it’s sometimes easier (in the short term) psychologically to simply bury it and refuse to acknowledge the truth. In this case, facing the truth of what has happened and continues to happen means facing up to their own senses of self and having to examine their own values and admit that everything they believed so strongly in has turned out to be wrong.

<cough>

you sound like modern Germans talking about their (grand)parents’ decision to let it happen

do you know Richard Overy?
Overy notes, “a unique moral universe was constructed to justify and explain its actions. The moral plane was not an irrelevance, but a key battleground.”…
The judicial systems in these states existed, Overy notes, “not to protect the individual from the state, but to protect the state from the individual.” …
The most troubling question remains why so few resisted….But fear alone does not suffice as a reason. The unpleasant truth is that both systems enjoyed wide support.

Some people will stand by the president (unless he’s a democrat) and take the “my country right or wrong” (unless run by democrats) type of stance. Those folks will never change their minds and never be swayed no matter what truths may come to light.

Most of us see the truth for what it is, and understand what’s going on, and are outraged. We still love our country (if we didn’t, why would we care so much?), but blindly. More like, “my country when it’s right and when it’s wrong it’s still my country and therefore the responsibility of all of us to make it right.” In other words, I wil lprotest and speak out and question authority and so forth BECAUSE I love my country so much. To not do that would be the paramount of disrepsect and un-Americanism.

And then there are a great many people who, out of denial, simply refuse to accept the truth of the insidious and blatantly evil actions perpetrated by a powerful few in the name of all of us. And it’s understandable, really - everything they’ve always been taught, all the values held dear, everything the US of A is supposed to stand for is unravelling before their eyes and being exposed for the crock of shit that it is. That’s a tough pill to swallow. Like someone facing cancer, or a gay child, or sexual abuse or divirce or whatever - it’s sometimes easier (in the short term) psychologically to simply bury it and refuse to acknowledge the truth. In this case, facing the truth of what has happened and continues to happen means facing up to their own senses of self and having to examine their own values and admit that everything they believed so strongly in has turned out to be wrong. We’re AMERICA - we can’t POSSIBLY be the Bad Guys, can we? It’s like defying the laws of physics - it’s simply impossible. We’re the United States, and therefore, we MUST be right. And if there’s anything that seems bad (torture, deceit, spying, etc.), then there’s got to be a good enough reason behind it, because we’re the benevolent ones. We’re the world’s saviors, the chosen people, bringers of the new garden of Eden. You know, George Washington, Iwo Jima, Bald Eagles, the Bible, Mt. Rushmore, the flag, John Phillip Sousa, Budweiser, Ford, Jefferson, Lincoln (Le Petomaine!), manifest destiny, the Dallas Cowboys… How can all that - that which defines our alabaster goodness be all a lie?
These are the toughest people to reach and convince. But slowly, slowly, slowly, the tide is turning (I think (I hope)).
Hopefully it isn’t too little too late.