Comics

Most of the people who enabled the Holocaust did so by convincing themselves what they were doing was for the greater good.

The ordinary German police officers who did most of the actual grunt work of rounding people up? Those who didn't actively support it probably told themselves, "I'm just enforcing the law. I may not agree with it, but I can't judge the law. And if I don't follow orders, I'll lose my job. Then I won't be able to do any good at all in the community, including arresting actual thieves and killers."

The university professor that handed a list of Jewish students to the Gestapo? "I don't support this. I have nothing against Jewish people. But if I don't do this, I'll lose my job, and then I won't be able to help any students at all."

Sure, the worst crimes of the Holocaust were carried out by true monsters that fully supported it. But the vast majority of the actual work was carried out by people "just following orders." And I'm sure they told themselves all sorts of stories about how they were picking the least evil or destructive path.

There's a reason in On Tyranny, the first rule is Don't Comply in Advance. Authoritarians can accomplish some of their goals through direct state power, but most of their authority is just given to them by cowards not wanting a fight. Look at Trump's attempts targeting the healthcare of minors. He issued a completely illegal executive order trying to ban minors from receiving trans healthcare. He has absolutely no authority to do so. Those hospitals that have fought back have won easily in court. But a lot of hospital administrators, even those in blue states, are craven cowards. We saw a lot of hospitals in blue states complying with this illegal order rather than put up a fight.

What Amnesty should have done is use this as a fundraising opportunity. Do you have any idea what kind of funding and publicity they could have achieved if they had stood up to the witch? Sure she's a billionaire, but Amnesty is not some small operation on a ragtag budget. They have 2500 employees and a budget in the hundreds of millions. They have the money to hire lawyers. And they could easily have used the fight as a massive fundraising opportunity. The ads write themselves. "We stand for the rights of even the most vilified people!"

Instead they chose the path of cowardice. They've damned themselves.