Gimmee That Old Time Religion

All right, not religion, make that ideology. Religion of another kind. A conviction of invincibility, superiority, exceptionalism, triumphalism. Discriminating values. That odiously charismatic Austrian butcher who named his party the National-Socialist Party. Whose idea of socialism could that conceivably have been? An utter corruption of language and perception. But then, when one is dealing with hatred everything tends to become devalued, corrupted.

Now here in Canada we have another National-Socialist Party, one modelled on that of Nazi Germany's. Isn't that quaint? We have such an enduring wish to contemplate the past, to relinquish the present, to absorb well-learned lessons and give it another go. Not necessarily 'we', as in you and me, but rest assured enough 'we's' to make this a puzzlingly worrisome social problem. One that simply refuses to be put to rest, to decently die a well-deserved death.

What, one wonders, was/is Terry Tremaine's mother, father like? Did/do they share his adoration of Adolf Hitler and all the devastation that his world-shattering ethos and affectations and alliances and activities visited upon humankind? Entirely possible. Just wondering. This man enjoyed posting Internet delicacies such as the endearing opinion that "Jews are a parasitic race; Blacks are intellectually inferior to whites; Hitler was a lot nice to the Jews than they deserved".

Now there's a respected old saying that sounds something like - everyone is entitled to their opinion, right? And one supposes that this man felt he had something to offer the world at large - and most particularly that element that subscribes to his perniciously dangerous way of thinking, that the 'white race' is superior in every respect and deserving of social domination in society at large.

Recently the Saskatchewan Human Rights Tribunal ruled: "Having looked at these messages in context, I have no doubt that they are likely to expose persons of the Jewish faith, Blacks and other non-white minorities to hatred and contempt." This man was ordered to desist in his posting of discriminatory messages and fined $4,000. He also, incidentally, was dismissed as a lecturer in mathematics at the University of Saskatchewan.

This sad case of an insecure human being who requires the denigration of others to enable him to feel superior, has formed his party for the purpose of transforming Canada into a "nation of white citizens sovereign in its own living space", according to its propaganda. And doesn't he have his supporters! Many of whom are offering financial support to assist him in the purchase of a computer to replace the one the authorities confiscated.