Plausible deniability writ large: it’s about giving people just enough of a fig-leaf to salve their consciences.

A few years ago I watched some TV show where they went through the Gestapo records for Munich. Apparently there were only 48 officers in that Chicago-sized city, and they were trying to figure out how less than fifty people could round up thousands of people and terrorize the remaining millions.

It turned out that they didn’t terrorize the remaining millions, because most of the people sent to the camps were sent there by their neighbors. They actually took the file of a “suspected lesbian” who lived in a shack at the edge of some neighborhood or othe, and tracked down the person who first dropped this “suspected lesbian’s” name to the Gestapo. When questioned about it, the informant only whined about how “it’s such a shame that people are dragging this up again, I heard about this on television.” Her eyes told a different story, one aparently screaming to get out, but her pride refused to let her just confess that she’d been responsible for having a woman killed in order to (my guess) raise her property values.

So the end result is a mass movement to find sociopaths who’re willing to do the dirty work for them. Which puts “Boondock Saints” and all the other reactionary comic books-turned-movies out there into a whole other perspective.

For the “not totally fucked” file: that there is a pretense, however hackneyed and unconvincing, indicates those desirous of a lockdown security state aren’t sure how far they can push it. Destruction of moral sensbility takes a lot of effort, even in a couch potato country. The bullying and the chickenshit character of the high ranking dudes creates resentment. They have to watch their backs too against opportunists seeking to replace them.

It was also tempting to throw California’s brownouts in there too, but you can only put so many things in a comma-separated list before it gets unweildy.