In a 1990 Vanity Fair article following the divorce of Donald and Ivana Trump, titled After the Gold Rush, journalist Marie Brenner reported:
"Last April, perhaps in a surge of Czech nationalism, Ivana Trump told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler's collected speeches, My New Order, which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed…. Hitler's speeches…reveal his extraordinary ability as a master propagandist.
"’Did your cousin John give you the Hitler speeches?' I asked Trump.
“Trump hesitated. ‘Who told you that?'
"'I don't remember,’ I said.
"’Actually, it was my friend Marty Davis from Paramount who gave me a copy of Mein Kampf, and he's a Jew.' (‘I did give him a book about Hitler,' Marty Davis said. 'But it was My New Order, Hitler's speeches, not Mein Kampf. I thought he would find it interesting. I am his friend, but I’m not Jewish.’)
"Later, Trump returned to this subject. 'If I had these speeches, and I am not saying that I do, I would never read them.'"
In the same article, Brenner quoted Trump’s lawyer: “Donald is a believer in the big-lie theory. If you say something again and again, people will believe you."
Comparing Trump’s playbook with Hitler’s is “not a parlor game”, as Shanley demonstrates. It’s a relevant warning.
Have used this article and others to point out the similarities and will use yours to assist in informing. Thank you.
History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes. It’s has the capacity and capabilities of paralleling events, not exactly the same but so very similar. And when we look closely at how fascism rose in 1930s Germany to what we are experiencing now the parallels are astonishingly similar. You don’t need to see the SS insignia on ICE vests but their similarities to the Gestapo are present. Just as so many other policies and practices to executive orders, the MAHA movement to even changing the name from the Dept. of Defense to the Dept. of War.
Here’s how John Rees used these six points.
1. The Cult of Personality
2. Nationalism and Nostalgia
3. Scapegoating and Dehumanisation
4. Attacks on Truth and the Press
5. Undermining Institutions
6. The War on Expertise and Independent Thought
Also even have pointed out that even in this article when John Rees even pointed out this
“….on 1st April, Texas Congressman Keith Self directly quoted Joseph Goebbels during a Senate hearing: “It is the absolute right of the state to supervise the formation of public opinion.” Whether it was ignorance or something darker, it was said without irony, apology, or correction.
And when tRump even quoted Mussolini.. “In 2016, Trump retweeted: “It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.” When asked about quoting a fascist, he said, “What difference does it make whether it’s Mussolini or somebody else?”… Again parallels…
Carl Jung said, “The encounter with oneself belongs to those unpleasant things one avoids as long as one can... the mirror does not flatter, it shows accurately what is reflected in it"
For me it’s just “Growth is about looking in the mirror and saying: Yes, I did that. I was wrong. I need to do better. I need to learn and recognize the events around me because without growth you wither and die in ignorance”
Beautifully done-- a near perfect analysis of the current precarious state of things in our country. ...EXHAUSTION (Trumpers call it "flooding the zone") which I think you mentioned in your article a couple of time--is a universal state in human beings; you just get tired of fighting (and fighting back) all the time. You have enough to do just earning a living and taking care of your children, or dealing with your aging parents or working at one of the dozen daily chores of living... Only flaming zealots, burning with unnatural energy of some form of psychological vengeance are "inexhaustible"--
As you point out so eloquently, The Constitution is a journey, not a destination; democracy is not a "done deal." --though, out of plain exhaustion, you wish it was..
Its not always the threat from outside that's the most dangerous--it's the unnatural mutation of cells from the INSIDE (as with Hitler and the Germans)--THAT is what kills democracies.
Thanks for x-ray and the expert examination of the sick body of our democracy--AND for the prescription...
Reading this I said to myself, wow, this writer is as good as Mary, no wonder she shares her format. Then I looked at your profile and said no wonder she's so brilliant. Congratulations on one of the best descriptions of what's happening I've read. I shall share, although having been banned from FB my sharing is more limited now.
You presented this so well. I shared it with my daughter. She would like to believe it’s not any different than what’s always been happening in politics in America. She does worry about her children but just wants everyone to be happy. She had a narcissist as a father and I think she’s experiencing cognitive dissonance. She’s 45 and a Republican that believed Trump was going to help the US.
good summation of how authoritarian creep works. Hitler, even just Nazism, is just one KIND of authoritarianism, a subset of fascism, which is itself a subset of authoritarianism in general. Labels can be useful for some sorts of behavior--comparing ICE to the brownshirts I think is legitimate; when you get to Gestapo the differences emerge: the Gestapo were way better trained and organized than ICE will ever be.
If you read Umberto Eco's indicia of fascism, or Robert Paxton's analysis, that label seems to fit best what is going on right now, not Nazism itself.
H.L. Mencken provides the short version of this excellent article:
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace in a continual state of alarm (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing them with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”
The eleventh paragraph, however, is an example of the ‘Bad News Fatigue’ you describe, applied to yourself. It says:
“One of the most psychologically effective techniques of authoritarian movements is to persuade followers that neutral institutions are secretly partisan; that courts are rigged, that journalism is propaganda, that elections are fraudulent, that facts are “fake”….”
Alas, the Deep State Theory of our situation in the US today fits the facts better than mere incompetence or ordinary conflicts of interest. You haven’t gotten there yet, and I can’t provide very good documentation because it’s all SECRET.
However, as the Epstein files are analyzed, more facts will probably emerge to support the concept. Keep the door open for the long, hidden history that may turn you into a “conspiracy theorist” too.
As just one example of where your eleventh paragraph ignores Deep State guidance: you seem to think that it’s paranoia to claim that, “that journalism is propaganda.”
Yet the facts have been there for a long time. A 50-year-old Rolling Stone article is described thusly:
Congressional investigations in the 1970s and subsequent investigative reports have identified several prominent journalists and media executives who maintained secret relationships with the CIA. According to Carl Bernstein’s 1977 Rolling Stone exposé, more than 400 American journalists had secretly carried out assignments for the agency over a 25-year period.
Note: the CIA is also cozy with 33rd level Freemasons. And with the Mafia.
There are numerous books that provide a lot of circumstantial evidence, such as “They Cast No Shadows” by Brian Desborough, described as:
“While Desborough's work is foundational in alternative research circles, his claims are often categorized as conspiracy theory by mainstream historians due to a lack of peer-reviewed evidence. However, for readers of his work, the 'evidence' lies in the patterns of secrecy surrounding elite organizations like the Council for National Policy and the historical reality of unaccountable intelligence agencies.”
A top priority of the Deep State is to convince us that we can’t stop them, even though, of course, we in the 99% outnumber them, and, as the rose-colored glasses fall from our eyes (like your article), we can clearly see what they’re up to.
Here’s an example of how knowledge CAN shift the paradigm:
Only the wealthiest 10% [many of them Freemasons] can afford to get the legislation they want. The other 90% of us have no say.
Princeton researchers* looked at over 20 years of data to find out, “Does the government represent the people?”
A 6-minute video from Represent.Us summarizes the problems with the corporate influence in Congress and what can be done about it:
In a 1990 Vanity Fair article following the divorce of Donald and Ivana Trump, titled After the Gold Rush, journalist Marie Brenner reported:
"Last April, perhaps in a surge of Czech nationalism, Ivana Trump told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler's collected speeches, My New Order, which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed…. Hitler's speeches…reveal his extraordinary ability as a master propagandist.
"’Did your cousin John give you the Hitler speeches?' I asked Trump.
“Trump hesitated. ‘Who told you that?'
"'I don't remember,’ I said.
"’Actually, it was my friend Marty Davis from Paramount who gave me a copy of Mein Kampf, and he's a Jew.' (‘I did give him a book about Hitler,' Marty Davis said. 'But it was My New Order, Hitler's speeches, not Mein Kampf. I thought he would find it interesting. I am his friend, but I’m not Jewish.’)
"Later, Trump returned to this subject. 'If I had these speeches, and I am not saying that I do, I would never read them.'"
In the same article, Brenner quoted Trump’s lawyer: “Donald is a believer in the big-lie theory. If you say something again and again, people will believe you."
Comparing Trump’s playbook with Hitler’s is “not a parlor game”, as Shanley demonstrates. It’s a relevant warning.
Have used this article and others to point out the similarities and will use yours to assist in informing. Thank you.
History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes. It’s has the capacity and capabilities of paralleling events, not exactly the same but so very similar. And when we look closely at how fascism rose in 1930s Germany to what we are experiencing now the parallels are astonishingly similar. You don’t need to see the SS insignia on ICE vests but their similarities to the Gestapo are present. Just as so many other policies and practices to executive orders, the MAHA movement to even changing the name from the Dept. of Defense to the Dept. of War.
Here’s how John Rees used these six points.
1. The Cult of Personality
2. Nationalism and Nostalgia
3. Scapegoating and Dehumanisation
4. Attacks on Truth and the Press
5. Undermining Institutions
6. The War on Expertise and Independent Thought
Also even have pointed out that even in this article when John Rees even pointed out this
“….on 1st April, Texas Congressman Keith Self directly quoted Joseph Goebbels during a Senate hearing: “It is the absolute right of the state to supervise the formation of public opinion.” Whether it was ignorance or something darker, it was said without irony, apology, or correction.
And when tRump even quoted Mussolini.. “In 2016, Trump retweeted: “It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.” When asked about quoting a fascist, he said, “What difference does it make whether it’s Mussolini or somebody else?”… Again parallels…
Carl Jung said, “The encounter with oneself belongs to those unpleasant things one avoids as long as one can... the mirror does not flatter, it shows accurately what is reflected in it"
For me it’s just “Growth is about looking in the mirror and saying: Yes, I did that. I was wrong. I need to do better. I need to learn and recognize the events around me because without growth you wither and die in ignorance”
https://medium.com/@john.rees/do-trump-and-maga-echo-1930s-germany-a-cautious-but-urgent-comparison-78c1447cc7d5
Thank you.
Beautifully done-- a near perfect analysis of the current precarious state of things in our country. ...EXHAUSTION (Trumpers call it "flooding the zone") which I think you mentioned in your article a couple of time--is a universal state in human beings; you just get tired of fighting (and fighting back) all the time. You have enough to do just earning a living and taking care of your children, or dealing with your aging parents or working at one of the dozen daily chores of living... Only flaming zealots, burning with unnatural energy of some form of psychological vengeance are "inexhaustible"--
As you point out so eloquently, The Constitution is a journey, not a destination; democracy is not a "done deal." --though, out of plain exhaustion, you wish it was..
Its not always the threat from outside that's the most dangerous--it's the unnatural mutation of cells from the INSIDE (as with Hitler and the Germans)--THAT is what kills democracies.
Thanks for x-ray and the expert examination of the sick body of our democracy--AND for the prescription...
Reading this I said to myself, wow, this writer is as good as Mary, no wonder she shares her format. Then I looked at your profile and said no wonder she's so brilliant. Congratulations on one of the best descriptions of what's happening I've read. I shall share, although having been banned from FB my sharing is more limited now.
You presented this so well. I shared it with my daughter. She would like to believe it’s not any different than what’s always been happening in politics in America. She does worry about her children but just wants everyone to be happy. She had a narcissist as a father and I think she’s experiencing cognitive dissonance. She’s 45 and a Republican that believed Trump was going to help the US.
This is so well thought out and written that I only wish everyone could read it.
good summation of how authoritarian creep works. Hitler, even just Nazism, is just one KIND of authoritarianism, a subset of fascism, which is itself a subset of authoritarianism in general. Labels can be useful for some sorts of behavior--comparing ICE to the brownshirts I think is legitimate; when you get to Gestapo the differences emerge: the Gestapo were way better trained and organized than ICE will ever be.
If you read Umberto Eco's indicia of fascism, or Robert Paxton's analysis, that label seems to fit best what is going on right now, not Nazism itself.
H.L. Mencken provides the short version of this excellent article:
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace in a continual state of alarm (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing them with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”
The eleventh paragraph, however, is an example of the ‘Bad News Fatigue’ you describe, applied to yourself. It says:
“One of the most psychologically effective techniques of authoritarian movements is to persuade followers that neutral institutions are secretly partisan; that courts are rigged, that journalism is propaganda, that elections are fraudulent, that facts are “fake”….”
Alas, the Deep State Theory of our situation in the US today fits the facts better than mere incompetence or ordinary conflicts of interest. You haven’t gotten there yet, and I can’t provide very good documentation because it’s all SECRET.
However, as the Epstein files are analyzed, more facts will probably emerge to support the concept. Keep the door open for the long, hidden history that may turn you into a “conspiracy theorist” too.
As just one example of where your eleventh paragraph ignores Deep State guidance: you seem to think that it’s paranoia to claim that, “that journalism is propaganda.”
Yet the facts have been there for a long time. A 50-year-old Rolling Stone article is described thusly:
Congressional investigations in the 1970s and subsequent investigative reports have identified several prominent journalists and media executives who maintained secret relationships with the CIA. According to Carl Bernstein’s 1977 Rolling Stone exposé, more than 400 American journalists had secretly carried out assignments for the agency over a 25-year period.
https://www.carlbernstein.com/the-cia-and-the-media-rolling-stone-10-20-1977
Note: the CIA is also cozy with 33rd level Freemasons. And with the Mafia.
There are numerous books that provide a lot of circumstantial evidence, such as “They Cast No Shadows” by Brian Desborough, described as:
“While Desborough's work is foundational in alternative research circles, his claims are often categorized as conspiracy theory by mainstream historians due to a lack of peer-reviewed evidence. However, for readers of his work, the 'evidence' lies in the patterns of secrecy surrounding elite organizations like the Council for National Policy and the historical reality of unaccountable intelligence agencies.”
A top priority of the Deep State is to convince us that we can’t stop them, even though, of course, we in the 99% outnumber them, and, as the rose-colored glasses fall from our eyes (like your article), we can clearly see what they’re up to.
Here’s an example of how knowledge CAN shift the paradigm:
Only the wealthiest 10% [many of them Freemasons] can afford to get the legislation they want. The other 90% of us have no say.
Princeton researchers* looked at over 20 years of data to find out, “Does the government represent the people?”
A 6-minute video from Represent.Us summarizes the problems with the corporate influence in Congress and what can be done about it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tu32CCA_Ig
The video shows 3 graphs:
The 1st graph shows what representative government SHOULD look like.
The 2nd graph shows how RARELY Congress passes legislation that most people want
The 3rd graph shows how FREQUENTLY Congress passes legislation benefits the wealthiest 10% (while burdening taxpayers with the cost)
*Gilens and Page, “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens,” Perspective on Politics, 2014. https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/files/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc.pdf