Why is it that yesterday, Jake Tapper had a bona fide leader of the Neo Nazi and white supremacist movements on his show…giving him a platform to reach millions of people…legitimizing him as someone worth listening to…giving the horrific beliefs of fascism and white supremacy a home in American public discourse…

But he’s never once had Ben Ferencz on his show?

I bet that you don’t know who Ben Ferencz is, so let me enlighten you. That’s him, above. That little frail old man in suspenders. He is one of the greatest living Americans, full stop. Period. Ever. Yes, really. Check out his life — it’s startling, amazing, inspirational.

Ben Ferencz is the modern day David who took down Goliath, my friends. He was the lead prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials. I bet you didn’t even know an American did that. He helped create the idea of a “crime against humanity” — because the things the Nazis did were so terrible, a whole new category of justice had to be invented to do justice to them. He carefully, fiercely, relentlessly prosecuted the Nazis before the eyes of a whole broken, devastated world. He created that very idea of crimes against humanity to deter the devastation and hatred of fascism ever rising again.

Ben Ferencz has done more for the world — and for America — than a Jeff Bezos, an Elon Musk, or a Warren Buffett…put together. He helped create the modern world as we know it — by building the institutional infrastructure for peace and prosperity. By prosecuting the greatest monsters of the 20th century — bringing an end to one of history’s darkest chapters. Putting America on the right side of history, the moral side, the good side. I’d bet you’d agree: that makes him one of the greatest living Americans. What’s more meaningful — Amazon Prime or…bringing down the Nazis? So why on earth is it that you don’t know who he is?

Ben is 99 years old, maybe a hundred now. He lives in a modest, humble retiree’s place in Florida. You know the kind. I only know that because I watched the new Netflix documentary, the Accountant of Auschwitz — and I was both delighted and surprised to see him in the opening moments. I’d just read, elsewhere, that he called what’s happening in America “crimes against humanity”. He’d know. He invented the idea, after all.

So why is it that — forgive me for asking again — you don’t know who he is? Don’t you think that right about now, you should know exactly who Ben Ferencz is and what he was to say…when we seem to have something very much like fascists running the country, building camps, conducting raids, caging kids?

Let me put that another way. Why is it that you know who the latest hate-filled Neo Nazi leader is and what he has to say, as if that’s worth knowing…but you don’t know who the actual lead prosecutor of the Nazis at the Nuremberg Trials was, or what he has to say and warn of? Don’t you see the terrible irony in that? Don’t you see how that causes history to repeat itself?

You know who Richard Spencer is, but you don’t know who Ben Ferencz is, for a very simple reason. Jake Tapper.

Not just Jake Tapper, of course. The New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN. You could say something like: the reason is America’s thinking class — which doesn’t do much thinking, or it’s intellectual class, or it’s media, or it’s public sphere. You see my point a little — let me make it sharper.

You don’t know who Ben Ferencz is, but you know who Richard Spencer is, because Jake Tapper has never invited Ben Ferencz on his show. But one of these men has a very great deal to teach you. One of these men is the wisest and most compassionate and most enlightened and most courageous men in our society. And one of them is a violent, hateful, bigoted, supremacist — from whom you can learn nothing whatsoever of value or worth.

And yet it’s that one — the hateful one — that Jake Tapper gives a platform to. Not the wise, compassionate, courageous one. Jake Tapper gave a platform to the young, shining Neo Nazi — but not the old, bent, frail prosecutor of the Nazis. What the?

No wonder the bad guys are winning.

I don’t know if Jake Tapper is a bad guy. I didn’t used to think so. These days, I wonder. But I give him the benefit of the doubt. Foolish me, maybe. Still, what would Ben say to Jake Tapper, I wonder?

Jake might say: “Ben, you’re the last living Nuremberg Prosecutor. You’re a hundred years old. You call these — now — crimes against humanity. Happening all over again. Would you say we’re repeating history?”

Would he reply, “Yes, Jake. These are fascists. Doing what fascists do. Why don’t you see it yet? Why don’t you say it? How much more evidence do you need? If I could live another century, I’d prosecute them, too.”

But then Jake would have to listen. He’d have to say those words every day. Maybe that’s why Jake doesn’t have him on. I don’t know.

What I can tell you is this.

Ben Ferencz isn’t going to be with us much longer. He’s already been forgotten by us too fast. And so we don’t learn from him. The great and grave lessons he has to teach us. About fascism. About Nazis. About this thing called crimes against humanity he had to help invent to do justice to them — and deter them from ever rising again.

He is 99 years old. A bent and frail man in a little Florida apartment somewhere. Why has America forgotten the last living Nuremberg Prosecutor in his last days — but seems to remember Richard Spencer?

I want you to see the causality clearly. It’s true that these days, we are desperately in need of exactly the lessons a Ben Ferencz has to teach us. About how fascism rises. About why he calls what we’re doing now “crimes against humanity.” About whether he’d call all this Nazism, just like last time — or at least a close enough parallel to be genuine fascism.

But that’s not the causality. That logic is backwards.

We are seeing fascism — or something very, very close to it, camps, raids, cages, racist attacks — rising in America because the Jake Tappers of our society care more about you knowing who the Richard Spencers are than the Ben Ferenczes.

That’s a sad indictment of the Jake Tappers, it’s true. It raises the question: are they ignorant? On the wrong side of history? Are they just in it for a buck? Are they cynical, stupid sellouts? But those questions are besides the point, really.

The Jake Tappers of our society care more about you knowing who the Richard Spencers are than the Ben Ferenczes. That is the plain and simple truth. The whys and wherefores are besides the point. Whether it’s the NYT, CNN, the Post, etcetera. And that is why fascism is rising all over again.

What do you expect in a society that has forgotten one of its greatest living minds is the last Nuremberg Prosecutor — but proudly gives the latest glamorous Neo Nazi a platform, a voice, a way to reach millions…except fascism rising all over again?

I guess there’s just one thing left to say, then.

Thanks, Jake.

Umair

July 2019