MorningDew
Steven BeschlossYou don’t have to be progressive to grasp Nazis and Nazism are bad things and contrary to American principles. It just takes memory or a history class about what side Americans were on. Over 16M Americans fought in WWII, over 400k died and nearly 700k were wounded to defend democracy and America.
Shelby Wynne@StevenBeschloss Unfortunately they'll probably never learn that kind of history in a classroom. With the banning of books, Republicans are trying very hard to erase history. They don't want to be inconvenienced by their inability to be comfortable with hearing the truth.
Cwnidog@StevenBeschloss : To butcher a quote from a meme, “Our grandparents shot Nazis, they didn’t have dinner with them.”
STAR TREK USS VALKYRIE GROUP@StevenBeschloss It takes the memory of a real history class that teaches the truth. I was born in 1953. I went to the same schools as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer. We barely learned about what Hitler did in World War II. Of course we were taught they were the bad guys. The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Hitler wanted to take over the world. But it was only from my family and extracurricular reading that I learned the whole truth about the holocaust.
James Trickle uP@WookieCat @StevenBeschloss Born in 1965, I learned about Nazi atrocities from the well done history TV show, World at War. I'm grateful for the lesson. I had no idea people could be so horrible to other people until I saw that shown week after week.
@opalmirror @StevenBeschloss It wasn’t just that we weren’t taught in school. Our families who had lived through it, particularly the ones who were in concentration camps and survived, refused to discuss it with their own children. My grandmother, born in the US, once walked in and turned off a show I was watching about Auschwitz. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend the Ken Burns docu about the US and the Holocaust. It was just on recently. Excellent as always.
JMinSD@WookieCat @opalmirror @StevenBeschloss Right. My husband's Ukrainian parents, who were captured and forced into a German work camp, never talked much about their experience there. But his mother could remember exactly what she was wearing when the Germans took her from her home at 16 years old--even in her later years when she had dementia. The Americans were seen as liberators when the war ended. My father served in the Pacific and only talked about his WWII experience many years later.
Reynardine@opalmirror @WookieCat @StevenBeschloss I first really learned about Nazis from a program that aired when I was in seventh grade, called "The Twisted Cross". Quite a few more aired after Eichmann was captured. But most of all, I remember going to see "The Diary of Anne Frank" at the Lincoln Theater when it first came out. The youngest survivors were not yet thirty. I could here them crying in the audience.
Schools? They said zip.
Schools? They said zip.
Sondabeach@StevenBeschloss I think every time we lose people from that generation. How many will remember? I had an uncle that never made it home from the Pacific, another from Germany who did with schrapnel scars and was never the same.They fought not only for us, but democracy for the world.
Kyozou@StevenBeschloss Rachel Maddow’s Ultra podcast is worth a listen.
Geoff Wilbourn@StevenBeschloss My Grandfathers fought that war. One was IG under Ike. Must have been a bit frustrating being IG over George S. Patton Jr. 😂
TheMafiaMachine@StevenBeschloss Sadly, not everyone will grasp this concept. Upbringing, biases, and societal influences can be just as big an influence as education. Nowadays, it seems that in order for people to learn a lesson, they have to experience it.
Karl Morant 🇨🇦 
🖖Now we have Nazis in the US government at all levels.
The threat is from within this time.
Hey Nurse!!@StevenBeschloss it’s sad that there is no longer consensus on these statements: Nazis are bad and we live in a free country.
Melody PondRepublicans just pretend the Nazis we see really aren't Nazis. They're just trying to "preserve this country."
Ido Amir@StevenBeschloss And some were rooting for the Nazis. Some, like Fred Trump. There are bad people in the world, Steven. It's really important to recognize that.
Donald Trump loves Nazis not because he doesn't remember what they did -- but because he DOES, and would like to repeat it - in America.
@StevenBeschloss so many holocaust survivors said they knew they were really liberated when the American soldiers arrived. We were once the good guys. We stood for everything that opposed fascism. Now we have leaders who are trying to normalize tolerance for horrific, violent intolerance.
Jami@StevenBeschloss these used to be unquestioned, commonly held values. The “never forget” slogan seemed to go without saying. Now, 80 years later, here we are fighting old battles with a new generation of hate mongers.
Amras 
@StevenBeschloss While I completely agree with you, I would like to remind your followers of #RachelMaddow's #ULTRA. It's astounding how many Americans were on the WRONG side…
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rachel-maddow-presents-ultra/id1647910854
CharJTF 
(she/her)@StevenBeschloss And an unknown number...including my dad...dealt with PTSD (although no one knew that's what it was then).
smays.comMy parents were 18 and 19 at the end of WWII. My father was a radio operator in the Navy and saw action in the Pacific.
I once asked my mother if there was ever any doubt the Allies would win. She said she remembered the day people started believing the Allies would prevail, two or three years in. She struggled to convey the relief they felt.
I'm feeling that uncertainty now. I'm not sure the "good guys" are going to win.
FayeS
lolonurse@StevenBeschloss
You also don't have to be Jewish to oppose their ideas, since they are racist, hate disabled/other-a led people, lgbtq+ people, most likely (at least in the US) Native Americans, and more. They are very toxic humanoids.
You also don't have to be Jewish to oppose their ideas, since they are racist, hate disabled/other-a led people, lgbtq+ people, most likely (at least in the US) Native Americans, and more. They are very toxic humanoids.
Thom Pintello@StevenBeschloss
It’s plain as day why the conservatives whitewash history or don’t want it taught to begin with. History lays bare the truths that conservatives want to bury, to cover up. It’s the same thing with science. Religious fanatics make up a good deal of the GOP base and they don’t want anything presented that runs counter to their Biblical world view. Our very system of education is under continuous ideological attack.
It’s plain as day why the conservatives whitewash history or don’t want it taught to begin with. History lays bare the truths that conservatives want to bury, to cover up. It’s the same thing with science. Religious fanatics make up a good deal of the GOP base and they don’t want anything presented that runs counter to their Biblical world view. Our very system of education is under continuous ideological attack.
Kabit Bunny ~ θΔ ~ 🔜🔜 Berlin@StevenBeschloss while I agree in spirit (and certainly agree nazis were and are bad), i don't think the rest is at all accurate. Eugenics were very popular in the USA leading up to WWII and nazi Germany took notes from American racism.
The USA has also been involved in multiple genocides.
Ceremus 
@Kabit @StevenBeschloss All true, not to mention the US was perfectly content to stay out of the conflict with them until Pearl Harbor.
NetworkElf@StevenBeschloss The problem is that the GOP doesn't think that nazis or nazism were/are bad things. The GOP literally see the rise of Hitler as a roadmap for America.
Pete@StevenBeschloss It’s interesting that just as the “Greatest Generation” is leaving the stage the Nazis begin to stage a return here. Once the first-person memory is gone, the lesson dies.
Cecilia@StevenBeschloss in reality, the only reason America fought the Nazis is because their alliances with France and Britain. Remember Lindbergh and Ford.
Brociety Advocate@StevenBeschloss nobody disagrees with you