How stupid do you have to be?

No matter how much some, and they are few, sober passionate admirers of everything Croatian try to eliminate the element of hatred and chauvinism from their orgasms before the altar of the homeland, the last few days have shown that nationalism for the majority of its devoted worshippers represents only a splendid playground for hatred.

And while I can somewhat understand the flood of principled hatred towards ‘aggressors’ from those who have truly lost something or someone in the war or participated in it, I must admit that the younger generations completely confuse me. I say understand, not approve or rationally justify because all generalizations are wrong sooner or later, regardless of which example they start with.

That every subsequent generation of youth has recently become increasingly stupid is clear to me, but the sheer lack of principles among the younger generations and the superficiality of Facebook simply do not explain the quite sincere and authentic hatred towards other nations in the vicinity, among which, of course, Serbs stand out, especially in recent days. We are witnessing a renewed righteous anger of the Croatian masses towards Serbs, an expected consequence of the awakened national fervor triggered by the release of generals Gotovina and Markač.

As I said, for a part of the people, this is reopening old wounds and, no matter how much I do not approve of it from a human perspective, I can understand the principled contempt towards those considered responsible for it, or where it comes from. I also understand that intellectuals are often just idiots with academic degrees and that the intelligence of the people is a loose concept that varies from moment to moment. I realize that the public space in Serbia is totally poisoned, devoid of civil society, and that a large part of the population there still does not know the whole truth about the 90s or does not want to know it, which is why their behavior should be dismissed from the start. What I cannot understand at all is the astonishing poisoning of local simpletons who have only seen a Serb in life through a screen and heard them on their favorite CD, and had no connection to the war. Their families went through unscathed, moreover, some did very well in the new Croatia, never met a Serb, and a good part was not even born during the controversial time that supposedly angers them. Moreover, most do not really know exactly what actually happened, the details are in the fog, supposedly the Serbs did some crap here.

I know that there is no such indoctrination in school textbooks, no matter how deficient they are in describing some key parts of recent history, whether it was during World War II or the Homeland War. I also know that the media space in its mainstream part does not propagate such views, nor does mainstream politics, at least publicly, and that no parliamentary party in Croatia is truly radical. Publicly. I know they watch Serbian movies and tear their shirts to Serbian folk songs. I know that in the elections, the civil, left option won the majority and that the most popular politician in the country is the president of the same provenance. And for the icing on the cake, I know that their hero-god Ante Gotovina has recently made exclusively conciliatory statements, completely contrary to their expectations. The man thanked, among other things, the traitorous government with a rather important remark that the majority of citizens voted for that government. All, of course, unnoticed by the agitated masses.

So where does all this hatred and disgust towards Serbs, but also other neighbors among the younger generations who have neither eaten nor smelled onions come from? And let’s be completely honest, it is not at all limited to small communities and the provinces; urban youth ranks excellently in this regard. Where else does this cheap, transparent, and failed demagoguery linger and survive? How do they manage with such incredible ease to reconcile the reality that has erased those differences in culture, sports, economy, tourism, mafia (sic!) and even in a good part of politics with their firm beliefs? What level of intellectual weakness is at play, what kind of mental poverty? Indeed, ideology and demagoguery are potent agents of intellectual blindness, but some things seem too much even for a young, flabby brain.

How to reconcile the adoration of the NDH and Ustaša with a Croatia that is maimed and deprived of its key territories at the same time? From which, by the way, a good part of the loudest support comes? From the fact that the adored allies, the Germans, looked at Croats and other Slavs with the same disgust, only giving them compliments when they were quality cannon fodder? With the messages of their own hero? With the fact that the cooperation with the Hague Tribunal was signed by the state-building and beloved HDZ, and consequently handed over the aforementioned general, while at the same time the traitors Mesić, Pusić, Račan, Milanović, Josipović? With Gotovina’s clear reluctance to be what they fervently want him to be? To fall into a trance to songs by someone who avoids paying taxes to the beloved homeland and takes it upon himself to interpret the aforementioned in a way that better suits his hateful version of love for the homeland? To babble about the UDBA, communists, Tito, Yugoslavia, Ustašas, NDH, traitors, Serbs, the Homeland War, the seventh century, and not know in a random survey what Operation Storm is? And so on…

Simply put, how stupid does that youth have to be?