In a piece for CNN this Friday, reporter Sara Sidner traveled to Ulysses, Pennsylvania, where the town’s residents have to live alongside a man who openly displays Nazi memorabilia and wears T-shirts displaying the swastika with the words “White Power” emblazoned on the front.
Daniel Burnside adorns his home with Nazi carvings, Nazi flags, and even a scarecrow designed to look like Adolf Hitler. He sometimes dresses his 8 children in Nazi regalia, but he doesn’t think Nazism is a hateful ideology.
“I think it’s an ideology that’s been completely misinterpreted since the Third Reich,” he told Sidner.
When Sidner reminds him that his “misinterpreted” ideology resulted in the deaths of 6 million Jews, he had a convenient answer.
“You’ll never sell me on that,” he replied.
According to Burnside, he’s just a member of “rural America” who “spoke up when they elected Trump.”
Speaking to CNN, a childhood acquaintance of Burnside said that he wasn’t always like this. The Nazi stuff apparently began “more than three years ago” — right around the time Donald Trump launched his bid for the presidency.
Thankfully, a vast majority of the town’s residents reject what Burnside stands for.
“I would say that the President that we got right now hasn’t helped the situation a whole lot,” Ivan Lehman said. “This guy feeds off that stuff.”
Lifelong Ulysses resident Carm Barker wants the world to know that his town is full of “good people.”
“He’s stepping on all of us,” Barker said. “You know, we are all one tribe. And who does he think he is?”
Featured image via screen grab
