The point of talking about the Bosnian genocide or the Holocaust is so that other people, particularly in the (often privileged and safe) West, will come to understand that the things that happened to Jews or Bosniak-Muslims can happen anywhere.
But these acts of violence, rise of the far right, that leads to genocide does not occur in a vacuum. It does not happen suddenly and it does not only happen to certain countries and certain people.
The violence we are seeing in America is not exported from the Balkans or exYugoslavia. It is its very own brand of violence that stems from its own history that is very much rooted in violence and the fact that has continually been ignored in hopes it will go away.
This did not start with Trump, it existed long before. Trump made it more open and harder to ignore but this racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, nationalism, antisemitism...etc has been in the USA for a very long time. Ignoring it will not make it suddenly go away.
It’s fine to make parallels between far right leaders who’ve incited violence before to Trump. History exists to teach us. But if people in the USA continue to ignore the very American way this violence has been built up and continues to grow, I am afraid it will only get worse.
If people continue to deflect about how “this isn’t what America is” or pretend that this violence only takes place in the Middle East or the Balkans, you will not be prepared to deal with the inevitable rise and power of fascism.
Honestly, prior to the genocide in Bosnia there were so many of us who believed truly that this couldn’t happen to us, neighbours couldn’t turn against us, they wouldn’t kill us...but they did.
Own the fact many have allowed this fascism to thrive or ignore it at your peril.
Own the fact many have allowed this fascism to thrive or ignore it at your peril.
I also have to say that it is offensive to compare what happened in the Balkans to the scenes yesterday at the Capitol. The far right is the far right anywhere, sure. But ultimately what happened in Bosnia was genocide and comparisons to storming the Capitol is in very poor taste
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