You need to fully read the article before you make a really strong accusation like that.
"I think young D over there is the only born Nazi in the room. Young D is the spoiled only son of a doting mother. He has never been crossed in his life. He spends his time at the game of seeing what he can get away with. He is constantly arrested for speeding and his mother pays the fines."
If you actually read the article in its entirety, it's pretty clear from both her misuse of the words 'born' and 'biological factors' that Dorothy Thompson, unlike Nazis, is refering environmental factors and not genetic ones. Misuse of those words are the only flaws I see in what's otherwise a good article that feels sadly still relevant today.
It's interesting that you assume, incorrectly, that I did not read the article in its entirety.
So the explanation for the true meaning of her article is that she somehow "misused" the words born and biological throughout her arguments? and that what fundamentally causes someone to become a Nazi is their environment?
Whether your interpretation of her arguments is correct or not, I hold that individuals who promote national-socialism (i.e. Nazism) are entirely responsible for choosing evil ideas (not helpless pawns of their childhood feeding, physical training, or as you assert "environmental factors").
Ok, if you read the article then you've missed the context. She's pretty clear as to what she's meant by born which I've quoted above i.e born with a silver spoon. She's also made it clear as to what she meant by 'biological factors' which others have already commented on as well as quoted, which is definitely not how people today would interpret it.
To the downvoters -- if you ascribe, or condone someone ascribing, someone's ideas and character to their birth or ancestry you are objectively no better than racists and Nazis.
"born Nazi" does not imply that ancestry or ethnicity plays into it. It's merely saying that the personality that one is born with does. i.e. there is some quality of personality that we are born with.
"I think young D over there is the only born Nazi in the room. Young D is the spoiled only son of a doting mother. He has never been crossed in his life. He spends his time at the game of seeing what he can get away with. He is constantly arrested for speeding and his mother pays the fines."
If you actually read the article in its entirety, it's pretty clear from both her misuse of the words 'born' and 'biological factors' that Dorothy Thompson, unlike Nazis, is refering environmental factors and not genetic ones. Misuse of those words are the only flaws I see in what's otherwise a good article that feels sadly still relevant today.