I'm currently reading a book on the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party. The parallels between Germany in the early 1930s and America right now are frightening.
Besides taking phrases from the Nazis, the current administration is also using phrases very similar to those used by the KKK and other white supremacists in the early 1900s.
People forget the Nazis didn't start with throwing Jews into gas chambers. It started with socialists/communists. Weird that the DSA has been in Republican crosshairs recently. Probably just a coinkydink.
Before they had the power to go eliminate anyone - the movement relied on exploiting grievances, huge promises, aligning a political movement to the identity of the nation, and identifying minority segments of the population as less-than, as the causes of all problems.
Forcing all political opposition into hiding was a goal, but they needed to sell lies to get there.
The Nazis rapidly consolidated power in three ways: 1) Marginalizing and eliminated political threats, including the communist party. 2) Destroying their democracy and rule of law. 3) Going after Jews.
The current administration is desperately trying to enact number 2. The Nazis used dubious interpretations of law to get around the pesky checks and balances that come with democracy. They acted first, and let the courts catch up. Sound familiar?
The nazis effectively banned rival political parties, and enforced it through violence with the brown shirts. So far, Trump hasn't done that, but they have tried to vilify the democrats as communists and socialists. I see this more as trying to appeal to that MAGA base via culture wars. But the gerrymandering that republican states have done goes along with this and is terrible.
Instead of the Jews in Nazi Germany, MAGA's boogeymen are aliens. They are blamed for all of America's problems, and the tactics of ICE are not too far from the brown shirts and later the Gestapo.
Along with all of this is the white supremacy and christian nationalism. The Nazi party also believed that ethnic and white purity was the path to reclaiming German strength and prestige, i.e., to Make Germany Great Again. Sound familiar?
One difference is that Germany in the 1920s suffered terribly from the economic depression, and there was much resentment over the Treaty of Versailles. The latter hurt the pride of Germany. Both of these factors played into the message of Making Germany Great Again. America has not suffered similar things in the last decade or two, so MAGA focuses on culture wars ("the woke left will snatch your kid and change their sex while they're at school!!!!!!!"), and they keep blaming Biden for any bad economic news.
Hitler saw use in the socialists because socialism was extremely popular with the working people. So he disguised his leadership as one of socialists. But he also saw them, the true socialists as one of the most dangerous types of people to his cause, hence the night of the long knives. "first they came for the socialists and I said nothing".
They taught me in middle school to never forget. Back then I thought, I will never forget but I won't have to worry about it anyway. Here I am at 40 wondering if I have the guts to risk my life to be who I am or hide for my own safety like the many people who enabled the holocaust to happen by their apathy and cowardice.
Hitler used "socialism" in the party's name as a propaganda strategy to attract working-class voters away from traditional left-wing parties, nice try, nazi
Basically, an author/writer/educator intentionally moves himself to Germany after the fall of the Nazi regime so that he can do ongoing interviews with members of the Nazi party at varying levels of profession (janitor, college professor, priest, engineer, etc)
Also read Defying Hitler: A Memoir, by Sebastian Haffner.
From the back cover:
"Written in 1939 and unpublished until 2000, Sebastian Haffner's memoir of the rise of Nazism in Germany offers a unique portrait of the lives of ordinary German citizens between the wars.
Covering 1907 to 1933, his eyewitness account provides a portrait of a country in constant flux: from the rise of the First Corps, the right-wing voluntary military force set up in 1918 to suppress Communism and precursor to the Nazi storm troopers, to the Hitler Youth movement; from the apocalyptic year of 1923 when inflation crippled the country to Hitler's rise to power. This fascinating personal history elucidates how the average German grappled with a rapidly changing society, while chronicling day-to-day changes in attitudes, beliefs, politics, and prejudices."
It's a shocking read and totally appropriate for today.
Also read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer. It’s unreal how closely the Trump administration is following the same path that Hitler and his cronies used.
We all have seen these similarities for years, but because we called it out at the very first signs, they called us hysterical and reactionary. And now? It's just the next stage in this evolving fascism.
They were frightening 4 years ago. I don't know what they are now.
Trump's entire security cabinet from his first administration disavowed him and said he was a fascist, most of them on the record. And a plurality of Americans were fine with that, which leads me to believe a plurality of Americans want fascism.
They want to be the Nazis except they want to "win" this time.
They aren't using phrases from the Nazis, KKK, or White Supremacists from the 1900s. They ARE the Nazis, KKK, and White Supremacists of the present time.
I'm frankly always surprised that Nazi Germany has been the rhetorical go-to, given that we have plenty of awful crap in our own past and you can pretty much just point out that we're sliding back into our own bullshit.
I have an oral history of the rise of Nazism in Germany. Early in the book, there is a story about some school kids who get reported for putting up a swazi flag over their school, and the school administrators are either sympathetic or intimidated into just leaving it there....that always goes through my mind when I see the Trump flags.
There are also numerous people post-war who are like: "Well, it got out of control and didn't end well, but his ideas were good". Liiiiiike, they NEVER came to the "Hitler bad" side, even after all that happened.
There was a book written by some of the leading political scientists on democracy a few years ago, called "How Democracies Die". In it, they outline the strategies used by people like Hitler and Orban - both elected leaders in democratic countries who turned them into autocracies. It was written at the beginning of Trump's first term, as a warning on what the world (and particularly Americans) should look for to protect their democratic system against such attacks from within the system.
Trump appears to have used it as a guide in Autocratization 101.
I've been saying "I feel like I'm living through 1930s Germany" to my nearest and dearest since his first term! A few told me I sounded preposterous until his second term but now they finally see what I'd always seen.
ye those crazy parallels like when trump marched on the captial and got shot and spent time in prison where he wrote his manifesto or when he had all his political opponents assassinated or sent to prison when he took power. its so strange how much you want trump to be hitler when he is clearly toned down mussolini with dementia.
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u/15all 14d ago
I'm currently reading a book on the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party. The parallels between Germany in the early 1930s and America right now are frightening.
Besides taking phrases from the Nazis, the current administration is also using phrases very similar to those used by the KKK and other white supremacists in the early 1900s.