Line #1 Quotes/NeutralityBacklash


1	->''"Anyone placed at exactly the same distance between yourself and your enemy will always appear closer to your enemy."''
2	-->--'''Nicolas Chamfort''' explains the basic line of thinking behind this trope
3
4	->''"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, then you have ''chosen'' to side with the oppressor. If an elephant is standing on the tail of a mouse, that mouse will not appreciate your neutrality."''
5	-->-- Varyingly attributed to '''Nelson Mandela''' and to '''Archbishop Desmond Tutu''', both champions against Apartheid in South Africa
6
7	->''"I hate these filthy Neutrals, Kif. With enemies you know where they stand, but with Neutrals, who knows? It sickens me."''
8	-->-- '''Zap Brannigan''', ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', "Brannigan, Begin Again"
9
10	->''"Dante once said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in periods of moral crisis maintain their neutrality."''
11	-->-- '''UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy''', misquoting Dante
12
13	->''"But keep telling yourself that because politics is dirty, so very dirty, that you, precious, by not voting or informing yourself or participating in any way, are clean. Yeah, that’s it. You’ve kept yourself pure, because you haven’t gotten your hands sullied by the gutter that is American politics. Well, you can keep telling yourself that. But, the truth is, if your hands aren’t dirty, it’s not because you’re pure. It’s because ''you’re not helping''."''
14	-->-- '''Bill Maher''', ''Series/RealTimeWithBillMaher'', on the low voter turnout of the 2014 election.
15
16	->''"There comes a time when silence becomes betrayal."''
17	-->--'''Martin Luther King Jr.''', “Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam”
18
19	->''"You're wrong, Mollari. Whether it was me or my world, whether it was a total stranger or your worst enemy, you were a witness! It doesn't matter if they stopped. It doesn't matter if they'd listen. You had an obligation to speak out!"''
20	-->--'''G'Kar''' to '''Londo''', ''Series/BabylonFive'': "The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari"
21
22	->'''Sir Humphrey:''' Prime Minister, it has been put to me that as smoking is not a political issue the government must not take sides.\
23	'''Jim Hacker:''' You mean we have to be impartial?\
24	'''Sir Humphrey:''' Exactly!\
25	'''Jim Hacker:''' Impartial as between the fire engine and the fire?
26	-->-- ''Series/YesPrimeMinister''
27
28	->''"I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: 'I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action'; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a 'more convenient season.' Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."''
29	-->-- '''Martin Luther King Jr.''', "[[http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html Letter from a Birmingham Jail]]"
30
31	->''"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it."''
32	-->-- '''Martin Luther King Jr.'''
33
34	->''"We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant."''
35	-->-- '''Elie Wiesel'''
36
37	->''"...You can't even be neutral, because then'' both ''sides will call you a [[DirtyCoward pussy]]."''
38	-->-- '''WebVideo/{{Pyrocynical}}'''
39
40	->''"I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth."''
41	-->-- '''UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}}''', ''Literature/TheBookOfRevelation'' 3:15-16
42
43	->''"I will take an insincere display of charity over a genuine display of apathy any day of the week."''
44	-->-- '''WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows''', on "We Are The World"
45
46	->'''Diana:''' This is not how it works. We don't just join the revolution. ICA is neutral. We do not take sides.\
47	'''Olivia:''' I hate to break it to you, lady, but neutrality is a side. It's the side of the status quo.
48	-->-- ''VideoGame/Hitman2''
49
50	->"''Every one of my acts commits me as a man. Every one of my silences, every one of my cowardices reveals me as a man."''
51	-->-- '''Frantz Fanon'''
52
53	->"As Musmar the Night Manager, the greatest of all Elakhon rulers, wrote in his autobiography ''Who Moved My Invincible Doomsday Device?'' neutrality was always a much more delicate operation than war or peace. Neutrality without a respectable bulge of firepower in your pocket was as good as telling the universe, ''I am a helpless vulnerable fuzzy baby with a wet pink nose, please annihilate me at your earliest convenience.'' But declaring neutrality from beneath an elaborate pillow fort of prosperity, military dominance, and a diverse entertainment industry made you look as enticing to all your postwar neighbors as a rich kid's lunch money. After all, it's always the fancy house that keeps its lights off and won't shell out for candy that's first pillaged on Halloween."
54	-->-- ''Literature/SpaceOpera''
55
56	->''"I don't think centrist is meant to be a strictly pejorative term, but in left-leaning circles centrists tend to not be viewed that favorably for a variety of reasons, usually having to do with enabling far-righters in a meaningless and misguided exercise in 'hearing everyone out'."''
57	-->--'''@/{{Draghinazzo}}''', [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13103447000A18674100&page=14095 The General U.S. Politics Thread]]
58
59	->''Take sides! Always take sides! You will sometimes be wrong -- but the man who refuses to take sides must always be wrong.''
60	-->--''Literature/DoubleStar''
61
62	->''"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality."''
63	-->-- '''Dante''', ''Literature/TheDivineComedy''
64
65	->'''Wolverine''': [[VillainHasAPoint Magneto's right: there is a war coming.]] Are you sure you're on the right side?\
66	'''Storm''': [[ArmorPiercingResponse At least I've CHOSEN a side.]]
67	-->--''Film/XMen1''
68
69	->'''Baroness Elsa von Schraeder:''' Oh, Georg, he's just a boy.
70	->'''Capt. Georg von Trapp:''' Yes, and I'm just an Austrian.
71	->'''Max Detweiler:''' What's going to happen's going to happen. Just make sure it doesn't happen to you.
72	->'''Georg:''' [[SuddenlyShouting Max, don't you]] ''[[SuddenlyShouting ever]]'' [[SuddenlyShouting say that again]]!
73	->'''Max:''' (''pause'') You know I have no political convictions. Can I help it if other people do?
74	->'''Georg:''' (''bluntly'') Oh yes, you can help it. You must help it.
75	-->-- ''Theatre/TheSoundOfMusic''
76
77	->''"They say in Harlan County, the are no neutrals there.\
78	You'll either be an union man or a thug for J.H. Claire."''
79	-->--"[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJH1Uolu7io Which Side Are You On?]]", Appalachian coal miners' song written during the Harlan County War.
80
81	->'''Detective''': These options seem awfully [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Fascist]] or [[DirtyCommies Communist]]. What if I don't wanna say them?\
82	'''Rhetoric''': Say one of these fascist or communist things or fuck off.
83	-->--''Videogame/DiscoElysium''
84
85	->''That's the Seven, but what of [[PhysicalGod the Nine]]--\
86	What of the two who chose not to shine?\
87	The Eighth did hide, hide all away\
88	But the Seven caught him and made him pay.\
89	[[SatanicArchetype The Ninth]] was strong and fought with might\
90	But lone Orannis was put out of the light...''
91	-->-- ''Literature/OldKingdom''
92
93	->''"You ask too much, and in doing so you condemn the world to fall to either the vision of [[spoiler:[[GodAndSatanAreBothJerks Kezess Indrath or Agrona Vritra]]]]. Your fear has paralyzed you, and so instead of taking a risk and failing, you would choose to fail without trying. That's the cost of choosing to be passive in a war where loss means the end of everything."''
94	-->--'''Arthur Leywin''' to '''Mordain Asclepius''', ''Literature/TheBeginningAfterTheEnd''

Context Quotes / NeutralityBacklash