Nine warnings from history about the rise of the Nazis that already strike a chord

9 comments

1. There are many ironies in our dread of Nazism. We purport to be unscathed by hostile invasions and alien ideology. Yet the conquest of 1066 was followed by 300 years of French occupation, the “Norman yoke”.

   And we have known other oppressions. In what sense, then, are we immune to authoritarian governance? Besides, when the walls between subjugation and freedom can be so paper-thin, is it not prudent to keep an eye on any predisposition to tyrannical government?

   The making of “the Nazi mind” from 1919 to 1945 is both enthralling and chilling on its own terms. As a “warning from history” in the age of Trump 2.0, it’s compulsive reading.

   Of course, The Nazi Mind must address the charismatic evils of monsters such as Hitler and Goebbels. Each occupies their own special place in any 20th-century Inferno, the Fuhrer as a petit-bourgeois carpet-chewing Beelzebub; his brilliant propagandist as a silky, satanic antisemite.

   Their sinister cruelties depended on countless humdrum enablers in the SS and the Gestapo, the foot soldiers of the Third Reich.

   More alarming still is the tale that Rees unfolds about the motivations and manipulations of everyday life in Germany after the collapse of the Weimar Republic that underpinned the evils of Hitler’s regime. How, asks Rees, could the Nazis have committed the crimes they did?

   Why did the death camp commandants thrill to their programme of mass murder?

   Most disturbing of all: why did so many ordinary Germans become complicit in the elimination of the Jews?

   How was it possible that people from such a cultured nation perpetrated the worst atrocities in history?

   Finally, the big one: what relevance does this history have for us today?

   ⏬ Bluesky article thread (10 min) with extra links 📖 🍿 🔊

   [https://bsky.app/profile/johnhatchard.bsky.social/post/3lgenzjm3q724](https://bsky.app/profile/johnhatchard.bsky.social/post/3lgenzjm3q724)

2. >Opinion piece on American politics

   Can we not?

3. Biden is Von Hindenburg.

   And Jan 6th was the Beer Hall Putsch.

4. Way way way too many people with way way way too many guns for any fringe movement to take over the country. More likely the USA will self-destruct

5. “On Tyranny” by Timothy Snyder is a great read and very eerily accurate about today’s events and how they are reminiscent of the 20th Century.

6. Well since we are all considered women per the moment of conception. I guess this will be consider the lesbian Africa Nazi scissor salute. All hail momma trump.

7. The thing with these types of lists is that they’re just so damn subjective depending on where you fall on the political spectrum. To use this excerpt:

   “As Fuhrer, he eliminated human rights, terrorised the free press, diverted his voters (the Berlin Olympics became Goebbels’s bread and circuses), and promoted a utopian fantasy about a new Holy Roman empire (shades of Maga here)“

   1.) human rights – Somebody who supports Trump could reasonably argue that there’s a massive difference between claiming somebody is subhuman or deserving of ethnic genocide versus stating immigrants should be deported, for instance. Trump didn’t remove any constitutional rights for US citizens during his first term, and most Americans were largely unscathed. I suppose you could argue abortion is a human right, but that’s typically not the broad scope the Nazis used

   2.) diverted his voters – again, how do you make this exclusive to Trump? There are tons of politicians who act in performative ways at times to rile up their voters. Those actions exist within a greater context

   3.) utopian fantasy – if this is a foreshadow of Nazi ideology, every politician is a Nazi. What politician would ever go up and say “if you elect me shit will stay the same or worse” like come on. All of them are going to tell you how great your life and country will be when they’re in charge.

8. Hey guys your local American. I would like to say that this was not a surprise. Honestly thought it would happen sooner especially since the amount of nazis in America.

9. History doesn’t repeats, but it often rhymes. Musk did a nazi salute, but he’s not a nazi. He’s a billionaire libertarian **edgelord** with sense of humour rotten by 4chan & similar cesspools, who simply thinks it’s “funny”.

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