Goebbels is not the first person to say this. An earlier quote comes from Upton Sinclair in 1918:
Not merely was my own mail opened, but the mail of all my relatives and friends—people residing in places as far apart as California and Florida. I recall the bland smile of a government official to whom I complained about this matter: ‘If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear.’
Let’s be clear: the right to privacy is not a fascist dogma.
Since Goebbels used the phrase “If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear”, then he’d be the one arguing against the right to privacy. The fascist dogma is eroding privacy in favour of surveillance - ostensibly to protect the people, but really just to control them.
I don’t know how I got that so backward when I wrote that. Thanks for correcting me.
People erroneously believe that the Nazis fled to Argentina. This is not true, they were given high-ranking jobs within America’s institutions.
Some nazis were given high ranking jobs in the US, typically those who were good at science and math (although we got a lot more of our big science brains from refugees fleeing the German Reich. Brain drain in autocratic and fascist movements is a very real thing, and has happened in multiple fields here in the states).
When it came to NSDAP Idealogues, we didn’t really need to import any, as all of our big industrialists were pro-NSDAP and believed in the ideology independently (which is to say they agreed with them, and still do, even if they don’t regard themselves as aligned with the NSDAP political party). Those that did come here were friends of gazillionaires (who would be billionaires today, though the dollar was stronger then. J. P. Morgan, Carnegie and Rockefeller all were 100-millionaires.
Plenty of escaping Nazi officers fled across the world. South American nations are notorious because they weren’t actively hunting them down (yet) so they required less subversion getting through customs, and then could work out identity changes and fade into seclusion later. Plenty did come to the United States, pretending to be someone else, since they didn’t have rocket science cred.
plenty of escaping Nazi officers fled…
This is a misattribution. Nazi officers were protected, transported, and given new lives by the US military and the Vatican working together.
I fully agree with what he says, but it doesn’t seem to be an answer to her question.
Yes, our right to privacy is important, and he very clearly, and, not sure how say it, makes it relatable and easy to understand.
But, her question seems to have more to do with privacy at the cost of public safety.
I would say living in a free society isn’t without risks.
Living isn’t without risks.
And that’s why we must lock every one of our free citizens up. Y’know, for their protection.
Would you like to save this Lemmy post of a Tumblr post of a Reddit post that has been cross-posted on Lemmy to your Pinterest board?
we’re taking this post to Threads next.
