Big day in Athens today as the Golden Dawn trial verdict is finally delivered after five long years. No matter what the outcome, Greece has been changed by the presence of this toxic thinking that went mainstream for a while. Golden Dawn are officially finished, 1/

But their ideology is not gone & it won't go, just like the world 'defeated' Nazism in 1945 only for its hideous ideas to still be flourishing today, in some cases backed by leaders of nations. Greece was a scary place for minorities in 2012 when GD were elected to parliament 2/

You heard the stories, the attacks, people beaten within an inch of their lives, the abuse, & you wondered when this hatred would come knocking on your door. You didn't feel safe. You watched with dismay as people you know began expressing agreement with GD's ideas 3/

And you felt scared. You tried to dampen down yourself, not to stand out, not to talk too much in case your accent or a grammatical mistake gave you away. Always watchful, always wary, feeling bereft as these monsters were given airtime on TV channels 4/

Today marks an end of some sorts, but it should also come wtih a stark warning - facist ideas bubble under the surface of most societies. One bump in the road, a few harsh years of economic trouble & the names you once laughed at on obscure blogs are suddenly in parliament 5/

There is absolutely no way, you thought, that this joke of a fringe party will become mainstream. And it did. It happened with GD, the same is happening with Proud Boys in the US. A minor reference on podcasts where we'd laugh at the dumb name has been endorsed by the president 6

So Greece, remain vigilant. It ends today, but it also doens't end either. This was an ugly chapter in the country's history, but we know that history repeats itself. There's no reason why GD or some variant couldn't one day be mainstream again. 7/

Be watchful, hold you media to account when they say things like 'A car crash killed 1 migrant & 9 people' (recent example from Greek TV). Or when they blame us for spreading covid19. Be better than these cheap shots & build a democracy that has no place again for GD's ideas. Thx