Today I Learned

One method was locking them in an idling truck and suffocating them with exhaust.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_van

Very few people understand what fascism is in the concrete day to day sense. Fascist politics are very normalized in the modern world. They obfuscate everything they do. The more they can confuse and entangle antifascists the better. While we try and deconstruct their empty statements and lies they spend the whole time making confusing and conflicting statements, trying to garner as much support from bigoted people as possible. Its a union of bigotry, greed, and manipulation.

Fascists are themselves parasitic to democracy. Their existence within democracy whatsoever steadily nurtures them. The more tolerable their ideas are the faster they will grow. Tolerating Nazis at all is the same thing as promoting them. Their ideology spreads like a virus, it doesnt try to convince you merely overwhelms you. It harkens out to the priviledged masses fear of the other, and then surrounds them in a fog of conflicting information and symbolism. It says "believe in me and I will keep you safe" before outputting a barrage of rage, hatred, disgust, fear and dread. It uses language like symbolism itself. It preoccupies itself with definitions, centralizing itself as authority over reality itself. Once someone has become a fascist it is statistically impossible to change their views. Once someone has become a fascist they are overwhelmingly likely to never change. There is no scientifically proven way to deradicalize them. That's how powerful a hold it creates. True believers in fascism exist in this perpetual state of anger and confusion. The rest see utility in fascism, to advance their bigotry or to profit off of corruption.

Fascism doesnt need to win over everyone in this manner. They know they won't. All they need is to have true legislative power for a single moment. Thats all it takes for them to end democracy. Those they cannot force to walk at the end of gun will fall victim to its bullets. Once they have power it's no longer possible to use any institutions against them. They will use militias and armies to threaten coerce and kill anyone who opposes them. All it took was one moment, one instant for democracy to die in Weimar Germany. All Hitler needed was true legislative power for one single day. Some 20-30 million people paid the price for that.

If you look at the actual election that got Hitler elected prior to his absolute rule, it was actually pretty close. He did not win by a landslide. The nazi party actually barely held on to power. Only 33% of the country voted for them in November of 1932. A third. It didnt matter though, thats all it takes. 37% collectively voted for the social democrats and the communists. Some people run afoul of claiming that Germany was in full support of the Nazis. It just isnt true. But it didn't matter. The following year they had armed SA at all the polling stations and were able to cement absolute authority over the whole country.

I was watching the PBS American Experience episode on Nazi City, USA.

Hearing literally the same words that came out of the American Nazi party in 1930s that have been spewed by Republicans in the last 10 years was frankly TERRIFYING.

What is wild is that MOST people had no idea about the Holocaust as it was happening. That when we learn of WWII and all that was around it and you hear about the camps you think "no shit we went to help with that." But then find out that wasn't really a motivation for the masses is crazy.

... isn't the functionalist (?) version more what the west/victors wrote about WWII? Not even as propaganda per se, just bcs it can be summed up in one line & afterwards easier to append propaganda for various purposes.

Clearly if Hitler planned everything that happened he would have needed to hold power for a lot longer to solidify his sole influence or have overwhelming public support (and then do all the rest).

I think it starts with the person up top seeing more and more what they are able to get sway with and how little accountability there is and things just snowball from there. At any point, the dictator up top could stop things, but instead their true evil nature gets revealed.

OP said he was reading the same book a minute after you. In case you are interested in chatting it up with them haha

I'm sick of parallels, when are we gonna do orthogonals

I also recommend In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson. It follows the US ambassador to Germany in the 30s and how he tries to warn his counterparts back home how bad things are getting. Again, many parallels.

Another great book about the actual process of the holocaust is IBM and the Holocaust. Lots of detail about how the victims were targetted and then how IT really made a lot of the horrors possible

Recommended read for anyone curious about the logistics.

One of the most well know and influential anti Nazi songs of the era The Peat Bog Soldiers was composed in 1933 as well.

Even years before the outbreak of war in Europe these camps had already had a storied history.

Swan Lake 2: 'Murica Boogaloo

The revolution will not be televised