For so long we have always referred back to Nazi Germany as the last massive fascist and authoritarian takeover, but with America at the gates ready to go full fascist, the Germans must atleast be relieved that in a few years we will be talking about MAGA America instead of Nazi Germany.
W for the Germans I suppose.
I’m German and terrified. I find it difficult to grasp that the playbook that was used in Nazi Germany is right there to compare, how the whole thing happened has been taught in schools to several generations in a row, there’s memorial places to visit - the whole wealth of information is there so it doesn’t happen again!!
And here we are, and it is happening again - in what seems an even more overt way than old Adolf ever dared to pull off. They just built a concentration camp in Florida and are loudly bragging about it. People are randomly being kidnapped from the street, based not even on their immigration status but their skin color, by groups of unidentified thugs. All while the media - even international media - still seem to be unable to call “Fascism” to what is happening.
I would have hoped that us being the eternal Nazis would at least have a deterring effect on other people to not fall into the same trap.
does German media report much about American fascism and (getting my hopes up) Germans calling America out for it?
The majority of German media reports as if Trump was a normal politician doing normal politics stuff. Where I would expect some voices calling out the absolute awfulness of human rights violations being committed and laws disregarded it all sounds like “This is fine! We might not agree, but there is nothing outrageous! He’s just a very silly guy who happens to be the president of the USA!” - It is absolutely chilling to not have any larger news outlets getting absolutely alarmed, all is just business as usual. But then it’s the same with Israel - “12345678 more children died in the ongoing conflict (we are not going to tell you that they were murdered and who did it)” instead of “Israel commits murder and genocide and needs to be stopped.”
I think it’s partly that people think you can stop fascism with robust political structures and by cracking down hard on fascists. That approach doesn’t work, so long as the material conditions that lead to fascism exist it will come about.
I’m not actually sure what does work to stop fascism, considering the multiple fronts that fascism is mounting worldwide
Yeah, I’m fine with being reminded of our country’s past again and again if it means others don’t do the same bullshit.
I think there are also some interesting similarities with Mussolini. Just think of the role media played. Trump was really active on Twitter, while Mussolini used Il Popolo d’Italia newspaper to spread his message.
And other countries - including Germany ofc - are copying it.
It all started again with the ‘I didn’t do that, how long have we got to apologize?!’ mindset.