[nik-]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

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.

It's not like fascists invented these tactics. There's roots in human psychology that make them effective.