By: Mitja Iršič
In a sketch from the British show That Mitchell and Webb Look, two Nazi officers are featured. One of them notices that they have images of death’s heads on their caps and exclaims in astonishment the legendary line: “Are we the baddies?”
Such a simple sentence that reveals so much. It is in the nature of the human being that each individual thinks they are right. Their political parties and ideological companions are always on the right side of history. Most likely, each of you has sighed to yourselves and said, “Why is everyone so crazy, and I am the only sane one?” Let me reassure you – we have all felt that way. Vladimir Putin feels that way. Kim Jong Un feels that way. Robert Golob feels that way. And so does Pope Francis. Introspection is possible on a rational level, but emotionally, it is much more challenging. We are created in a way that the centre of our normalcy is our own self-image and worldview. That is why no one ever asks themselves, “What if I am one of the bad guys?”
So, how does one determine if they are one of the bad guys? Primarily by isolating oneself from daily politics and looking at things from a broader, objective perspective. This is exactly what would be suggested to the Slovenian mainstream left. They should step out of the bubble of their self-convictions and observe the “skulls” that they cannot see from the first perspective. Why the left? Because it is particularly difficult for the left to escape the trap of normalising its own abnormality since, by a strange twist of history (due to Hitler’s betrayal of his dictator friend Stalin), they unexpectedly ended up on the side of the “winners” along with Western allies.
Suddenly, we got a group of people who were convinced that the bloody communist revolution was something virtuous, transcendental, and even worth emulating. This is the basis of their “normalcy”, from which this group drew its worldview and values. As Yugoslavia was falling apart, this group fervently supported the survival of the communist dictatorship and even sabotaged Slovenian independence in its name. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, they ideologically (and financially) strongly attached themselves to the bosom of its successor, the Russian Federation, even when it recently fully embraced fascism and became the first major power in modern times to attack a sovereign democratic state with colonial imperialistic ambitions. Slovenian leftists and their peace activists are still firmly on its side and the side of the so-called antifascist Donbas. On the other hand, the Slovenian left is staunchly against the NATO alliance, the military alliance of Western democracies, even though Slovenia has joined it. At the only protest against the war in Ukraine organised by the Slovenian right, we listened to the former president of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, who blamed both sides, while protesters protested against… NATO. During the Arab Spring, when few Arab liberals rose up (only to have their revolution stolen by religious fanatics), they mostly remained silent, except when the revolution against Assad failed; then, they firmly sided with the Syrian dictator. Alongside Putin against the West. In the current conflict between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas, where terrorists have taken 2 millions of their own people as hostages or human shields, they did not take the side of Israel or the Palestinians but sided with the Palestinian villains – Hamas. They were so blatant that they presented reports from the terrorist group as facts and reports from the Israeli army as assumptions or claims. They even advocated for the establishment of another ISIS state on Israel’s doorstep, a stance they held even before the formation of the Slovenian state. Some of us mistakenly thought that images of slaughtered Israeli families might soften their position, but they did not. Moreover, they even relativised Hamas’ crimes.
The pattern of preferences is clear. Sometimes, at the level of mainstream politics, it is slightly concealed to maintain a façade of normalcy abroad, but it is clear whose side the Slovenian left is on: Russia, Belarus, Iran, despotic Arab states (except Saudi Arabia, which “collaborates” with the USA, the eternal enemy of international collectivists). Where there are autocrats, where people are forced into collectivist thought patterns, where individualism is persecuted and demonised. When will they finally take off their caps, see the death’s heads, and ask themselves if they are the baddies?