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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| Who goes Nazi? |
| 2010-07-27 |
| Dorothy Thompson, Harper's Magazine (August 1941) It is an interesting and somewhat macabre parlor game to play at a large gathering of one’s acquaintances: to speculate who in a showdown would go Nazi. By now, I think I know. I have gone through the experience many times–in Germany, in Austria, and in France. I have come to know the types: the born Nazis, the Nazis whom democracy itself has created, the certain-to-be fellow-travelers. And I also know those who never, under any conceivable circumstances, would become Nazis.... Sometimes I think there are direct biological factors at work–a type of education, feeding, and physical training which has produced a new kind of human being with an imbalance in his nature. He has been fed vitamins and filled with energies that are beyond the capacity of his intellect to discipline. He has been treated to forms of education which have released him from inhibitions. His body is vigorous. His mind is childish. His soul has been almost completely neglected. (Sound like anyone you know?) At any rate, let us look round the room.... via The Anchoress, who comments: Read the whole thing. I think Thompson got it very right. And people haven’t changed so very much – the types she surveys here are all around us, in our homes, our communities and most certainly within our pundit and political classes; they are before our eyes in every venue, these sorts who will, and will never, go Nazi. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #8 OOOOPSIES, forgot to add ARTIC > STALIN + Boyz were truly shocked at the Scale + Power of the 1935-1941 German War machine as rebuilt by Adolf + Nazis, + so perceived that COMMUNISM = SOVIET SOCIALISM WOULD LIKELY NOT SURVIVE ANY MAJOR SOVIET WAR AGZ NAZI GERMANY UNLESS, IRONICALLY, STALIN COULD GET THE US TO SEVERELY MIL WEAKEN IFF NOT MIL DESTROY BELOVED COMRADE HITLER + NAZI GERMANY. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-07-27 23:08 |
| #7 Versus WMF > JOZEF STALIN INTENDED THE 1939 NAZI-SOVIET NON-AGRESSION PACT TO BE A TREATISE SUPPORTING THE REJECTION AND FORCED DESTRUCTION OF WESTERN DMEOCRATIC GOVTS. ADOLF HITLER INVITED STALIN TO SHARE IN RULING A [future]DEFEATED BRITAIN IN JOINT COLONY WID ITALY, JAPAN, + POSSIBLY EVEN CHINA. JAPAN'S ATTACK AGZ THE US AT PEARL HARBOR INDUCED STALIN TO SUDDENLY TURN AGZ HITLER + AXIS IN HOPES THAT GLOBAL CHAOS WOULD LEAD TO SOVIET COMMUNIST DOMINATION OF BOTH EUROPE + ASIA. IOW, ARTIC > STALIN recognized that, as in WW1, America would not suffer from any serous War-induced national damage as would the Powers of Europe + now EAST ASIA. IT WAS IN SOVIET = STALIN'S INTERESTS TO ENSURE THAT THE USSR, + ONLY THE USSR [including SOVIET Socialism], SURVIVED ANY US-LED DEFEAT OF NAZI GERMANY + JAPAN, + RISE TO MILPOL OPPOSE POST-WAR AMERICAN GLOBAL POWER + POSITION. * FREEREPUBLIC > WORLD SPLITS IN TWO AS EAST TIGHTENS WHILE WEST STAYS SUPER-LOOSE. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-07-27 22:54 |
| #6 The Treaty of Versailles and French vindictiveness guaranteed World War II; the Great Depression coupled with the Weimar Republic's weakness guaranteed that an authoritarian government that could at least feed the public would takeover. Most people forget how close Germany came to being a Communist dictatorship in the 1920s and 30s -- the Nazis and their supporters were just better street fighters and pushed the Red factions out. |
| Posted by: Shieldwolf 2010-07-27 20:19 |
| #5 There were several strong impulses to Nazism, both inside of and external to Germany. To start with, before unification under von Bismarck, the rest of Europe sneered at Germans as ignorant peasants, except for Prussians, who were seen as hyper militaristic. Though to a great extent, World War I was pretty much a draw, the other European powers decided to punish Germany severely, though there was fault to go around. But by now, Germans were no longer interested in being 2nd or 3rd class Europeans. This ticked a lot of Germans off, so they wanted some payback against the other powers. And this was the big impulse to the Nazis, offering a powerful Germany that would no longer have weak leaders willing to put up with other nations oppressions. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-07-27 15:14 |
| #4 Not worried about neocomms (a.k.a. progressives) going Nazi, worried about going Stalin/Mao/Pol Pot. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2010-07-27 14:46 |
| #3 The philosophical difference between Pelosi liberalism, Marxist socialism, National Socialism, Juche, and fascism in the original Mussolini sense is a lot less than the so-called smart folks would have you believe. Someone even wrote a book about the subject. |
| Posted by: Mike 2010-07-27 13:12 |
| #2 the problem with the Nazis was not their stated goals, but that ANY means of achieving it were acceptable. in effect, the gathering of power over other people itself was the ultimate means and became the defacto goal. nationalism was what worked to sell it to the Germans, but the fact is that the mindset that any means were acceptable was the evil. the hard-core political left has a different stated goal than the original Nazis but the fact that for them ANY means are acceptable to reach those goals and to implement those means they seek more and more power over our lives is what should be scaring the shit out of us. they talk about personal freedom and respect for other points of vies and tolerance but those are just what it takes to sell enough of the populace on giving them the power they need to make the "real" changes. their ultimate goal is to destroy the America they hate and change into one we would not recognize. |
| Posted by: abu do you love 2010-07-27 13:02 |
| #1 All this talk of the ultra left being like Nazis leaves me flat. Nazis gained power and fueled their war machine by cultivating a deep and abiding love of the country in its citizens. The excesses of Nazi Germany were committed to make Germany great. Liberals hate this country and all that it stands for. Worrying about them going Nazi is pointless, they are too fractured and centric to their own tiny interest group to unite behind anything too powerful to be stopped. And they are a bunch of limp wristed, tofu eating pussies that own no guns. Now if you're worried about a group going Nazi, conservative elements are much more at risk of nationalist sentiment than the 'salad shooters'. Many are veterans, strong in their person and have a closet full of guns. They really shouldn't be f*cking with us at all. "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants." |
| Posted by: bigjim-CA 2010-07-27 11:42 |