William Lindsey Sep 29, 2024

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
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Show threadWilliam Lindsey Sep 29, 2024

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
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https://snyder.substack.com/p/trumps-hitlerian-month

Trump's Hitlerian Month

A September to Remember

Thinking about...
Show threadWilliam Lindsey 

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
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Sep 29, 2024 at 8:48pmWeb
Show threadWilliam Lindsey Sep 29, 2024

"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
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Show threadWilliam Lindsey Sep 29, 2024

"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
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Show threadlolonurseSep 29, 2024
@wdlindsy
This is exactly what my grandfather told us from the time we were very young. I already was aware that it could happen again, here, or anywhere, by the time I was 5. I knew the dates my grandfather came to NY, then my grandmother & mother 6 months later. I knew which aunts & uncles & cousins had been murdered. A lot for a kid to learn, but it made me know how horrible hate is.
Show threadWilliam Lindsey Sep 30, 2024
@lolonurse Have I mentioned to you before Daniel Mendelsohn's book The Lost. It's truly one of the most powerful books I've ever read. From the time he was a young teen, Mendelsohn was driven to try to find out what happened to family members in Eastern Europe during the Holocaust. His book recounts the story of his years of searching for information — and what he found. If only more of us chose to learn what your grandfather taught well: how horrible hate is.
Show threadLooking for explanations…Sep 30, 2024
@wdlindsy
Unfortunately “never again” has come to mean that such a thing could not ever happen again because of what we’ve learned as a result. But if we’re not encouraged to analyse & compare, to use critical thinking skills, then it’s not just possible, it’s likely.
Show threadWilliam Lindsey Sep 30, 2024
@Susan60 I agree. Very well-stated. You put the point precisely.
Show threadLooking for explanations…Sep 30, 2024
@wdlindsy
I’m a history teacher, & while I find history fascinating, I think our ability to learn from it is very limited.
Show threadWilliam Lindsey Sep 30, 2024
@Susan60 I agree, and I'd say that's particularly the case for Americans, who have a shallow, uninformed sense of history, many of us.
Show threadLooking for explanations…Sep 30, 2024

@wdlindsy

Sadly, that’s the impression I get.

Show threadWilliam Lindsey Sep 30, 2024
@Susan60 Same for me. My area of concentration in my Ph.D. work was history, so that field has long interested me, and my work in it convinces me more and more that many Americans just have little interest in history or much of a clue about it.
Show threadLooking for explanations…Oct 1, 2024

@wdlindsy

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?

Show threadWilliam Lindsey Oct 1, 2024
@Susan60 I think the professed patriotism of many Americans positively demands historical ignorance. It's impossible to sustain the myth of American innocence if you know much history at all. This is why so many of those on the political right and even the center want to shut down teaching of real history in our schools. Better to tailor what we say about our history in history books to those wanting to sustain the myths.
Show threadLooking for explanations…Oct 1, 2024

@wdlindsy

It’s a very sad state of affairs. I thought the opening scene of The Newsroom summed it up well.

Show threadWilliam Lindsey Oct 1, 2024
@Susan60 I hadn't thought of that good movie for a long time. Thanks for bringing it back to mind.