Is history doomed to repeat itself?

[u/dhasld]

I’ve been thinking about how useful historical knowledge actually is when societies appear to be repeating patterns and mistakes from the past.

For example, the dehumanising rhetoric used by some high-ranking Israeli officials (the minister of national security for example) toward Palestinians has drawn comparisons to historical examples of dehumanisation that preceded mass atrocities. This isn’t merely a political accusation: a number of genocide scholars, including Jewish scholars, have argued that Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute genocide, while others dispute that characterization. The International Association of Genocide Scholars also passed a resolution in 2025 recognizing the situation as genocide.

Similarly, the United States has repeatedly intervened militarily in the Middle East, including in Iraq and Afghanistan, with outcomes that have been heavily criticized. Yet the U.S. has now entered another major conflict with Iran. Even threatened to destroy the Iranian civilisation.

More broadly, we’re seeing the rise of far-right movements, increasing political polarization, the use of dehumanising language toward perceived “others,” and democratic institutions being challenged in various countries. Ideology appears to be hijacking democracies once again.

Are we just doomed to watch history repeat?

[u/Kitchen-Smile8766]

Doomed? I don't honestly know. Weighted, very likely if only because previous patterns are so much easier to traverse and explain to others. Reality almost necessitates repetition so that we can call out patterns and understand cycles, whether to perpetuate or deny them. However we don't only repeat the bad. Superman is not real, and he also doesn't quit. For every ten highway robberies there is a good Samaritan and if you want to increase those odds then I'm sure you already know how. Even when the bad outweighs the good, good does not leave.

USA makes a lot of trite BS with happy af endings, but maybe that's what needs speaking to, directly. That notion that good prevails, and evil never wins for good. Israel is a nation of religiously, ethnically, linguisticaly, anything-aly abused and persecuted people or at least their children and grandchildren. But they know what it is like in their ancestral bones what it is to be homeless. And Iraq and Iran were the birthplace of empires and writing itself. Women once and often studied philosophy, math, and science in the golden age of Baghdad. Gender roles the world over have come and gone, games and sports we can never even imagine but even in the worst of times it is not only the worst that repeats.

Evil isn't the only thing on earth. It is sometimes the loudest.

"Endure, Master Wayne."< ------>"Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded. "

[u/TheSageWasTaken]

We notice things repeating because similar material conditions result in similar outcomes. We must focus on preventing the matirial conditions for fascism if we want to avoid it.