Thread by @AlexandraErin

I saw somebody saying, in response to Lindsey Graham's negative view of the Obama presidency years, that back then nobody stuck up for Nazis.

This is not true. Nazis stuck up for Nazis. And "good people" defended them, saying we couldn't call them Nazis.

Nazis and other white nationalists and fascists didn't spring up out of the bloody footprints Trump left in the nation's foyer. They were actively agitating for and anticipating his rise, both him in particular once he started his campaign, and in a general sense.

And before things got bad enough for *some* of the Mild Moderate Middle who keep polite company to acknowledge it, they were able to operate with relative impunity because the done thing was to deny they existed, deny they were serious, or deny they could ever hold sway.

"Obviously he doesn't really think that. Obviously he's just saying that for attention. Obviously he's just saying that to make a point. Obviously he's just saying that for the lulz. Obviously we all agree Nazis are bad so obviously we would never be Nazis or tolerate Nazis."

Meanwhile, they were recruiting. They were putting out their propaganda, covering the leading edge of the knife in a protective coating of irony and memes to help the Mild Moderate Middle excuse and ignore the danger. They were altering the political landscape.

"Great, now we have Nazis to worry about." is really "Great, now *we* have to worry about Nazis."

We've always had Nazis and some of us have always had to worry about them. And some of us got *really* worried about where they were taking us, the years leading up through 2015.

But they were allowed to cry "boy who cried wolf" and "Oh, some people just call anyone they disagree with a Nazi" became a normal part of the discourse.

And now, you have to worry about Nazis, even if you were able to ignore them before.

It's not a new problem. It's a bigger problem that exists because we were stopped from dealing with it when it was smaller and more manageable.