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Fascism took over Germany not by foreign attack, not by domestic civil war, not by subversion or trickery.

Fascism came with a whoop and a holler.

It was what most Germans wanted, or came to want under pressure from both reality and illusion.

They wanted it, they got it, and they liked it.




No, that's a gross simplification, and leaves out all the violence and constant deception. This is a good primer on just how far off the pop culture understanding of the Nazis is: https://archive.org/details/TheOriginsOfTotalitarianism/

"Without subversion or trickery" is flat out wrong. And it's also wrong for the US today.


I really have no clue about history, and what you say sounds very reasonable. I guess it is true.

But I think any person who wants to live in a democracy needs a bare minimum ability to detect trickery. Because there has not yet been invented a system where none of the politicians lie, and you can make good decisions based on taking them all at their word.

Now, maybe the level of subversion and trickery in pre-WW2 Germany and/or in the US now is beyond reasonable. I don't know. But in general, if "people were lied to" is a good reason for people to choose bad politicians, I don't think there is any hope for a good outcome, ever. The world just does not work that way.


You don’t even need a sophisticated defense against trickery and propaganda.

The thing that works almost automatically, with exceptions, is decentralized power:

- direct voting on issues by all citizens

- compartmentalization of government into specialized units

- bottom up federalism

- appointment of representatives on a per project basis, not for general power

With decentralized power, people make pragmatic decisions, because they are focused on solving problems and not on maintaining power.


If you don't want to read all of Arendt's book, https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/genocide/nazi_genoci... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturmabteilung#Rise provides some details of the violence before and during Hitler's rise to power.

This line in particular is frightening:

> They thought that the Nazis were just another right-wing, nationalist party and that Hitler would be 'tamed' by power.


The claim was Germans (not some, not a lot, not most; just "Germans") knowingly voted for all that came after. That would be false even if Hitler had been actually elected, instead of appointed.


Do you think there was any way at all to prevent what came after?


I'd say of course, but that's easy to say with hindsight.




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