What Those Who Studied Nazis Can Teach Us About The Strange Reaction To Donald Trump | The Huffington Post

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We should not waste our time or imaginations trying to reconfigure Trumpism to explain why all of the “good people” supported him. It is more to see it for what it is and resist. Hopefully, they will join us. If not, it will not be necessary to call them names, they will have named themselves.

While on the campaign trail in February, urged followers to “knock the hell” out of protesters, promising to pay their bills if they were arrested and charged. That same February in Fort Worth, he promised a crowd that he would “open up our libel laws” so that news outlets can be sued for writing “false” or “purposely negative” articles. In July, he urged to interfere in the election on his behalf, later saying he was joking. In September, he urged still other supporters to “monitor” polling stations. In October, he promised when victorious to throw his rival, Hillary Clinton, in jail. And  he advocated revoking the citizenship of Americans who burn flags.

So, in the last year, Trump has flirted with or, maybe more his style, groped and pawed at totalitarianism, yet the advice from many is to “give him a chance”

The faulty premise that empowered Hitler and helped place him in the German mainstream was called the Dolchstoss or the legend of the “stab in the back.” It argued that, despite all of the evidence to the contrary, Germany was winning World War I only to have politicians surrender prematurely.

“At first, the countless violations of the law by our new rulers still caused a degree of disquiet. But … soon life went on as if such state crimes were the most natural thing in the world.” Joachim Fest writes in his memoir Not I

In today’s United States, the suggestion that illegal immigration is the cause of the economic struggles of working-class whites is an American Dolchstoss. Mechanization, globalization and the decline of unions have affected working-class whites to a far greater extent than illegal immigration ― or immigration of any kind.  “Rust Belt cities that are attracting immigrants are in better shape than those, like Dayton, Ohio, with fewer foreign-born residents.” Yet, “the people who are upset immigration live in areas where immigration has had very little impact. ” Hannah Arendt.

the claim that immigrants are to blame is the talking point of the demagogue, not a reflection of economic reality.

“Outside of Germany people often wonder at the palpable fraudulence of Nazi propaganda, the stupid incredible exaggerations, the ludicrous reticences concerning what is generally known. Who can be convinced by it? They ask. The answer is that it is not meant to convince but to impress. It addresses emotion and fantasy. Nazi propaganda seeks to create in our minds tenacious ideas and fantasies.” Sebastian Haffner, in 1940’s “Germany: Jekyll and Hyde”
Trump’s propaganda about Mexican rapists and Muslim terrorists operates in a similar way. The informed listener knows that most rapes are committed by perpetrators that are known to the victim. They know that most terrorist attacks in the United States are committed by non-Muslims, but the impression that those groups are not to be trusted ― that to trust them is taking an unnecessary risk ― remains.
“Mr trump is the expert at naming his opponents: Little Marco, Low-Energy Jeb, Crooked Hillary. It’s all about creating a “brand” in consumers’ minds, to persuade them of your version of “truth.” Master marketer becomes president. Of course, Hitler was Time’s Man of the Year for 1938″  Mike Hawthorne
“Those of us with History degrees understand exactly what is going on here. I visited my alma mater this past week and there is a noticeable pall over the entire department. In fact, the Nazi/Facist specialist is so depressed, she can barely speak. So Fight Back! And call game show host supporters what they are: Nazis. Always remember. White Supremacy always fails. It will here in America, too.” Kris Denton
“What do tyrants do when they’re backed into a corner? They lash out. My fear is that within the first six months we will see an event that Trump will regard as his call to arms. Where he will throw out the Constitution and use his generals to establish his law. Why do you think he surrounded himself with mlitary men?” Kitty Griffin Lagorio
Now that the Electors confirmed TRUMPUTIN as our Fuhrer-in-Chief, what I said before about our Nation’s Epitaph has come to pass:
“Here Iies American Democracy
Born 1776, Died 2016 on the day the K G B , the FBl and the K L A N ‘got their man’ – not the person the American MAJORITY chose.” Ronald Bruce Robinson
“The money behind the conservative movement (the oligarchy of the very wealthy and corporate special interests who are about to take actual power in Washington) have in the last 4 decades successfully:

– attacked and weakened (nearly destroyed) public education
– suborned the public tele/broadcast industries
– deregulated media to the point that it is now owned by them
– systematically propagandized half of the American Public into believing that they are victims of non-white races and non Christian religions and all people, concepts and institutions they consider to be “liberal”.

The money behind the conservative movement decided in the 1960’s that the surest way to gain and hold power is to create and nurture bigotry, fear and hatred. The fascist movements in the 1920’s and 1930’s taught them the efficacy of the strategy, they studied what they needed to do to accomplish it in the United States then systematically accomplished it. And here we are.” Kimble Klinzman

Source: What Those Who Studied Nazis Can Teach Us About The Strange Reaction To Donald Trump | The Huffington Post

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