Or the Popular ones will come after you next. Stay invisible, never make waves, do as you’re told, resistance is futile, you must be assimilated. I actually heard this from a good friend just yesterday, and by good friend I mean all my friends are good, in my estimation.
There are many variants to the theme, like “don’t be seen associating with Those People, the establishment has ordered us to shun them”. Piss on that. There’s a poetic meme, has variations, by Martin Niemöller. He published a lot of different lists, First they came for… Socialists, Jehovah’s witnesses, communists, whatever order of who was First they came for… then they came for…
As I recall the various histories, the first They Came For were their fellow Nazis, the S.A.
Braunhemden (brown shirt) sturmabteilung “stormtroopers” including Hitler’s partner (perhaps lover as well) Ernst Roehm. And their next big move was against Anarchists. Since they had a lot of groups they had pledged to hate forever, long before they became the Official Party of Germany, it would be reasonable that you could “first they came..” any group at all. Seriously, these guys hate (present tense included, they still exist) themselves. To put on a uniform and be assimilated you have to commit psychic suicide. You have to give up your own human selfhood.
There’s a few big movements in the U.S. today, Black Lives Matter, Muslims, La Raza Unida… the list goes on. Some of the Popular Kids say we’re not to talk to them, because if we do the Popular Kids first won’t like or accept us, they’ll accuse us of being “terrorists” and they’ll beat us up on the playground. Kind of like McCarthyism.
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
the last line is always:
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
The hard-core Real Terrorists, the ones who bully and shame people into agreeing with their fucked up agenda, for some reason go out of their way to make it “unpopular” to quote this. Too bad.
I have a tee shirt published “Resistance is crucial, I will not be assimilated” and “compliance is futile, I will not be assimilated”. If They, whichever new hate group They are, don’t want to talk to me anymore… groovy. That’s each time one less group or individual whose stupid hate-speech I have to hear.
To use a cliche, Win Win.
