I’ve said it before, but to say it again:
This book is essential reading if you want to understand current US politics. There’s a lot of 1850’s in the air right now.
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1922 was pretty early. I’ll forgive them for not being able to predict the next 20 years accurately. I would have come to the same conclusion. The 1923 coup attempt, should have been a red flag though. Or maybe his book, where he spells out pretty clearly what he intends to do and how, maybe that should have given them pause. In 1922 though, maybe giving him the benefit of the doubt was appropriate.
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Yea, The argument is along the lines of the Civil War being about "States Rights."
A states right to do what?
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A lot of Hitler’s rise to power had a lot to do with the Treaty of Versailles which the Germans considered to be extremely unfair and which they universally condemned. Hence, the “German cause” focused primarily on regaining lost territories and rebuilding of the army.
I’d focus on two issues when drawing comparisons: the “only rightwing Germans are real Germans, everyone else is a traitor” (socialists were accused of actively supporting the Versailles cause) attitude, and the widespread disdain for democracy among conservatives leaders at the time.
By the by: My grandfather on my dad’s side was one of the first SS members in my hometown (late 1920s), whereas my mom’s father was a member of the Christian resistance & executed in the last days of the war. And there’s me wondering as a kid why my two grandmas never got along…
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The 83% comes from an unscientific poll with a vaguely worded question “What if anything is your religion.” It therefore does not test the strength of affiliation. It was also conducted on a sample of only 1024 adults.
For serious analysis we need to consult an organisation like Pew Research.
“The latest survey was conducted in English and Spanish among a nationally representative sample of 35,071 adults interviewed by telephone, on both cellphones and landlines, from June 4-Sept. 30, 2014.”
(You can inspect their methodology in detail on their website).
Comparing the results of a one-vague-question asked of 1024 people and a detailed survey asked of over 30000 is not likely to be to the advantage of the former.
http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/
http://www.pewresearch.org/daily-number/jesus-christs-return-to-earth/
Pew’s research suggests that about a quarter of Americans are Evangelicals of the batshit tendency. That is still a ridiculously high number for the most powerful country on Earth, but I’m inclined to give them more credibility than ABC News.
The research also shows that Hindus and Jews are now the best educated and possibly highest income social groups in the US. I have seen suggestions elsewhere that evangelical protestants are now on average poorer than Catholics, an interesting reversal.
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42% Young Earth Creationists? I’m not saying that’s impossible, but can I get a citation? I grew up in bumblefuck Michigan and weird sectarian versions of evangelicalism were really strong in my hometown, but despite knowing a bunch of those people, I know very few young earth creationists.
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My point wasn’t that the Treaty of Versailles shouldn’t be considered unfair - “The Sleepwalkers” did a lot to balance the historical perspective. Rather, I wanted to focus on the issue that, justified or not, “being hard done by/not treated fairly” (as a nation) and “its the left/minorities wot’s done us wrong” where used as rallying cries.
Trump has other personality traits which make him incredibly dangerous, primarily his way of accusing “the system”/“shadowy forces” to be behind every setback. Erdogan seems to be his soulmate (also with regard to his taste in interior decoration), and I think Trump will go down that road. The moment we’ll see a serious Dem contender we’ll be the moment he’ll go full Nixon on him, and more.
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True.
But there are always as many national causes as there are people in a given nation. And if you make them overlap nicely, you control the whole nation.
- “let’s make Germany great again, dominate Europe, and get rid of the Jews”.
- “let’s make Germany great again and make sure all Germans get to live in the German Empire - bring them Heim ins Reich”
- “our nation is at war - however much we disagree with that dictator, now we have to stand by our nation” (that’s what I was referring to earlier).
- “our nation is losing the war - the war was wrong at first, but now we have to defend our home to keep it from falling into enemy hands”
- “the allies are invading. The Russians are more likely to rape my sister/daughter/mother, so lets delay them on the eastern front”.
Number 1 - that’s the hollywood-style Nazis. Really nasty. In power.
Number 2 - they’d be Nazis, too. They are more numerous. In 1934, they did not imagine the Holocaust. They might even still have been appalled by the idea if they heard about it in 1934.
Number 3 - I’m afraid America has plenty of those people, too.
I suspect that dictators start wars because with the support of groups 1 + 2 + 3, it is much easier to secure your power than with 1 + 2 alone.
Group 3 is comprised of decent people, yet they are the ones that I’m most afraid of. In 1939, they were the ones who “made Germany great” and allowed Group 1 to commit genocide.
In 2003, they were the ones who allowed GWB to illegally invade Iraq and cause the avoidable deaths of half a million people. Many of them are part of the US armed forces now, ready to fight Trump’s wars should the need arise. And many more are standing by to “Support the Troops”.
Wait, what? Why shouldn’t they? Politicians routinely communicate with like-minded politicians from other countries. I dislike Putin (among other reasons) because he’s the kind of the politician who would associate with Trump and with Austrian right-wing politicians, not because he’s Russian.
The people from Group 3 I mentioned above would of course start supporting Trump once it became known that the anti-Trump opposition was communicating with foreign governments (“Dear 习近平, please hold of on nuclear retaliation for another month, we might manage to impeach Trump by then”).
Fortunately, we still don’t know that just because Hitler wasn’t taken seriously enough, the same is true for Trump. Politicians who sound worse than they are do exist.
I’ll keep hoping. Because if Trump is worse than he sounds, I’d better get those extra beds ready for my American relatives, should they make it out in time. And maybe start building a fallout shelter.
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Yep: You don’t have to be an anti-Semite to make common cause with anti-Semites. The danger doesn’t isn’t that people subscribe wholeheartedly to Trump’s platform, but rather the “America does need shaking up, and he won’t be able to do anything serious anyway” crowd.
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Gallup tracks this:
Light green=YEC
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I think this election has proven that America’s biggest problem is education. Anybody properly educated about history would not vote for Trump. And although many of his voters were, in fact, college educated, I believe that they had a poor college education. Even the simplest, shallowest understanding of economics would tell you that there is literally no way Trump is going to magically replace manufacturing jobs that robots, not China and Mexico, have taken away.
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Thank you. I probably shouldn’t be surprised, but I am.
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Except it’s not like anti-semitism was new in European politics at the time. The Dreyfus affair in France was FRESH in the public imagination, for example. There was a long history of ignoring or downplaying antisemitism in European politics.
[ETA] And now it’s ignoring or downplaying Islamophobia…
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Really? Do you think that Peter Thiel isn’t properly educated? Or Trump’s team? Or the right wing elite?
What does that mean? Properly educated?
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systemic racism & sexism
voter suppression
apathy
a lack of class solidarity, empathy and communication
its electoral system
presidential candidates who don’t run very good campaigns
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Do you know who else was a vegetarian?
I liked what springer had to say…
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What kind of fucked up world is it when Jerry Springer has something reasonable to say.
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I wanted to respond to some who have mentioned Christian rapturists as a concern. The rapture theory has actually been dwindling in Christianity for some time now, in favor of Christian dominionism, which holds that the church is meant to gain control of governments, “return” the world to a Christian worldview and enact laws based on the Bible. It is thought that this will bring the world to a condition where Christ will return.
The dominionists are hostile to the rapturists, calling them “escapist” and mocking their views. The dominionist view has made huge gains in the evangelical church. There are varying degrees of the view, probably many who don’t realize this is what they are following.
To see how this worldview affects the religious right, google ‘Christian dominionist politicians’ or a similar phrase.
This election has split the Christian church pretty deeply. Some are frustrated with the hypocrisy of Christian leaders who were anxious to push Trump, others are convinced he is “God’s choice.” Franklin Graham made a statement after the election saying that Trump won because “God showed up” at the polls, in other words, it was a supernatural victory.
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