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kevinmkruse.bsky.social • 288 days ago

Read this, share this widely

I will bang this drum forever: in THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE FREE: THE GERMANS, 1933-45 Milton Mayer interviewed 10 ordinary Germans after WW2 to learn how fascism took hold. There was never a moment when everyone woke up:

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marquemaire.bsky.social•288 days ago

Brilliant. Thank you for amplifying.

cdpositive.bsky.social•288 days ago

I have a Jewish relative who, as a child, escaped with her family from Germany/Hitler, leaving behind a prosperous business/relatives, eventually making it to the US.

It can/will happen again if we hide our heads in the sand and pretend it can't.

kvynall.bsky.social•288 days ago

Do you think Trump/Project 2025 plan to swiftly implent their policies? And if they do would that not generate mass resistance?
It seems the proponents of Project 2025 are not incrementalist

irishknit.bsky.social•288 days ago

I think Chevron is a pretty big increment, but I hear you. P2025 proponents are the more knee jerk, scorched earth types. Literally.

inkonelbows.bsky.social•288 days ago

In the midst of reading it. Yikes.

hineni24.bsky.social•288 days ago

https://jeffreysaltzman.wordpress.com/2018/07/01/authoritarianism/

kegangel.bsky.social•288 days ago

Wow. Powerful.

stephscythes.bsky.social•265 days ago

redsonja.bsky.social•288 days ago

I am not an historian, however, it's my understanding there was a deep, deep strain of anti-Semitism in Germany before Hitler ever showed up. So it wasn't just the regular volk taking unsuspecting steps toward fascism. They wanted it; even yearned for it. Not unlike racist MAGAs.

urbfuturistdem.bsky.social•288 days ago

Strain, sure. But it needn't ever have grown as much and surfaced as much as it did. At the start of the 20th century, Germany was seen as one of the best places in Europe for Jews

acthpa.bsky.social•288 days ago

Yep, he clearly had a solid base to build upon, just like Trump did with his current base...

ornthoron.bsky.social•288 days ago

Yes there was, but that was also the case for much of Europe at the time (see for instance The Dreyfus Affair). It was only in Germany that it evolved into full-fledged nazism and genocide. The reasons for this are complex.

andrewcarl.bsky.social•288 days ago

There was anti-Semetism in many European countries & America. That's part of why so many countries turned away Jewish refugees, & why there was an international performance of guilt after the war that was used to advocate for the creation of the state of Israel.

tfuller3.bsky.social•286 days ago

I received “The Coming of the Third Reich” by Richard Evans. It’s not crazy long and it goes a good job linking pre-Nazi trends in German society to the pathologies of post 1933 Germany

daveanthony.bsky.social•288 days ago

It’s just people piling nonsense on top of nonsense to try to make sense of what does not make sense.

janetlinde.bsky.social•288 days ago

In 1986, I read an article in a think-tank booklet about Anatoly Marchenko, who'd recently died. He was only in his late 40s but died of broken health because he'd spent most of his adult life in harsh Soviet prisons, probably similar to the one where Navalny died this year.

janetlinde.bsky.social•288 days ago

When I got to the line in the article that said he'd died a free man, it hit me like a bullet. In Soviet Russia, people learn early in life to speak guardedly, not to say what they really think. It's verboten. But Marchenko did.

janetlinde.bsky.social•288 days ago

This is what Americans could be facing if Trump and Project 25 aren't stopped in their tracks.

25thcenturygirl.bsky.social•288 days ago

Certain American communities could be facing this fascism AGAIN.

irishgeek79.bsky.social•288 days ago

This is something that depresses me. I felt like we were finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel around 2010. Then the tea party came. Then Trump and MAGA and it was like someone slamming a door in my face and all that progress started to slip away. I’m tired.

25thcenturygirl.bsky.social•287 days ago

Please rest.

You deserve rest.

janetlinde.bsky.social•288 days ago

Remember that the Tea Party started with the Rick Santelli rant--on Feb 19, 2009, just 30 days after Obama was inaugurated. Then it was propped up as a fake grassroots movement by Americans for Prosperity, funded by (of course) the Koch brothers. This has been a planned, long-term project.

txdcny.bsky.social•288 days ago

the SC decision *5 days ago* making presidents immune from prosecution for crimes committed in office and ratifying presidential pardons are unreviewable was the moment…but the press, pundits, columnists & pols have decided their time is best critiquing Biden’s debate performance.

25thcenturygirl.bsky.social•288 days ago

It is dysfunction in action.

steventurous.bsky.social•288 days ago

“the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed.”

Good Lord this hits.

kevinmkruse.bsky.social•288 days ago

Yeah, it’s perfect

matthewkray.bsky.social•288 days ago

I just checked this out from the library, will be reading it immediately.

jakemerkowitz.bsky.social•288 days ago

They still haven’t really woken up https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/a-holocaust-survivor-speaks-of-her-anger-its-difficult-to-put-up-with-these-old-germans-a-9cc14234-653e-491c-b737-a64452bb6ceb

7amkickoff.com•288 days ago

we are on step c

divadarya.bsky.social•288 days ago

Read it in college in 1970. Even more cogent today.

golightly.bsky.social•288 days ago

How have I never seen this? I just ordered it.

sandimaccallum.bsky.social•288 days ago

This is another good one on the legacy of WWI -the rise of fascism, N*zi ideology, communism. It also delves into economic issues leading to depression and the root causes of issues in the Middle East.

kapdoll.bsky.social•288 days ago

kmagnacca.bsky.social•288 days ago

That second one made me immediately think of this.

kmagnacca.bsky.social•288 days ago

(though of course in this case he was undoubtedly dressed by his parents, so not really the same)

irishgeek79.bsky.social•288 days ago

God I hope that kid grew up and realized what a hateful environment he was raised in, got out, and grew into a more compassionate person. Sadly, though, it’s hard to break out from these cycles of hatred and bigotry. 😢

futuremonkey.bsky.social•288 days ago

I read that book about 6 years ago. I'm at my wit's end. I can't do any more to persuade people. I can't grab them by the scruff of the neck and smash their face into reality while shouting "LOOK!"

I am utterly powerless.

kevinlikesmaps.bsky.social•288 days ago

You have to give them something to *do* about it. "Waking up" is horrifying if there are no concrete steps to take. Give them a letter to write, a person to call, a meeting to attend, an org to donate to, a group to join.

But first find those things for yourself, so you stop feeling powerless.

futuremonkey.bsky.social•285 days ago

I guess I'll write to my senators Cruz and Cornyn. That will surely do the trick.

kevinlikesmaps.bsky.social•285 days ago

I'm sorry you're depressed. I hope you find some inspiration and purpose in life.

jeffreykeese.bsky.social•287 days ago

This was the core text in the History of Nazi Germany course taught by my favorite professor, Dr. Kramer. I’ll never forget the first time I encountered these pages.

andyfunk42.bsky.social•288 days ago

This reminds me of how so many people can ignore climate change until it's too late

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