Propaganda: Moral Obligations

To all the religious people who claim that liberals are Godless and therefore without morals. Here is a moral obligation that liberals have that didn't make it onto the ten commandments.

There is a moral obligation to resist propaganda when it demonizes or dehumanizes people. It is not just a matter of intellectual honesty, or academic truth. I believe it is a matter of right or wrong. I also include propaganda to invade and destroy a foreign country, whether by collateral damage, or by deliberately destroying houses, roads, or the environment. And if I might stretch the concept a bit, how about propaganda that supports destroying our own environment or resources that we should be passing on to future generations. I believe it is morally wrong if the propaganda of hate and greed is not challenged.

Here is the moral dilemma in terms of the Nazis. Are ordinary Germans excused because they didn't know for sure about the genocide of Jews? How much of a crime is it to not speak out against the propaganda being spread in your country, to not engage in resistance against the powers that be? Because of wall-to-wall propaganda, it's truly difficult to know when your own side is doing evil.

When you are looking for justice, sometimes it is worth while to put the shoe on the other foot. I personally would not want to be involved in an immoral cause such as the Holocaust, or for that matter any genocide. I cannot tell you how I would have acted if I were a German during WW2. I would probably have been afraid of being killed by the SS myself, as I am somewhat of a coward. So very likely I would have shut up and stayed out of the limelight for as long as possible. And then, likely I would have felt guilty after the war, when I found out all the atrocities committed by my fellow countrymen during the war. But at the same time I would not want to be locked up or deported later because I did not speak out against the Nazis. Because I didn't live there, I don't know how hard it would be to avoid helping the Nazis.

But no matter how I acted, I hope to God I would not have been one of those fanatics screaming to kill the Jews, or worse yet, volunteering to be part of the death squads. Like I said, I do not know how I would have acted. But given my natural skepticism and aversion to volunteering for anything , I am assuming that I would have been trying to make myself scarce for the most part.

I didn't live during WW2, and furthermore I have the distinct luck of being a Canadian citizen, which probably more than any country in the world, protects me for speaking out in support of justice, peace and human rights. And often when I feel like it and get the chance, I speak out without fear of any retaliation.

I try to keep my conscience clear by continuing to question any propaganda that calls for punishing people for their race, religion, place of origin or the colour of their skin.

As a footnote: Ironically we now have the situation where Jews in Israel are killing Palestinian civilians in order to defend themselves. But it is agreed by both sides that about a hundred Palestinians died for every Israeli. A red flag goes up for me, and I question the justifications the Israelis have of continuing this high level of collateral damage with no apparent limit or end goal.