The Passion of the Teabaggers

courtesy of my blog: http://cjferrara.blogspot.com/

One of my favorite episodes of South Park is "The Passion of the Jew." In it, Eric Cartman, the racists kid, becomes obsessed with the film "The Passion of the Christ." He sees the anti-semitism inherent in the story, mainly because of his own anti-semitism. Now, the town of South Park is enthralled by the movie, because of it's powerful imagery, and religious message. They begin talking about it, and discussing their faith. Cartman latches on to this, and starts organizing a "PotC" fan group. He organizes them and stages events like group meetings, and finally leads them in a march to the town's movie theatre.

Everyone joins up, and follows because they believe that this is a Christian group gathering to embrace the holiness of the movie; when in reality, Cartman is organizing a Neo-Nazi hate group. It isn't until he gets up to speak at the "parade" in full Nazi regalia, and begins spewing his anti-Jew rhetoric, that people wake up and realize what they have been a part of.

A similar event actually happened in the 1990s in Palo Alto, California. A teacher was confronted by a student during a discussion of Nazi Germany. The student stated that if he was in Germany in the 1930s and 40s, he wouldn't have gone along with it. The teacher wondered how to make the students aware of how easily Hitler swayed the public. So he created something called, "The Wave." Only certain students were allowed to be a part of it, and they were told that these students represented the best in the school. The project backfired, as students began bullying students who were not "wave" members. Some incidents even got violent. The teacher was fired, but before he left, according to the novelization and made for TV movie, he gathered wave members into the auditorium and announced that the national leader of the Wave would be speaking to them via satellite. He then played film footage of Adolph Hitler. This made everyone shockingly aware of what they were doing, and what they allowed themselves to become a part of.

I think of these things whenever I see or hear about the Teabaggers. I am told by my Republican friends, and by the radio, and Fox news, and others; that the Tea Party Movement are nothing more than patriotic citizens excercising their First Amendment right to speak their opinion in opposition to virtually everything Obama. But I'm afraid. Not that they are serious racists gathering to do something horrible, but even worse, they ARE patriotic citizens believing themselves to be innocently raising their voices in protest, but the information feeding their movement is coming from a racist, evil source.

Now that the healthcare bill has passed, several congressmen have been threatened, hate speech was yelled that them by protesters. I look forward to the day that something or someone slips up and reveals the real meaning behind this movement. And I hope that when people realize what they are caught up in, they will stop and regret their actions.