Originally Posted by The Batlord

In the Rwandan genocide the government handed out machetes to the Hutu populace and expected them to contribute, and they did, without resistance or complaint. That's one reason why the death toll was so quick so soon, because there was no escape for the Tutsis with the enemy being next door. The massacre wasn't carried out just by death squads, but by people just like you and me who'd been conditioned to hate, which is something that humanity as a whole is very easily conditioned to do. The human race is tribalistic by nature, and it doesn't really take much to bring it out. Basically just not having a comfortable lifestyle is enough to make people take their frustrations out on an outsider group, so long as it's easy, because they have different color skin, or a different religion, or simply a history of being seen as different. Just look at America with Trump and Hispanics, or Europe with Muslims. Just how different would it be if Europe wasn't such a comfortable, 1st world place to live in? How accepting do you think your country would be? How many would die?

How much did it take the Germans to take their frustrations out on the Jews? How much did it take to let the Jews be the scapegoats? How much did it take for the majority of Germans to turn their heads away from what they knew was happening and go about their lives as if nothing was happening because it was simply easier than doing something about it? That's the real issue. Not that some Germans killed a bunch of Jews, but that the majority of Germans didn't care enough to do anything about it. People simply don't care enough to try to stop genocide if it's too hard. Or if it's hard at all. Or simply if the people in charge say "do it" when they can make a case for it that jibes with some narrative that seems plausibe. That's honestly all that's needed to change civilization to barbarism, because ultimately the difference is imaginary.

And no country is different. Under the right conditions, nearly every single human on Earth could be so callous and indifferent. We might sing to our children and sing Christmas carols and give to charity, but nearly all of those same people could look the other way in the face of state sanctioned murder because it's simply difficult to do otherwise. There's a quote from a Holocaust survivor that I think sums up the human race pretty well, "This world is not this world." The human race and its civilization is simply a front to pretend that we are not simply animals capable of monstrosity at the drop of a hat the same as any animal.

Still happy?