We have been watching the rise of Nazism throughout the Western world, both here and abroad. And you know if Thomas Mair had been a Muslim, Fox News and Republican pundits and politicians would be all over the murder of Jo Cox. But her killer was a neo-Nazi, a collector of the sort of Nazi memorabilia many Trump supporters like to surround themselves with.
Jo Cox was brutally murdered in the street in June, shot and stabbed by Thomas Mair, who stabbed her, then shot her once in the head and again in the chest with a rifle, before finally stabbing her again. When Mair appeared in court, he said, “my name is death to traitors, freedom for Britain.”
He was also found guilty of stabbing a 77-year-old retired miner, Bernard Kenny, who had come to Cox’s defense.
What is remarkable is how little press the incident has received here in America. Here is a politician murdered in the street by a right wing fanatic. You can imagine the outcry had he been a Muslim.
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The jury at London’s Central Criminal Court deliberated for less than two hours. Mair was tried as a terrorist and Judge Alan Wilkie sentenced him to life without parole. Mair refused to enter the plea or to take the stand in his own defense.
Though Mair saw himself as a British patriot, the court had other news for him, as reported by The Telegraph:
The judge told Mair his inspiration was not from “love of country or your fellow citizens”, but was “an admiration of Nazism” and similar white supremacist ideas where “democracy and political persuasion are supplanted by violence”.
He added: “Our parents’ generation made huge sacrifices to defeat those ideas and values in the Second World War. What you did, and your admiration for those views which informed your crime, betrays the sacrifices of that generation.
“You are no patriot. By your actions you have betrayed the quintessence of our country, its adherence to parliamentary democracy.”
This is what American neo-Nazis need to be told. They are not patriots. They are instead betraying the very ideals upon which our country was founded. It is remarkable that the Greatest Generation gave the “last full measure of devotion” to defeat the Nazis, only to see their descendants embrace them, and to give an American president-elect the very salute given by Nazis to Adolf Hitler.
Hillary Clinton was wrong. Deplorables is not a strong enough word for them.
Photo: Screen capture MSN
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
