[DavidPiper]

Another opportunity to recommend "They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-45" by Milton Mayer. The audiobook is great too.

A critical but empathetic look at how fascism rises and spreads through, and alongside, ordinary people in ordinary society. Excellent book, incredibly relevant.

An excerpt, if you don't want to commit to the whole thing: https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.html

[dh2022]

I am reading this book now and from reading the book to me it seems there are some differences between 1930s Germany and 2026 US:

1. Germans back then were conformist people and following other Germans; especially authority figures. Americans are anything but.

2. Germans did not know what was going on; today there is a ton of media.

3. Nazi party took care of the “good” Germans: Nazis gave Germans jobs (anyone else, Jews, Romas, communists had to fend for themselves). Trump and his goons openly shit on American people.

4. It took about 8 years from boycotting Jewish businesses to burning synagogues, then another 2 years to start implementing the Final solution. Trump’s goons shot and killed Americans less than 1 year since taking power.

(Also important is that Adolf Hitler became chancellor at 44 years old, Trump’s most consequential presidency started when he was 79.)

Similarities to today’s situation that I got from the book are charisma both Hitler and Trump have, and how people seem to identify themselves with Hitler and Trump (for ex: which other American president had people put his name on flags, tattoos, cars, houses?)

Freedom is fragile and needs constant support. Trump touched a raw nerve but he is too vain, greedy and old to follow through with a full blown dictatorship. The goons around him are dangerous but lack his charisma and connection to the average person (do you see JD Vance filling up stadiums while spouting non-sense?)

[smackeyacky]

Americans are astonishingly conformist. Don’t let the myth making of American exceptionalism blind you to the amazing cult of MAGA or the reach of evangelical churches.

It only takes a small minority of violent thugs to make a bigger population of people who only want to stay out of trouble compliant.

[DavidPiper]

Not sure I agree with some of your points, but also not sure they're downvote-worthy.

As a non-American, the only thing I could probably argue against in good faith with enough context is Point 2.

I took from the 10 stories that everybody knew what was happening, and still nobody did anything (with one exception after-the-fact). The media today is certainly broadcasting what is happening, but I'm not sure it's actually solving the "let's do something about it" problem.

[dh2022]

I also need to clarify something: I was trying to say that for a long time regular Germans did not know about abuses on Jews; until it was too late that is.

After all the book starts with the synagogue burning in 1938.

This is very different from what is going on in the US where people are very much aware of ICE abuses from the very start.

[dh2022]

One thing I took from the book is that only 1 million of Germans out of 80 million in 1939 was part of the system that killed the Jews (worked in the ministries, railways, police, Gestapo, SS). The rest 79 million were not exposed-and the Nazis did not trumpet how many Jews were killed or how many synagogues were burned in the prior month.

The 10 people in the book did see Jews leaving their cities, but they did not think much of it. One of the 10 people said something to the effect of : “yeah, probably it was not easy for them to leave. But it was not easy for me either when I was unemployed”. I got the impression those 10 people did not really like the Jews (they certainly had their prejudices against them) but they did not hate them either (in some cases they visited each other houses and sometimes they traded with each other)