A friend posted this on Facebook.

[smirkymonkey]

I rarely ever use it, but I just happened to be scrolling through and came upon this. It's chilling, because I think many of us are just as blissfully in denial about the possibility that it could ever happen here.

[Tipperary]

1. Wow. Yes.

This is frightening. This time in our history is frightening.

[True Dough]

2. Completely relevant now

Hopefully the wicked mistakes of the past are not repeated!

[Texin]

3. I'm afraid they always are. History repeats itself over and over again, and evermore viciously.

[Whiskeytide]

11. Everyone learns from the mistakes of the past, ...

... even the villains.

[jayschool2013]

4. From "The Death of Democracy"

"The Death of Democracy" by Benjamin Carter Hett

[B Stieg]

15. Thanks. I thought this was from Shirer (1960). nt

Register and Vote!

[byronius]

5. Anyone who reads history knows this current story too well.

And it always ends badly for the nation in which such idiotic crap takes hold.

MAGA is bound to destroy this nation if it can. Axiomatic.

[calimary]

6. And there are Latter-day Good Germans all around us - NOW.

[sinkingfeeling]

7. An example 80% of the population is ignoring.

[appalachiablue]

16. +5

[Achilleaze]

8. k and r

[uponit7771]

9. K&R, and unlike today Nazis had complete control of media in Germany. We don't have that today

... we have a choice to look up facts on our own where as opposition parties and media outlets in Germany were banned or destroyed.

[alwaysinasnit]

10. We are already there...

When you deny due process to one group and get away with it, it then becomes easier to deny it to every one else. I am referring to the 5th and 14th Amendments. Additionally, in denying due process to asylum seekers, we are also violating international law. Whom among us will be next? GOTV

[RandomAccess]

20. +1

[LittleGirl]

12. Good grief

That's just ...

I can't. This is not going to happen to us.

[Duppers]

13. Another reason I hate Dem leaders telling us

Effectively to "behave." Fuck that.
This "Civility" mantra can kiss my 🐎.

[erronis]

14. Reference to Victor Klemperer's diaries

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/11/22/reviews/981122.22gaylt.html

[FakeNoose]

17. Similar to yours, along the same line

Chilling and terrifying

[appalachiablue]

18. Home run on the horrible reality. Thanks smirkeymonkey for this deep,

prophetic passage.

[iluvtennis]

19. Indeed.

[RandomAccess]

21. And we need to understand --

[smirkymonkey]

22. +1000

We must never underestimate their capacity for evil. If they can find a way to get away with it, I honestly think they would gladly kill us all.

[Ferrets are Cool]

23. Absolutely prescient, unfortunately...

we are headed down the very same path. I see nothing stopping it.

[smirkymonkey]

24. That is what scares me.

It feels like a runaway train loaded with explosives that we are powerless to stop. I have never felt so helpless in my life. We can vote, but they can cheat. If we don't sweep the mid-terms I will have lost all hope for this country.

[Ferrets are Cool]

34. I share that sentiment. nt

[Honeycombe8]

25. THIS! Yes. Some will say we're being dramatic & silly. Those people are naive.

I'd rather be alarmed earlier, than later.

I'd rather ring the bell earlier, than be too late to the table.

[smirkymonkey]

26. I think so. I think those who doubt that this administration could go that far are naive.

If Trump ever decides to suspend elections or make himself president for life, there is a very good likelihood that it could get this bad.

[Honeycombe8]

28. +1. nt

[JHan]

27. From "It can happen here" ...

With evident fatigue, the baker reported, “One had no time to think. There was so much going on.” His account was similar to that of one of Mayer’s colleagues, a German philologist in the country at the time, who emphasized the devastatingly incremental nature of the descent into tyranny and said that “we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us.” The philologist pointed to a regime bent on diverting its people through endless dramas (often involving real or imagined enemies), and “the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise.” In his account, “each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, ‘regretted,’” that people could no more see it “developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head.”

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/06/28/hitlers-rise-it-can-happen-here/

[Honeycombe8]

29. Chilling. nt

[JHan]

31. Yep,, "governed by surprise" cuts to the quick.

[smirkymonkey]

32. +1000

“each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, ‘regretted,’” that people could no more see it “developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head.”

That is exactly what I feel like is going on right now. And it seems that we are powerless to stop it unless our votes are actually counted in the next election. And I am not so sure they will be. Every day, I feel a bit more sickened than the last, a bit more hopeless. I really want to keep my hopes up because I know that this is part of their plan to demoralize us.

One thing to always remember. They are NOT the majority. As long as we continue to fight and stay vigilant, there is no reason why we can't win. We just have to make sure that they do not cheat again the next time around.

[Scurrilous]

30. K&R

[tblue37]

33. K&R for visibility. nt

[dalton99a]

35. Indeed.

[lark]

36. Putin and the oligarchs know their history and are using this against us.

drumpf is too stupid to know anything except self aggrandizement, he'll do anything Putin says and believe it's for the best because it helps him. He has no idea, no concept, of how other people survive and doesn't give a shit at all. He just knows that he has to follow putin;s orders because he's the one who put him in power and could take him out on a whim.

[Nitram]

37. I grew up in the 50s and 60s amid warnings that it indeed could happen anyplace.

We've had ample evidence of the truth of that ever since: Cambodia, Rwanda, Sudan, Syria, Serbia, etc. It amazes me how many people still don't believe it.

[smirkymonkey]

38. I think a big mistake we Americans make is that our government is so much more

Last edited Wed Jul 4, 2018, 02:06 PM - Edit history (1)

moral and civilized than people "over there". That we would never commit such atrocities against our own people or immigrants. However we currently live under a government that would have no problem starving its people or allowing them to die for lack of healthcare or resources. Why is it that much of a stretch to think that they wouldn't kill us outright if it became expedient?

[Nitram]

39. Not only our government, but our fellow Americans.

Trump's election proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that many voters are not "so much more moral and civilized than people "over there".