In the Name of Safety

A far-right party in Dortmund filed a city council request asking for data on how many Jews are registered and where they live. For security purposes. Their Facebook statement explained it as a reasonable administrative concern: they needed demographic information to analyze potential threats from proxy wars. To keep people safe, obviously.

The punchline is built in—next week ISIS advocates for gender equality, right? But the actual thing is how flat it is. Not a rally, not performed evil. Just someone sitting at a desk, filing paperwork in the language of government. They know that once something is written down in the right format with the right justification, it feels legitimate. Like maybe it’s a question that’s supposed to be answered.

The version of evil that actually works is the kind that doesn’t perform. It just sits there, patient and official, waiting for the next person to think it’s reasonable.