Just Following Orders.

August von Mackensen

The Nazi defense of "we were just following orders" has been examined to death. It is used as an example when debating anyone who is accused of doing something illegal, immoral, or evil because "that's no defense at all- you should have done the right thing no matter how much pressure was put upon you". Meanwhile, many people do things they would not otherwise do because they were more afraid of their superiors than they were of society.

Of course, in the case of the Nazi's of WWII, society approved of what they were doing. Civilians claimed that they had no idea what was going on but frankly, I don't buy it anymore than I buy that "peaceful" Muslims don't know what radical Islamists are doing. I suspect that they turn a blind eye because net net, they believe it improves their standard of living and "they're not going after Muslims" so...

Anyway, it's my argument that these people who were "just following orders" were actually loving the ELS out of torturing, abusing, and killing people who they didn't like for any number of reasons- real or fabricated.