Maybe if we quit inviting Nazis to Kansas, they’d leave us alone | Opinion

Some ugly anti-Semitic trash is being thrown on driveways around Wichita.

Packed in plastic bags weighted with sand, stones or rice to resist blowing away, the flyers are the work of a group that I’m not going to dignify by naming them.

I did, however check out the website advertised in the flyers. I feel like I need a shower, and I’ve probably gotten myself on a dozen watch lists somewhere by doing it, so you don’t have to.

Their symbol is a squared-off letter G, tilted 45 degrees, in a white circle on a red field, so I pretty much knew what to expect.

Suffice to say the website’s a celebration of all things Hitlerite, including old films depicting life in the Third Reich (as experienced by the ruling Nazis, not the Jews), Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels expounding on “The Jewish Problem,” and modern-day anti-Semites with all manner of things they want to blame on the you-know-whos.

The flyer on my desk, supplied by a reader, proclaims “EVERY SINGLE ASPECT OF DISNEY CHILD GROOMING IS JEWISH” and depicts 10 Disney executives with the Star of David Photoshopped on their foreheads (subtlety is not these people’s strong suit).

This particular message is referring to a fight between Disney and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over Florida’s “Don’t say gay” law, which limits discussion of LGBTQ issues in schools and bans them entirely in younger grades.

Disney’s opposition to the law has drawn accusations, including from DeSantis’ press secretary, that the company’s engaged in “grooming” children for sexual abuse, presumably by LGBTQ adults. DeSantis, as of this writing, is No. 2 among Republican presidential contenders, behind Donald Trump.

These same sorts of comments were made by members of the Kansas Legislature who sought to put a stop to diversity, equity and inclusion in Kansas schools.

In April, Rep. Cheryl Helmer, R-Mulvane, complained about having to share a restroom with Rep. Stephanie Byers, D-Wichita, the first transgender legislator.

And I couldn’t count the e-mails and social media posts I’ve seen inviting me to boycott Disney and their “gay agenda.”

Another version of the anti-Semitic flyer taps into the “Let’s Go Brandon” vibe and includes a photo showing President Joe Biden kissing a young girl on the top of her head, the implication being that he’s a pedophile. The photo is actually of him comforting his granddaughter at the funeral for Biden’s son Beau, who was the girl’s father.

I’ve seen that photo before, many times, on my social media feeds, posted by Kansas conservatives.

There are other versions of the anti-Semitic flyers, but they’re really all the same thing. And we’re not the only ones getting them.

It reminds me of an incident that I covered in Simi Valley, California, shortly after the not-guilty verdicts in the Rodney King police beating trial 30 years ago.

The verdicts, and the vocal support the officers on trial enjoyed in the community at large, convinced the white supremacist Nationalist Movement of Mississippi that Simi Valley was their kind of place and their kind of people.

So they came there to march. It didn’t go well.

A few white nationalists showed up and whole lot of other people showed up to oppose them.

Members of the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade — a precursor to and participant in the present-day Antifa movement — came carrying flags and started whaling away on the nationalists with the flagpoles. Police moved in and separated the groups, who spent the next couple of hours hurling rocks and frozen cans of pop at each other over the police lines.

I’ll never forget that surreal experience of watching the two most discredited ideologies of the 20th Century battling on the lawn between the Simi Valley courthouse and City Hall.

Neo-Nazis generally target two kinds of places: Where there’s a large Jewish community to offend, or where there’s enough open prejudice of other kinds that they think a significant number of people might join them.

In their minds, if you’re willing to believe that Disney’s “grooming” children and that Biden molested his granddaughter at her father’s funeral, you just might be the kind of person who can be convinced that a Jewish conspiracy is behind it all.

I don’t believe that’s who the vast majority of Kansans are, or I’d be out of here in a heartbeat.

But maybe if we were a little less willing to entertain bigotry and intolerance here at home, the real extremists might go elsewhere to try to recruit.

At the very least, it’s worth a try.