Quote:
Originally Posted by jayswin
People have very little ability to apply historical events to present day. Studying what led to various outcomes is one thing and most can understand and appreciate that unrest and violence has led to most change in society (as peaceful and calm measures generally lead to nothing) but they hate seeing it in present day, in their lives, so they assign a negative value to it and chastise it as negative and useless. It's fascinating.
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As someone who has always been fascinated by the history of WWII, I've read every book and watched every documentary about that period I can get my hands on. It's absolutely infuriating to me to see modern day fascists employ literally the exact same tactics that were used to gain and consolidate power in the 1920s and 30s, and far too few people notice the historical parallel. When people say Trump and his cronies are acting like Hitler, they're dismissed for using crass hyperbole, and Godwin's law is invoked. Except they're not talking about the Adolf Hitler of 1944 who ordered the wholesale extermination of Jews on an industrial scale, they're talking about the Adolf Hitler of 1933, when Germany still ostensibly had a functioning democracy, and,
crucially, when he still could have been stopped before it was too late.