On not speaking out: an letter to an editor.

[caladri]

I am writing in reply to an opinion piece published in your paper recently which culminated with:
They have come for the trade-unionists; what is to stop them from coming for me?
The writer of this piece is ghoulishly appropriating the struggles of trade-unionists to glorify his own life. Of course nobody is going to come for him, he's in such a

Comments

[twoeleven]

Context is for the weak!

[caladri]

See below reply to kaph.

[kaph]

I totally lack the context for his last sentence - that is, I do not know what issue he was addressing in this opinion piece - but the line you quote is a version of a line from Martin Niemoller's speeches against the political apathy that let Hitler rise to power. Maybe this makes no difference at all, but I thought I'd put it out there. :p

[caladri]

Indeed, this was my attempt to ironically use the exclusivism and separatism to attack a Niemöller who made the mistake of speaking out, rather than remaining silent and hoping that they wouldn't come for him. I had wrongly assumed that the referent was so obvious that I needed to offer no explanation

[kaph]

Well, it may just be that, not having any idea what the original column was about, I failed to make the right connections. :)

[caladri]

Nono, no original column, just my fictitious framing of a response to a hypothetical Niemöller.