag-comment","tag-english-usage","tag-language","tag-politics-2","tag-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13651"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13679,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13651\/revisions\/13679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}