BodhipaksaMar 4, 2025

Trump: "You're gambling with World War III."

History: "WWII started with a right-wing authoritarian leader allying himself with a Russian dictator and agreeing to mutually devour a country on Russia's borders. That's essentially identical to what Trump and Putin are attempting to do now. The way to stop WWII was to hold a dictator in check. The way to prevent WWIII is the same."

Show threadAcesabeMar 4, 2025
@bodhipaksa
Hmm, what was it that boosted the US economy like nothing before, heralding a golden era (aka the 1950s), oh yes, the spoils of war(s). Now then, how did the last one start....ah yes, that worked easily enough, rinse and repeat.
Show threadBodhipaksa
@acesabe Can you provide a link explaining what these spoils of war were? I've always seen the post-war boom in the US economy being explained as consumers having massive savings because they'd invested in war bonds, combined with the massive industrialization that had been developed in order to create tanks etc being retooled to create consumer goods, especially in the form of cars. Plus of course the GI Bill, which provided the economy with a massive number of college-educated men.
Mar 4, 2025 at 6:54pmWeb
Show threadAcesabeMar 4, 2025
@bodhipaksa
There you go! I should have put quotes: "Spoils of war" rather more than just what was looted during the actual war itself
Show threadBodhipaksaMar 4, 2025
@acesabe I don't think there was much *actual* US looting, or anything much to loot, except for Nazi rocket scientists.
Show threadTitia SchuurmanMar 5, 2025
@bodhipaksa @acesabe I believe there's still some art in the US that was first stolen by the Nazis and then ended up in the possession of the Allied forces. Every now and then you hear about some artworks being returned to the rightful owners' heirs. But that is incidental to the subject at hand.
(BTW, "The Monument Men" is a great movie about a unit tasked with salvaging European art treasures from destruction during the war.)