Western Chauvinist
1911
Adolf Hitler was a skilled orator and a man of “demonic charisma” (Niall Ferguson). Joe Biden is many things (demonic, demented, and corrupt, for starters), but he’s no Hitler, as anyone who’s suffered through one of his speeches lately could tell you. Other than that, it would seem the US is ripe for takeover by a Hitlerian fascist dictatorship.
I’m taking my cue from The German Problem conversation between Jordan B. Peterson and Niall Ferguson. It’s worth 15 minutes of your time.
While Peterson is naturally focused on the psychology of the Reich, Ferguson has the historical insights that help explain how the most advanced civilization at the time could degenerate into the ghastly barbarism of the Holocaust. See if these factors are ringing any American bells:
A technocratic elite detached from Christian ethics,
Opportunity presented by the collapse of the political order (things like lawfare and jailing political opponents),
A natural propensity for people to be led into unfreedom (security over ordered liberty — see COVID response).
Ferguson identifies the factors helping the fascists along in their efforts, including prosperity, propaganda, and coercion. Check, check, and check.
Ferguson and Peterson aren’t the only ones noticing the trends. Netflix and the New York Times see it, too (h/t Instapundit). Although, as per usual, the Democrat Media Complex is projecting onto MAGA Republicans.
SPRINGTIME FOR NETFLIX: Netflix’s new WWII series isNew York Times*approved:Hitler and the Nazis Review: Building a Case for Alarm. Joe Berlinger’s six-part documentary for Netflix asks whether we should see our future in Germany’s past.
Hitler’s project: “Making Germany great again.” The Nazis’ characterization of criticism from the media: “Fake news.” Hitler’s mountain retreat in Berchtesgaden: “It’s sort of like Hitler’s Mar-a-Lago, if you will.”
Donald Trump’s name is not mentioned in the six episodes of “Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial,” a new historical documentary series on Netflix. But it dances just beneath the surface, and occasionally, as in the examples above, the production’s cadre of scholars, popular historians and biographers can barely stop themselves from giving the game away.
As the conclusion of this series of quotes on the Weimar Republic from early in the series’ second of six episodes demonstrates:
BENJAMIN CARTER HETT, Author,The Death of Democracy:
Hitler comes out of prison into a Germany which is really politically much less favorable terrain for him than it had been in the crisis year of 1923. Hitler was really a crisis politician; he needed a crisis to be able to get oxygen. By late 1924, when he comes out, things have stabilized: The economy is doing better. The political system is sort of settling down.
ANNE BERG, Professor, University of Pennsylvania:
Between 1924 and 1929, this period is kind of often described as the golden age of the Weimar Republic. The good life slips into view, even if it isn’t quite reachable for the majority of people.
CHRISTIAN GOESCHEL, Author,Mussolini and Hitler:
The Weimar Republic was a progressive liberal democracy.
BERG:
We have relative political stability. We also have a thriving cultural sphere; filmmakers, [and] cabaret.
LISA PINE, Author,Hitler’s ‘National Community:’
We think about abstract and expressionist artists, the Bauhaus architectural movement. Germany was becoming more accepted in the international arena, so she wasn’t a pariah anymore. And so there’s this kind of quite liberating and modernizing aspect to the 1920s. Women were able to vote for the first time.
TIFFANY N. FLORVIL, Professor, University of New Mexico:
There were sex reform movements with individuals like Magnus Hirschfeld, who did studies about hom*osexuality and was conducting some of the first transgender surgeries in the Weimar Republic. And so you see all of this dynamism emerging. But on the other hand, the Nazi Party, Hitler in particular, recognizes that there are so many German citizens that are distrustful of this fledgling democracy that is supposed to be this new beacon of hope, but it rather is a beacon of disillusionment for many.
HETT:
Outside of Berlin, large numbers of Germans are living in small communities, rural communities where the artistic experimentation, the innovation, the sexual experimentation of Weimar Berlin is utterly foreign to them. And indeed, they are somewhat hostile to it.
BERG:
It’s a group of people who feel shunned. So, if we want to make a contemporary analogy, we can see the sort of forgotten people in America, there is a sense that the system has dealt them a bad hand, and Hitler kind of taps into a fundamental disillusionment with the Weimar Republic. And this is the concept that he will return to repeatedly, even after he is in power.
Because, you know, Republicans are so incredibly competent and powerful in all our institutions and are inclined to coercion and violence. I mean, we must be only one election away from that long-promised Christian theocracy! /end snark
See also these recent headlines (also via Instapundit):
- Dem Congressional Candidate Wants Nazi-esque ‘Reeducation Camps’ for MAGA Supporters.
- Look On Biden’s Face After Journo Asks About Trump Being A ‘Political Prisoner’ Is Chilling (Watch).
- Biden Spreads Misinformation About Trump Calling for a ‘Unified Reich.’
- Did Biden’s Love for Hamas Just Lose Him the Jewish Vote?
- Former Biden DOJ Official Prosecuting Trump Was on DNC Payroll.
- Biden’s favorite historian says images of Trump on trial are ‘reassuring.’
- USC Jewish center vandalized, glass door smashed: video.
- Maniac screams ‘I’m gonna kill all the Jews’ as he tries to run down students outside NYC Jewish school in antisemitic hate attack.
- N.J. mayor opposed hiring Jews, warned of ‘guys in big hats and curls’ in secretly recorded meeting, suit claims.
- Rewarding Fascism: “So now we know what it takes to become a state: the murder of Jews. Rape, kill and kidnap Jews and seven months later, the leaders of Ireland, Spain and Norway will recognise your statehood. That’s the lesson of today’s coordinated spectacle of virtue-signalling in Dublin, Madrid and Oslo: pogroms work. The butchery of civilians gets results. Fascism has its rewards. This is ‘diplomacy’ at its most dangerous.”
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Member
David Foster @DavidFoster
4:14 PM EDT ⋅ Jun 8, 2024
I strongly recommend the memoirs of Sebastian Haffner, who came of age in Germany between the wars. My review.
Thatcher
Percival @Percival
4:52 PM EDT ⋅ Jun 8, 2024
Western Chauvinist: Hitler’s project: “Making Germany great again.” The Nazis’ characterization of criticism from the media: “Fake news.” Hitler’s mountain retreat in Berchtesgaden: “It’s sort of like Hitler’s Mar-a-Lago, if you will.”
Courtesy John Nolte:
See AlsoSermons about 1 John 54Who’s Afraid of Christian Nationalism? - ProvidenceThe Conservatives Who’d Rather Die Than Not Own the LibsPolicemen Killed at Mostly Peaceful January 6 Protest Hoax
Border Agents Whipping Illegals Hoax
Trump Assaulted Secret Service Agents and Grabbed Steering Wheel of Beast Hoax
MAGA Assaulted Paul Pelosi Hoax
COVID Lab Leak Theory Is Racist Hoax
Hunter Biden’s Laptop Is Russian Disinformation Hoax
Joe Biden Will Never Ban Gas Stoves Hoax
COVID Deaths are Over-Counted Is a Conspiracy Theory Hoax
Mass Graves of Native Children in Canada Hoax
The Trump Killed All the Fish Hoax
John Fetterman Is Healthy Hoax
When error is consistently in one direction, we engineers call that a bias. What do journalists call it?
Member
Sisyphus @Sisyphus
4:56 PM EDT ⋅ Jun 8, 2024
Percival(View Comment):
When error is consistently in one direction, we engineers call that a bias. What do journalists call it?Whenever someone claims credibility as a journalist, that is the list of “accomplishments” they are citing, intentionally or otherwise.
Member
Scott Wilmot @ScottWilmot
5:06 PM EDT ⋅ Jun 8, 2024
Well, Joey certainly has the detachment from Christian ethics part down pat.
Coolidge
kedavis @kedavis
5:12 PM EDT ⋅ Jun 8, 2024
Western Chauvinist: Good News! Joe Biden is No Hitler
Of course not, he and Corn Pop took out Hitler a long time ago!
Member
drlorentz @drlorentz
5:47 PM EDT ⋅ Jun 8, 2024
Percival(View Comment):
When error is consistently in one direction, we engineers call that a bias. What do journalists call it?“Journalism.” And it’s not an error, okay?
Member
drlorentz @drlorentz
6:13 PM EDT ⋅ Jun 8, 2024
Many on the Left and the Right can’t stop talking about Hitler! Hitler! Hitler! Actually, I blame the Left, who’re always stuck in a moment in the past. Which moment depends on the topic. If it’s race, it’s the Antebellum South or the 1960s Civil Rights Era. If it’s tyranny, the time is the 1930s and Hitler; every tyrant is Hitler. As if there were no other cases of racial animus or tyrants in history. And, of course, most on the Right follow along behind the Left because conservatism is progressivism driving the speed limit. That’s why nothing is ever conserved.
There will never be any conservative victories, or a genuine conservative movement for that matter, until so-called conservatives refuse to accept the Left’s framing of every single topic. Hitler isnot the quintessential tyrant, bad-guy, or kook. He’s merely one of many. Slavery was virtually universal among humans for millennia but we can only talk about one case. One group of humans has displaced another, often using violence, into pre-history but we can only focus on Amerindians displaced by the white devils.
By accepting the Left’s framing, conservatives feel obligated to reject anything that happened under his kooky rule, notably nationalism. I mean, they called themselves National Socialists, amirite? So nationalism must be bad because Hitler liked it. Hitler was also a vegetarian, btw, so that must also be bad, too. He also liked children* and dogs. The logic is unassailable — for leftists or other midwits.
*not the way creepy Mumbly Joe likes ’em, as far as we know.
Member
Western Chauvinist @WesternChauvinist
Postauthor
7:00 PM EDT ⋅ Jun 8, 2024
drlorentz(View Comment):
By accepting the Left’s framing, conservatives feel obligated to reject anything that happened under his kooky rule, notably nationalism.I agree accepting the Left’s framing is a loser. But, certainly Trump — Mr. Make America Great Again — is a nationalist. And the globalists have done us a favor by making globalism so unpopular that populists are winning all over the place.
I think The German Problem is worth thinking about, since, like the US currently, the Germans in the early 20th century, were top of the civilizational pyramid and fell hard having lost the Christian ethical thread.
Marxists want to make Nazism about economics, but the point Ferguson makes about the real issue being values seems spot-on to me. He also points out that Bolsheviks killed God before Nietzsche did. We have a nation in which people are self-creating (transgenderism) and have redefined natural institutions like marriage based on their sexual proclivities. Having overthrown Christian ethics, there is no ethical consensus holding us together. However, we keep concentrating more and more power in the technocratic elite, making it seemingly inevitable that the most ruthless will rise to the top and the operating order will be imposed by force.
Member
drlorentz @drlorentz
11:20 PM EDT ⋅ Jun 8, 2024
Western Chauvinist(View Comment):
drlorentz (View Comment):
By accepting the Left’s framing, conservatives feel obligated to reject anything that happened under his kooky rule, notably nationalism.I agree accepting the Left’s framing is a loser. But, certainly Trump — Mr. Make America Great Again — is a nationalist. And the globalists have done us a favor by making globalism so unpopular that populists are winning all over the place.
The trouble is that many NormieCons think that nationalism is terrible, partly because of the association with funny-mustache-man. And that probably includes the likes of both Ferguson and Peterson.
I think The German Problem is worth thinking about, since, like the US currently, the Germans in the early 20th century, were top of the civilizational pyramid and fell hard having lost the Christian ethical thread.
Marxists want to make Nazism about economics, but the point Ferguson makes about the real issue being values seems spot-on to me. He also points out that Bolsheviks killed God before Nietzsche did. We have a nation in which people are self-creating (transgenderism) and have redefined natural institutions like marriage based on their sexual proclivities. Having overthrown Christian ethics, there is no ethical consensus holding us together. However, we keep concentrating more and more power in the technocratic elite, making it seemingly inevitable that the most ruthless will rise to the top and the operating order will be imposed by force.
Well, they’re both wrong (Ferguson and Marxists). Ferguson tries to equate the situation in Germany with that of other countries at the time. As a historian he should know better. The victors did not have to live under the Treaty of Versailles: pay reparations, disarm, and generally be humiliated. It was a Carthaginian peace. The victors of WW I also didn’t suffer the hyperinflation Germany did.
Ferguson has an impressive track record for being wrong. He predicted Clinton would win in 2016. He clutched his pearls over the 2021 Electoral Justice Protest. He thought Theresa May would do a great job with Brexit. He thought that governments didn’t do enough during Covid, presumably meaning more lockdowns and forced vaxing. Oh, and he also called Putin a fascist. Ferguson sure is into the whole Hitler/fascism thing, isn’t he?
Member
The Reticulator @TheReticulator
12:01 PM EDT ⋅ Jun 9, 2024
Western Chauvinist: Joe Biden is many things (demonic, demented, and corrupt, for starters), but he’s no Hitler, as anyone who’s suffered through one of his speeches lately could tell you.
Thanks for the good news! I’ll be sure to pass it along.
Member
aardo vozz @aardovozz
12:23 PM EDT ⋅ Jun 9, 2024
Percival(View Comment):
Western Chauvinist: Hitler’s project: “Making Germany great again.” The Nazis’ characterization of criticism from the media: “Fake news.” Hitler’s mountain retreat in Berchtesgaden: “It’s sort of like Hitler’s Mar-a-Lago, if you will.”
Courtesy John Nolte:
Policemen Killed at Mostly Peaceful January 6 Protest Hoax
Border Agents Whipping Illegals Hoax
Trump Assaulted Secret Service Agents and Grabbed Steering Wheel of Beast Hoax
MAGA Assaulted Paul Pelosi Hoax
COVID Lab Leak Theory Is Racist Hoax
Hunter Biden’s Laptop Is Russian Disinformation Hoax
Joe Biden Will Never Ban Gas Stoves Hoax
COVID Deaths are Over-Counted Is a Conspiracy Theory Hoax
Mass Graves of Native Children in Canada Hoax
The Trump Killed All the Fish Hoax
John Fetterman Is Healthy Hoax
When error is consistently in one direction, we engineers call that a bias. What do journalists call it?
Journalism?🤔
<sarcasm off >
< cynicism always on >drlorentz’d🤦♂️
Member
David Foster @DavidFoster
1:17 PM EDT ⋅ Jun 9, 2024
Western Chauvinist(View Comment):
But, certainly Trump — Mr. Make America Great Again — is a nationalist.Claire Lehmann argues persuasively that Nationalism is an antidote–she actually says the antidote–to racism.
Member
Western Chauvinist @WesternChauvinist
Postauthor
3:29 PM EDT ⋅ Jun 9, 2024
drlorentz(View Comment):
Well, they’re both wrong (Ferguson and Marxists). Ferguson tries to equate the situation in Germany with that of other countries at the time. As a historian he should know better. The victors did not have to live under the Treaty of Versailles: pay reparations, disarm, and generally be humiliated. It was a Carthaginian peace. The victors of WW I also didn’t suffer the hyperinflation Germany did.I don’t speak for Ferguson, but I don’t think he would dispute the other factors contributing to the rise of Hitler and Nazism. But I think he’s right that the Holocaust could only be perpetrated by a western people who had lost the thread of Christianity. Do you disagree? And do you see any similarity with America today?
Member
drlorentz @drlorentz
7:12 PM EDT ⋅ Jun 9, 2024
Western Chauvinist(View Comment):
I don’t speak for Ferguson, but I don’t think he would dispute the other factors contributing to the rise of Hitler and Nazism. But I think he’s right that the Holocaust could only be perpetrated by a western people who had lost the thread of Christianity. Do you disagree? And do you see any similarity with America today?Germany of the 1930s was far more Christian than the America of today, or even the America of 50 years ago. Some, though certainly not all, German clergy collaborated with the Nazis. It is also true that some resisted Nazis and were persecuted. In his biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (highly recommended, btw), Eric Metaxas describes the persecution but also discusses the collaborators.
Aside from the clergy, the German people were plenty religious before WW II, as were the citizens of all European countries. It’s difficult to put that in perspective given today’s relatively low religiosity in the West.
No, I’m afraid that religion has not been terribly useful in preventing atrocities in wartime and elsewhere. The religious wars of prior centuries stand as testament to that sad fact.
Thatcher
Percival @Percival
8:01 PM EDT ⋅ Jun 9, 2024
drlorentz(View Comment):
Western Chauvinist(View Comment):
I don’t speak for Ferguson, but I don’t think he would dispute the other factors contributing to the rise of Hitler and Nazism. But I think he’s right that the Holocaust could only be perpetrated by a western people who had lost the thread of Christianity. Do you disagree? And do you see any similarity with America today?Germany of the 1930s was far more Christian than the America of today, or even the America of 50 years ago. Some, though certainly not all, German clergy collaborated with the Nazis. It is also true that some resisted Nazis and were persecuted. In his biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (highly recommended, btw), Eric Metaxas describes the persecution but also discusses the collaborators.
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. I’ll second the recommendation.
Coolidge
Keith Lowery @keithlowery
7:01 AM EDT ⋅ Jun 10, 2024
Percival(View Comment):
When error is consistently in one direction, we engineers call that a bias. What do journalists call it?“Consistency has never been a mark of stupidity. If they were merely stupid, they would occasionally make a mistake in our favor.”– James V. Forrestal
Coolidge
Al Sparks @AlSparks
9:33 AM EDT ⋅ Jun 10, 2024
I’ve been thinking of the “Hitler problem” in one respect.
First, Hitler was not a communist, and hated them. Within Weimer Germany, the Nazis and the Communists were at each other throats.
And obviously, Hitler turned on Stalin when he attacked Russia.
So as a dictator, Hitler’s rough contemporaries were fascists like Mussolini and Franco. Those other two dictators ran their country’s economies in roughly the same way as the Nazis.
Unlike Franco, Mussolini also wanted to conquer other countries, but one thing Franco and Mussolini didn’t do was to kill the Jews. They just weren’t interested in the death camps.
I think that Ferguson is correct. Without Hitler, Germany might have turned into a fascist state nevertheless, but you don’t get the death camps. Obviously, what happened was very evil, but it was also very odd in its extremes.
The Japanese during that same period, treated non-Japanese very badly, and it didn’t seem to matter whether they were fellow Asians or Europeans. But if you followed their onerous rules, after the rapes, etc, when they occupied a territory, you wouldn’t be thrown into a death camp just because you were not Japanese.
Hitler was a special case.
Member
Western Chauvinist @WesternChauvinist
Postauthor
10:05 AM EDT ⋅ Jun 10, 2024
drlorentz(View Comment):
Western Chauvinist (View Comment):
I don’t speak for Ferguson, but I don’t think he would dispute the other factors contributing to the rise of Hitler and Nazism. But I think he’s right that the Holocaust could only be perpetrated by a western people who had lost the thread of Christianity. Do you disagree? And do you see any similarity with America today?Germany of the 1930s was far more Christian than the America of today, or even the America of 50 years ago. Some, though certainly not all, German clergy collaborated with the Nazis. It is also true that some resisted Nazis and were persecuted. In his biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (highly recommended, btw), Eric Metaxas describes the persecution but also discusses the collaborators.
Aside from the clergy, the German people were plenty religious before WW II, as were the citizens of all European countries. It’s difficult to put that in perspective given today’s relatively low religiosity in the West.
No, I’m afraid that religion has not been terribly useful in preventing atrocities in wartime and elsewhere. The religious wars of prior centuries stand as testament to that sad fact.
The Nazis didn’t take their genocidal behaviors out of Christian ethics, to Ferguson’s point. It’s one thing to claim religion. It’s another thing entirely to adhere to its tenets – Cf Joe Biden. And the US has a large population that decries religion while practicing leftism. It would seem humans have a religious instinct — whether its a true and good and beautiful religion, or not.
Coolidge
Trink @Trink
7:25 PM EDT ⋅ Jun 10, 2024
Western Chauvinist(View Comment):
And the US has a large population that decries religion while practicing leftism. It would seem humans have a religious instinct — whether its a true and good and beautiful religion, or not.Amen Sis. Amen.
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