How does the rise of MAGA change the way you think

[speak easy]

about Germany's descent into totalitarianism and genocide?

[hlthe2b]

1. Vulnerable...

[TigressDem]

13. +1 nt

[RockRaven]

2. No, I'm just as angry and judgmental about it as I used to be.

And those same feelings are now also directed towards Americans.

[TigressDem]

14. And that has been helpful to you so far?

I guess at least you are getting some satisfaction out of knowing this rise of the Reich Wing is awful and those orchestrating it and dancing to its tune are awful and doing awful things.

But as a person who can't exactly stop the juggernaut by yourself, do you have any sympathy for those who could not stop Hitler either?

Or do you include yourself in all this anger? Are you awful too?

I used to wonder HOW COULD THEY LET IT HAPPEN?

Now I see even when you are fighting tooth and nail, it's still a battle and (hopefully) we won't end up in their shoes being judged on the other side of history ourselves.

[RockRaven]

16. It's neither helpful nor unhelpful. It just is.

My thoughts and feelings about protofascists are what they are because of my distaste for fascism and all that it entails, so it makes very little difference if the protofascists are historical or contemporary, foreigners or countrymen.

There is no satisfaction to be had in loathing them, but living amongst them instead of reading about them in a book doesn't make either group of them any less loathsome. I'm not inclined to allow whatever I might have in common with them blind me to the danger their project poses to us all, if I can help it.

[OAITW r.2.0]

3. More concentrated stupid the I realized in the USA.

Thought we had dealt with the moronic establishment in '75. Turns out too many turned into their parents.

[dchill]

4. It makes me feel like I'm flying too close to the sun.

[elleng]

5. Not at all about THE WAY I think;

I'm always cautious, and generally suspicious about 'human nature.'

[speak easy]

8. The question usually asked is

'how could this proud, well educated , cultured people ...' ?

[elleng]

9. We've lost a lot 'well-educated, cultured,'

'thanks' to gingrich/reagan/and others.

[speak easy]

10. The assumption is 'well educated, cultured' people do not hate,

and are not prepared to stomp on their brothers and sisters on their way up the greasy pole. "well educated, cultured" is code for better than the us. IMO.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

19. That damned, hateful, spiteful Newt poisoned the dialog.

[kimbutgar]

6. More uncertain upon the future I envisioned

I don’t want to live in a scary environment but it looks like it’s going that way.

[Zambero]

7. Thinking of historical precedents

such as Nazi Germany. Also wondering whether society at-large will recognize the similarities and change course for the better, before there's no turning back. My biggest concern at this point is an activist right-wing Supreme Court that has demonstrated a willingness to shred Constitutional checks and balances, not to mention overriding the will of the majority of citizens.

[Chainfire]

11. When I am out in public, I wonder who around me would be willing, if they could get away with it,

to kill me because of my progressive views. I know that they are all around me; some of them advertise it, but the most dangerous ones keep it to themselves.

I am afraid that we may well follow in Germany's footsteps. The next few months may well decide whether we live in peace or destroy each other. Trump, Trumpism and the Republican Party resemble the Nazis of 1932. In '32 the German people could have stopped the Nazis, but they lacked the willpower.

We are not so special as to be immune to the diseases that kill nations.

[speak easy]

12. Imagine Lindsey Graham closing the gas chamber door while bleating

ad nauseam , that it is not his fault, only yours, because "if you had not ..."

[TigressDem]

15. I wonder if my son who is on the fringe and drinking the koolaid ...

will be the one ordered to put a bullet in my head.

IF this becomes a police state ruled by the MAGA, will he be part of the militia ordered to put me down?

Because dammed if I will go quietly.

[speak easy]

17. so sorry :(

[Solly Mack]

18. Doesn't.

I never thought Americans were/America was somehow different or better.

Fuck people, just look at our history as a country and as a people.

I don't tell myself the atrocities committed by the government and by the citizens were an aberration. People can claim "this isn't us" or "this isn't who we are" (as a nation) but then who was it?

Can't claim it was only some of the people when hate and discrimination is codified into law. Laws and norms that benefited a single skin hue.

Pleading ignorance doesn't absolve anyone.

You didn't know because you didn't want to know, and you didn't want to know because you thought everything was as it should be.

I get not everyone supported every bad thing that has happened but enough did that widespread bad things took place and people found ways to either rationalize them or downplay the bad.

Without a doubt there are people who rocked the boat, who fought against the wrongs being committed - but there's a reason why those people can be named. Lot easier to name the few who resisted than to name the millions who didn't.

[TigressDem]

20. Except, at this point we are seeing that mentality take over.

Every nation has done things it isn't proud of, but in this moment, we who DON'T support this madness even though it is threatening to swallow us whole can maybe wonder about those in Germany who also faced this same kind of craziness taking over their government.

It doesn't mean we stop fighting.

It just reminds us that the Germans who had to rebuild did so with the shadow of the swastika over their efforts.

Like them, and as in our past we will have these things hanging over us to remind us that this kind of catastrophic failure is possible, even here, even now.

And resistance by the masses also needs to take into account that unlike the privileged rich, most people have to keep working in the midst of this chaos in order to put a roof over our heads and food on the table.

We may still resist, we may still do what it takes, but we sure don't have time to stop and write books about it.

lol

[kentuck]

21. Less faith in the judgement of the American people...

..thus increasing the likelihood of descending into authoritarianism or totalitarianism.

[Emile]

22. The threat of a fascist takeover is too real. I

never dreamed it could really happen here in the land of the free, but MAGA idiots following a con man made me a believer!