I wholeheartedly agree.

And no, the article wasn't about whether being a Nazi was complicated. Not quite. It's about believing an entire group of people (even Nazis) act as a homogenous unit of evil. There were plenty of Nazis who were evil, some half-assed apolitical people who joined for their self interest (Heydrich/Eichmann) and a handful of morally good Nazis too. When the 'them' and 'us' rhetoric begins, it usually means someone has given everyone the right to stop thinking about 'them' because the 'us' are the goodies - and it takes a great deal of cognitive work to overcome this.

Rabe was sidelined for most of the war, he was considered a liability and sent to work in business - I suspect he was much nicer to jews after his experience in Nanking because something like that is going to bury itself deep into your soul. Rabe certainly faired worse than some of the Japanese high ranking people involved, most notably Nobusuke Kishi (Shinzo Abe's grandfather) who became PM of Japan in the 1950s because he was pro-American and anti-communist. Again, complicated stuff.

With Hamas, anyone under 35 hasn't been involved in electing Hamas - and anyone under (arbitrarily) 25 should be considered to be groomed by Hamas. That doesn't excuse them from acts of great evil, but it should be considered mitigation when they are tried for war crimes as I hope they are. The anti-racist feminist in the West that knows nothing about the 100 year old complexity from Balfour onwards should primarily learn to shut the fuck up. I've made the case for compassionate silence two years ago. https://medium.com/lucid-nightmare/why-i-havent-yet-weighed-in-on-the-israel-and-palestine-tensions-d866f7630b68

I like your style. I like your arguments and your no-nonsense nature. I've not come across you before on the platform - but I'm glad you've blipped on my radar - consider yourself followed. I suspect we're going to have many debates over the next few years. :o)