The problem was that racists couldn't openly be racist and intimidate non-white members of the Coast Guard.

Good grief.

what fucked up times do we live in when we can't even agree anymore that literal nazis are evil and people in power can force it to be "just divisive"

There was a recent youtube video by Kostantin Kisin (I can't find it now but) and I don't love that he compared Zohran Mamdani to Groypers, but his basic point was this quote or idea someone said which is that the reason history repeats itself is that we only are really influenced by the lessons of our parents and grandparents. That this rise of anti-semitism and backing down from our taboo's about racism come at a time when there are far fewer people growing up with relatives who were alive during the holocaust. (Just for good measure, the comparison between Zohran Mamdani and Groypers was that the left was forgetting the murders and human rights tragedies that came out of communism)