jenroses:

“Nice” people are complicit in atrocities all the time, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s because they’re afraid of rocking the boat or they’re just confused or ill informed, there needs to be some moral center in people to qualify them as “good people”, and that moral center cannot include dehumanizing other human beings to the point of being complicit and indifferent to their murders.

Many, many people saw what the Nazis were doing and said, “I cannot let this stand” and took great risk to save people, fight, resist, undermine, or leave rather than be complicit. 

Those who did nothing and allowed it to happen? 

They are not good people, no matter how “nice” they are. 

A less charged example… 

Once upon a time I took on my school district over a matter of law regarding constitutional separation of church and state. 

It was a very lonely process. I could count the number of people who were actually supportive on one hand and have fingers left over.

After I was successful in my battle, and things were changed, and people liked the changes, many, many people talked to me about it, months, years later.

The people who opposed me but then saw the error of their way of thinking and then said that my way was better because it had been demonstrated to be better? I have no problem with that. They were wrong. They own it.

The people who disagreed with me and still disagree with me? Eh. I know who they are and where they stand.

I’m salty as fuck about the people who said, well after the fact, “Oh, that was amazing. You did a really good thing. I always supported you!”

Because they said not ONE word while my house was getting TP’ed and my name was published in the paper and people called me a commie and basically shut me out and then publicly, deliberately humiliated me. 

Because they were too “nice”. 

If every indifferent or afraid person in Germany had stood up and said, “This cannot happen” and voted that way and fought for what they knew was right? It wouldn’t have happened that way. But they took the “easy” way out, and history has not been kind, rightfully so. 

You don’t get a bye for not voting, for not being involved, for having an opinion and doing not one thing to make that opinion known.

Maybe it’s not safe and you’re afraid and you keep your head low. Maybe you make that choice. You can. But you don’t get to whine your way out of the consequences of cowardice, of taking the path of least resistance while boot you’re dodging is grinding people into the ground. 

Spare me the “nice” people. 

I’ll take an honest asshole willing to fight for justice any day of the week.