First Principles

This is a post in part about a wider and distressing inability we have as a society to put the various problems of the world into some realistic, rational, and proper perspective. Andrew, I appreciate your comment, because it helps illustrate my point so well. I’m not a Chick-Fil-A apologist – quite frankly, I’m unimpressed with anyone who spends that much time and money worrying about what total strangers do in their bedroom. But in no sane planet does Anti-Gay Marriage = “Unacceptable” and Wink-and-a-Nudge At Killers of 100,000,000 = “Bad Taste”. In no sane world does donating money to social conservative causes (many of which I don’t support) exist in the same galaxy of “bad” as giving money to a regime like North Korea.

And while Dish Cafe is probably not giving cash to the PRK, they ARE giving them cover. They, like every dolt who runs around with a Che T-shirt, make Communism socially acceptable, when it’s no different from Nazism in any way that matters. They are part of a wider cultural “softening” which results in openly Marxist college professors being totally acceptable, for example, where a Nazi sympathizing professor would not be. That has plenty of value to any despotic regime, and every little bit helps. And again, Communists are still at it today – I wouldn’t eat at a “Pro-Trail of Tears” themed restaurant either, but it’s pretty unlikley that Andrew Jackson is going to be displacing any tribes any time soon, which rather lessens the propaganda value to the “Indian Fighters.”

Again – Communism is indistinguishable from Nazism in any way that matters, and NO one would be telling anyone to lighten up if some parody of Der Sturmer was being used to sell sandwiches – nor should they.

And as for the geographic argument, Reno doesn’t have Chick-Fil-A, but that didn’t prevent a lot of local wailing and gnashing of teeth over it. But our local food truck is all over town, and there’s nary a peep from the “equal rights!” crowd. I’m not saying everyone needs to be in a constant state of outrage over Every Bad Thing, but if you’re going to take the time and effort to denounce a food outlet over their political actions, positions, or imagery, maybe the “Historically Unprecedented Mass Murderers” theme ought to be a little ahead of the “Moralizing Busybody” joint.

Well, as I said before, I wouldn’t eat at “Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Diner” either. But since my time and energy is limited, I’ll keep my moral outrage focused on more current atrocities, and the folks who currently minimize, excuse, and cover for them.

The bottom line is this – using Nazi imagery to hawk sandwiches (or whatever) is socially unacceptable, and should be. If another food truck used my “Heil Hoagies!” image (or something better, I know I suck at photoshop), there would be no debate – EVERYONE from EVERY political persuasion (including the folks defending would say, “Whoa – that’s f***ed up. Not cool, guys. Not cool.”

Why should this be? Wouldn’t it just be “satire”? No – it is OBJECTIVELY offensive, because Nazism cannot be separated from its atrocities. Everyone recognizes that such a thing would be a desensitization to – and even a wink-and-a-nudge endorsement of – one of the most horrific evils in the history of mankind. No one would or should accept lame responses like, “Hey, but the food is good!” or “But we’re not saying WE hate the Jews,” or “I didn’t realize just how truly evil the Nazis were!”

Since Communism is no different in terms of outcome, intent, body count, or evil, why on earth would we not treat it the same way? Think of how you would view someone who had a Nazi themed food truck. It ought to make you sick and angry, unless you think Hitler was just misunderstood, or didn’t “do Nazism right.”

And that’s how I feel about Dish. That this reaction isn’t universal is, frankly, a sorry indictment in our ability to know history, understand it, and put it in proper perspective.

That lack of perspective and ignorance is highlighted even more with the “but Uncle Sam killed lots of people!” nonsense. “We” also killed tens of thousands of people in WWII, many of whom were civilians. Does anyone here want to argue that the US is really no different morally than Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan? Because if you DO think that, you’re a blooming idiot, and that’s not an ad hominem, it’s just a statement of fact.

The same goes for Iraq. There are good arguments to be made that we shouldn’t have gone there, though I disagree with them. But most of the “dead Iraqis” spoken of who were not actively trying to kill us (and this was happening with regularity in the decade before we re-invaded) were killed by militant Jihadists strapping bombs to themselves (or kids with Downs who don’t know better). The only way you can lay that blame on the US is if you a) ignore what Saddam was already doing to his own people and threatening to do to others, and b) are so deeply racist that you think brown people aren’t responsible for their own choices, actions, and moral judgments.

Communist and Nazi nations (Ba’athism in Iraq and Syria was/is modeled specifically and purposely on Nazism) kill their citizenry and that of their neighbors as official policy. When atrocities are committed by our people, they are prosecuted. When those same atrocities are committed by Communists, they get medals and promotions. Is this honestly not known to people? Do people really not see this fundamental difference? Are so many people really this obtuse?

Again, this is the total and distressing lack of perspective that the Commie Dish Truck, while a small thread in a larger tapestry, symbolizes so well.

The USA has liberated, helped, fed, and lifted up economically more human beings than any other nation (combined) in the history of the planet. After we finished crushing Germany and Japan, we spent 3% of our GDP to build them back up, even knowing they would represent future economic competition. While we were in Vietnam, we held back Communist regimes that after we left overran the region and murdered 4 million people. More modernly, never in the history of warfare have ROEs been so restricted with the specific intention of minimizing innocent casualties EVEN AT THE EXPENSE of mission effectiveness. We are spending billions to update Iraqi and Afghan infrastructure, without asking anything in return except the hope they’ll prosper, trade with us, fight their own bad guys so we don’t have to, and otherwise leave us in peace. I’m not saying we should or could go in everywhere, but it’s worth pointing out that where we are NOT (like Egypt), Islamic uprisings are taking power, eliminating any pretense of basic human rights protections, and murdering citizens as official policy.

Do we do it perfectly? Nope. But compared to any other nation in the history of, well, history, we are moral giants, and it’s about time THAT gets universal recognition again, too.

Dish Truck’s imagery is offensive enough. After the comments exposed more and more of the underlying philosophy that begat the imagery, I feel even better about calling them out. I’m just glad they saw it, and that it got under their skin a little bit. I hope now they think of the 100,000,000 starved (and starving) and murdered victims of Communism now every single day they see their truck.