People focus on Hitler and Nazi leaders and the atrocious lethal lies they told to justify the mass murder of Jews.
But they should focus also on the willingness of very many people to believe those lies, to cheer and assist as their Jewish neighbors were rounded up and sent to their deaths.
The problem is never just the Hitlers, the Nazis. The problem is us, many of us — our propensity to stigmatize and hate.
#Trump #Republicans #Hitler #Nazis #immigrants #BloodLibel #PoliticsofHate
/1
In a powerful essay written with his usual lucidity, Timothy Snyder comments on Trump's "Hitlerian month" and the continued refusal of many American commentators to acknowledge the clear parallels between what Trump and Vance are doing and saying what Hitler did and said.
As Snyder notes, the myth of American exceptionalism forces us to pretend it can't happen to us, the good guys.
#Trump #Republicans #Hitler #Nazis #immigrants #BloodLibel #PoliticsofHate
/2
But:
"The reason why we keep alive the memory of Nazi crimes is not because it could never happen here, but because something similar can always happen anywhere. That memory has to include the details of history, or else we will not recognize the dangers.
'Never again' is something that you work for, not something that you inherit."
#Trump #Republicans #Hitler #Nazis #immigrants #BloodLibel #PoliticsofHate
/3
"It is fascist to start a political campaign from the choice of an enemy (this is the definition of politics by the most talented Nazi thinker, Carl Schmitt). It is fascist to replace reason with emotion, to tell big lies ('create stories,' as Vance says) that appeal to a sense of vulnerability and exploit a feeling of difference."
#Trump #Republicans #Hitler #Nazis #immigrants #BloodLibel #PoliticsofHate
/4
"The fantasy of barbarians in our cities violating basic social norms serves to gird the Trump-Vance story that legal, constitutional government is helpless and that only an angry mob backed by a new regime could get things done.
It is worth knowing, in this connection, that the first major action of Hitler's SS was the forced deportation of migrants."
Snyder also dissects Trump's out-in-the-open antisemitism.
#Trump #Republicans #Hitler #Nazis #immigrants #BloodLibel #PoliticsofHate
/5
Sadly, that’s the impression I get.
Mine, in Australia, was modern feminist history, including units on sexuality & “deviance”, or rather, the treatment of those who don’t “fit”. Also a unit on religion, & units on American history & politics.
What gets me is the professed patriotism of Americans, alongside their ignorance. How can anyone think that their country is “great”, when they know so little? Either about their own country &/or anywhere else?
It’s a very sad state of affairs. I thought the opening scene of The Newsroom summed it up well.
The Nazis had plenty of collaborators who converted to the cause of hate & xenophobia.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/collaboration
France's collaborators:
https://www.france24.com/en/france/20220826-vichy-s-biggest-stain-the-august-1942-roundup-80-years-on
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_ticket_roundup
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vel%27_d%27Hiv_Roundup
Dutch collaborators:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/dutch-archives-on-accused-nazi-collaborators-to-open-to-the-public-in-2025/
Hungary:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_Cross_Party
Are these traitors to democracy any different than the Texas vigilantes reporting women for having a suspected abortion?
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/insidious-draconian-cruel-new-texas-abortion-law-empowers-vigilantism-experts-n1274642
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/03/texas-lawsuit-suing-friends-explained.html
https://otherwords.org/abortion-ban-extremists-are-using-a-slave-law-to-repress-women/
The Danes were super wonderful!!!
95% of Denmark's Jews were saved through dangerous evacuations by sea.
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20231002-gilleleje-denmarks-seaside-town-that-saved-danish-jews
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/rescue-of-the-danish-jews
https://time.com/6332953/denmarks-effort-to-save-jewish-population-world-war-ii/
https://www.history.com/news/wwii-danish-jews-survival-holocaust
@courtcan
Ask yourself this. Were Germans then fundamentally different people? Were they very unlike us? This after all was not that long ago, not that far away. Could it be that we're basically the same people, and therefore capable of basically the same thing?
I have yet to hear an actual reason why.
And the rest of the problem is the unwillingness of other people to call out their friends, neighbors and family for that hate.
I don't talk to them when they spew that hate. You shouldn't either. Call them out, tell them to knock it off, tell them it is WRONG. Tell them it's not "politics", it's their HATE that's the problem.
Thing is, these guys, mostly white males, are seeing their position of preference in society eroded. While most people see the lessening of deference to their priviledged status as a good thing, they are horrified by the prospect of competing on a more even playing field. So, they are easy targets for the hate merchants who promise them they are in fact superior and being unfairly deprived of their rightful place in society.
Take a workplace example. Let's say a very mediocre lazy white male is the foreman of a crew containing women, blacks and Hispanics. He works alongside them, albeit as their boss, and knows that some of them would do a much better job of running the crew. He now feels threatened that it is not just white guys that can be foremen.
A person giving orders is just talking to themselves, without those willing to obey those orders...
@wdlindsy How do you suggest should people focus on people who believe those lies?
Wat I think is the best we can try to do is never to ostracise them (it would just spin the same wheel), but rather to inform about lies, to listen to their real worries and focus on what unites.
@wdlindsy Yes. Trying to convince people by reason can even drive them in further. Ostracising does too, obviously, it reaffirms a „us vs. them“ cult mentality and is exactly what cult leaders are looking for. People often got trapped by propaganda, instead of having made a sane decision to join a cult. It‘s brainwashing.
What can help is expertise from cult counseling, listening to what quitters say.
@wdlindsy Yes. Former members are so important to society.
I also see real evil recruitment tactics being used by those cults. They are fishing for fearful, vulnerable people, and for that are trying to fuel any perceived vulnerability, like constantly downtalking the economy (and a lot more, I don‘t even want to).
It reminds of 1920 Fascists and Marxists who believed making things worse for others would be some sort of „neccessity“. Such movements tend to self-corrupt and thus fail, luckily.
@wdlindsy I believe the more there is now that motivates people out of cults, the more there will be when they implode.
And I see a lot of what happens these days as a sort of stress test, as an opportunity for societal improvements overall (in computer science / cyber security it’d be “pen testing”, one could say of democracy and our core values, which can only grow by it. Forgive me when I’m being too technical 😅)
William Lindsey 
lolonurse
Looking for explanations…
Nicole Parsons
Kee Hinckley
Asbestos
Lyricismist
Darwin Woodka
Andy
Escarpment
Mastodon Migration
Chris Turnbow
Utarg of Utarg 🔬🇪🇺🇸🇪🇬🇧🇺🇦
kmetz