Arnold Schwarzenegger has this week released a 12-minute video in an attempt to convince people to turn away from hatred and racism, with a particular emphasis on antisemitism.
The Hollywood actor and former Mr Olympia visited Auschwitz last year and learned of the horrors of the Holocaust for himself, including meeting a Holocaust survivor whom he quotes in his message.
Arnie didn’t mince his words when addressing those who give in to hatred.
“There has never been a successful movement based on hate,” Schwarzenegger said. “Nazis? Losers. The Confederacy? Losers. The Apartheid movement? Losers. I don’t want you to be a loser. I don’t want you to be weak… despite all my friends who might say, ‘Arnold, don’t talk to those people. It’s not worth it,’ I don’t care what they say. I care about you. I think you’re worth it. I know nobody is perfect… I can understand how people can fall into a trap of prejudice and hate.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger has talked before about his father’s involvement with Naziism as well as his experience growing up in a post WWII Austria. He saw how people found it easier to hate and blame others for their problems.
“It’s easier to make excuses that the Jewish people conspired to hold you back then it is to admit that you just needed to work harder,” the actor continued. “It’s easier to hate than it is to learn… Nobody who has chosen the easy path of hate has gotten to the end of the road and said, ‘What a life.’ No. They die as miserably as they lived.”
Recalling his work as a fitness enthusiast, Schwarzenegger concluded his message with a call for “strength” and for people to deny the path of least resistance.
“No matter how far you’ve gone, I want you to know you still have a chance to choose a life of strength,” Schwarzenegger said. “You have to fight the war against yourself… The [hate] path is easier — you don’t have to change anything, everything in your life that you aren’t happy about can be somebody else’s fault… [But] you will end up broken. I don’t want you to go through all that.”
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