Mark Jacobs: Let's compare the rise of Hitler and the rise of MAGA

[Nevilledog]

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@MarkJacob16
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With all the arguments over whether MAGA Republicans are fascists, I reread William Shirer’s “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” to see how much the rise of Hitler and the rise of MAGA smell similar.
Conclusion: They do. This thread lists 10 ways. Please take a look.
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12:59 PM · Sep 2, 2022

Unrolled thread (go here to see images of the book exerpts)
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1565791560259739651.html

With all the arguments over whether MAGA Republicans are fascists, I reread William Shirer’s “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” to see how much the rise of Hitler and the rise of MAGA smell similar.
Conclusion: They do. This thread lists 10 ways. Please take a look.
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1. A big lie about treachery is used to foment resentment.
Nazis: We didn’t really lose World War I. It was a “stab in the back” by Jews and other "November criminals."
MAGA: We didn’t really lose the 2020 election. It was a “steal” by politicians and Blacks in big cities.
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2. There’s an obsession with purity of the culture.
Nazis: “Racial mixture” was a threat to Aryan culture, Hitler wrote.
MAGA: “Great replacement theory” says immigrants threaten white culture.
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3. Chaos is something to be exploited, not addressed.
Nazis: Economic distress is a great political opportunity.
MAGA: Economic distress is a great political opportunity.
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4. The super-rich bankroll the right-wing seizure of power.
Nazis: Thanks to I.G. Farben, Deutsche Bank, Thyssen, Krupp, etc.
MAGA: Thanks to the Mercers, Uihleins, DeVos, Thiel, etc.
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5. Some people think the fascist threat is overblown.
Nazis: While Hitler posed a major threat, some said he "ceased to be a political danger.” (2 weeks later, he was chancellor.)
MAGA: While Trump poses a major threat, many people think it’s “just politics,” no worries.
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6. There’s a cult of personality.
Nazis: The German army made a pledge of loyalty to Hitler personally.
MAGA: Trump’s supporters bill him as “the most moral president” in U.S. history.
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7. Christianity is used to legitimize the movement.
Nazis: “The party stands for positive Christianity.”
MAGA: Trump is described as the “Chosen One” protecting American Christianity.
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8. Books are the enemy.
Nazis: Any book that “acts subversively on our future” must be burned.
MAGA: “I think we should throw those books in a fire,” says a Virginia school board member.
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9. An independent news media is the enemy.
Nazis: Any newspaper that “offends the honor and dignity of Germany” must be banned.
MAGA: The press is the “enemy of the people.”
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10. Educators are pressured to be politically compliant.
Nazis: Teachers took an oath to “be loyal and obedient to Adolf Hitler.”
MAGA: Florida’s DeSantis accuses teachers of “indoctrination” and pressures them to avoid references to America’s racist history and LGBTQ people.
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I'm not saying that MAGA will end up as horrifically as Nazism. I am saying that America 2022 feels too much like Germany 1932, and I don't want to take the risk of watching MAGA cultism play out. We have to stop it now.
• • •

[bahboo]

1. K & R...

we ignore this at our peril....

[ananda]

2. That was an excellent rundown.

Thanks for posting.

[c-rational]

3. K&R - Thanks for posting.

[alittlelark]

4. I took a class in Hitlers rise at NMSU - I have been scared for awhile......

Many I speak with have no knowledge of the history.

[Wounded Bear]

5. History doesn't repeat, but it does rhyme...nt

[UTUSN]

6. K&R

[crickets]

7. Each point is familiar individually, but to see them all lined up one after another is harrowing.

Joe's speech may have come just in time. Fingers crossed for the midterms and beyond.

[Pepsidog]

8. Stunning the similarity between the rise of Hitler and TFG and even more alarming that so many

people are oblivious or just don’t care. The Dobbs debacle maybe the thing that has awaken enough people to halt the movement towards the authoritarian right.

[Samrob]

9. Netflix has loads of documentaries on this. The one on Hitler's inner circle gave me chills. nt

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

10. Thank you for this.

Seeing the specific examples is scary.

[NullTuples]

11. Regarding number 4

The super-rich bankroll the right-wing seizure of power.
Nazis: Thanks to I.G. Farben, Deutsche Bank, Thyssen, Krupp, etc.
MAGA: Thanks to the Mercers, Uihleins, DeVos, Thiel, etc.

Not to be pedantic but Deutsche Bank was entwined with Trump, too...and the son of a US Supreme Court Justice who strangely and quickly resigned, giving Trump another seat on the bench to appoint.

[WinstonSmith4740]

18. I might be mistaken.

But a few years back I seem to remember hearing that Prescott Bush ran a bank for the Thyssen family. Amazing how many times we find Nazis on that side of the aisle, isn't it?

[IbogaProject]

24. Foreign dark money coming in to weaken the democracy

In Germany's case it was dark Republican aligned money via Prescot Bush, $50 Million Reich Marks. After the Citizen's United ruling we now have unknow foreign donors influencing American elections.

[peppertree]

12. BIG money behind both - good to see someone point that out.

The role of big business and the elites in the rise of fascist regimes is often (conveniently) overlooked.

It is, however, the determining factor to as to its success or not.

[SouthernDem4ever]

13. Who would've thought America was this gullible

but here we are.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

14. Gee, it's like somebody behind MAGA read a book before conducting this horrific orchestra.

[Solomon]

29. I keep thinking about Epstein because it just really really amazes me that

everyone believes he suicided himself on the same night all the cameras went out and all the guards fell asleep. Guards who were specifically ordered to watch him. Suicides himself even before he could find out what the deal would be if he negotiated.

Nothing to see here. Let's not give it another thought. Just stuns me every time I think of how everyone simply accepts it.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

30. Not everyone -- that little 'meme' image suggests it was not suicide.

MAGA didn't happen in a vacuum either. Cambridge Analytica provided the micro-targeting data and astroturfers pushed every vulnerable button they could. Decades of propaganda from Fox, AM radio, and extremist evangelicals had millions primed to become a RW fascist cult of personality. Trump, an opportunistic con-man groomed by Putin, jumped in before the oligarchs were ready.

[moondust]

15. Let's compare.

[yonder]

19. +1.

[calimary]

21. OMG...

[Hermit-The-Prog]

31. They think only their insiders notice such things.

[moondust]

32. The International Auschwitz Committee noticed.

March 2021, Berlin

At the Conservative Political Action Conference, former president Trump gave his comeback speech on a stage based on the widespread Neo-Nazi symbol of the Odal rune that was once incorporated into SS uniforms. In Berlin Christoph Heubner, the Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee stated:

"A few weeks ago, Auschwitz survivors around the world were outraged to see the photo of the storming of the Capitol in Washington, with one of the attackers wearing a T-shirt bearing the inscription Camp Auschwitz. For them, this photo once again symbolizes the close connection between former president Trump and the extreme right-wing and Nazi scene in the USA, which Trump consciously promotes with his behaviour and his utterances.

For many years Nazi and white supremacist groups in the USA have been using the Odal rune in their publicity campaigns to establish their ideological roots and to carry their message into mainstream society. The fact that this symbol has been prominently placed centre-stage during the former president’s first appearance in front of his faithful followers cannot by any stretch of the imagination be seen as a coincidence. Once again Trump is sending out a signal into the world of anti-Semitic and racist hatred in America: You belong to us. Stand by!"

https://auschwitz.info/en/welcome/announcements/artikel/lesen/trump-and-the-nazi-symbol-of-the-odal-rune-2372.html

[Hermit-The-Prog]

34. Thanks. That's where I read about that symbol before.

You may be the one who posted the link then, even. I didn't know about that symbol until it showed up on DU, connected to CPAC.

[BootinUp]

16. Thanks for the thread. nt

[Cosmocat]

17. 9 of 10 were in place LONG before 45

Nm

[thucythucy]

20. And these might be added:

Nazis: ban abortion, limit contraception, relegate women to "traditional roles" such as "kinder, kuche, kirche."
MAGA: well, this part is obvious.

Nazis: attack LGBTQ people as "undermining the moral fiber of society..."
MAGA: also obvious.

Nazi: anti-Semitism, "the Jews are our misfortune." The blood libel. The bogus Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
MAGA: George Soros, Jewish Space lasers, the "cosmopolitan deep state," blood sucking child molesting "coastal elites"....

[calimary]

22. Almost too creepy.

And of course, the MAGAts won’t see or recognize ANY parallels at all.

[Warpy]

23. I read those books when they first came out

and my mother grumbled that the books were bigger than I was. The detailing of the rise of a bunch of men who believed a bunch of horseshit that wasn't remotely true but their success into bullying wiser people into silence if not assent has haunted my whole life.

We got lucky in one way with TFG--he's OLD. He's too old to stage a brilliant comeback in ten years, he will most likely follow his daddy into dementia. Unfortunately, the billionaires who would be kings will learn from this and they won't pick a geezer the next time. They are also a little more likely to pick somebody with better bona fides than a thrice divorced, wretchedly bad businessman who cheated his whole way through life.

What can save us? A worldwide economic collapse, maybe, if it chops billionaires down to mere humans. Or maybe a massive natural disaster that makes it impossible for a baby Hitler to rise because infrastructure won't be there any more. Or maybe Congress will begin to understand just how close we came to losing our country, having it all stolen right out from under us.

Well, probably not, but I can dream.

[sarcasmo]

25. If Trump doesn't face any consequences and runs in 2024, I cringe at that thought.

[Chainfire]

26. We think that we, as a nation, are too "special" to fall for Fascism.

We are not. 40% of Americans think that the FBI search of Mar-a-loco, was a "witch hunt." That is more people that supported Hitler in 1932 when he got 30% of the vote. Trump, MAGA, and Fascism are closing their fist on the country. Trump must be prosecuted, convicted and jailed and his Fascist Armies destroyed in the streets, time is running out. If we do not, we will repeat history and the final results are as predictable as the sunrise. This is what the MAGA end game looks like.

[uponit7771]

27. THIS !!!! ☝🏾☝🏾☝🏾

[fightforfreedom]

28. Trumps father was a big fan of Hitler. Google German American Bund Organization.

Trump idolized his father. There ya go. Trump ran on Hitlers playbook.

[Emile]

33. History has an awful was of repeating itself.

Hopefully we can stop this fascist movement this November.

[dalton99a]

35. Yep.