It is easy to be sanctimonious about this now, but I often wonder what I would have done in the 30th in Germany when the only choice seems to have been socialism of the Hitler-fascist kind or the Stalin-communist kind.
Remember it is not politicians who make a culture. It is the other way around. It is the intellectual, the cultural climate that results in a certain kind of politicians.
History is driven by philosophic ideas. It were Enlightenment ideas that made the America of our Founding Fathers possible, and it were post-Kantian ideas that made a “Fuhrer” almost inevitable. Remember, the pen is mightier than the sword. A book about the pen is “The Ominous Parallels” by Dr. Leonard Peikoff. This book ought to be for sale in the Berlin “Hitler Exhibit” gift store. Tom, a look at history as shown in this unique book would also make an interesting topic for an “On Point” show.

Sorry, I introduced some errors in my previous post. Please, find below the corrected version:

Why didn’t you do anything?
This question was asked after the Nazi’s demise over and over again.

Like all who embrace totalitarianism, the Nazis were absolutely paranoid and were hyper-aware of their adversaries. They had compiled lists of names and addresses of everybody who possibly could pose a threat, large or small. When Hitler was appointed chancellor, he assumed absolute powers and saw to it that at the first opportunity a national state of emergency was declared. This empowered the security services to arrest anyone without a warrant. All enemies of state were hauled in and confined to concentration camps. Opposing political activists were arrested or running for their lives, including parliamentarians who could not stomach the Nazis from center right (Zentrum) to the extreme left (communists). Critical literature was banned, news were censored. If you spoke up against the party, draconian punishment loomed. If you were born in 1920 or later, there was little chance that you were exposed to any thought or discussion critical of the Nazis. At that stage organized resistance was nearly impossible. Fear and indifference ruled the country. It seems miraculous that some attempts on Hitler’s life could be carried out under the circumstances, and at least one was almost successful.

We should remember those of whom we know that they risked their lives in their opposition to the Nazi regime. They comprise conservative Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who ended up in a concentration camp for his believes, and socialdemocratic Chancellor Willi Brandt, who fled to Norway to fight against the Wehrmacht with the local insurgency. And they comprise all those untold who defied the Nazis with actions large and small that we never learned about.

As a Black American I am appalled at this exhibit. The glorification of the rise of one of the most unctious individuals ever to walk the face of the earth is not only stupid but arrogant.

This regime was the basis for all the hate speech of the Fruit of Islam and the Honarable Elijah Muhammed in Harlem. The hatred for white people preached by their organization and Malcolm X was predicated on the barbaric treatment of Black people and Jews during this era in history. Lynchings and concentration camps.
I’ve heard that because of this renewal of interest, regrets of the Wall comming down are justified.

Now I know how a radio station can hold a marathon and not break one million dollars.

I am struck by the similarity of the Nazi propaganda tactics and the tactics of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and so many others on the far right.

Limbaugh has always reminded me of Hitler, the yelling, the brainwashing, the mean-spiritedness.

Now we have Fox (Faux) News in the mix. The kind of people who buy into this nonsense amaze me, including my father, an architect licensed in almost all the states; who used to be a moderate who leaned a bit to the left. He’s managed to get my usually free-thinking mother on board as well.

I doubt if it will happen, but it would be good if Americans would take a long, hard look at Germany’s exibit, ane seriously compare what is going on in our own country today.

Sam is confused, very very confused. The left is not for big government, but more regulation –laws–a social contract–that restrict corporate power, corporate defilement of community and pollution of mind, and usurpation of democracy.

The right is fascist. You want More police, more concentration camps called detention centers and torture centers, imperialistic wars, bans on free speech and civil disobedience with pain rays and stun guns and gas, patriot act powers–people who dont think like me are criminal. The right are hypocritical moralists who kill in the name of murder and self-righteousness.

The right is nationalistic and viscous–the same as nationalists the world over–the same as nazis.

Sam is very very confused. Hitler was a nationalist and a fascist with similar ideologies as the American right and esp. the teabaggers.

sam, how interesting. I mean your comments are so absurd.
And they are also self serving in how you try to tie them into your political zeitgeist.
Fascism has always been a right wing political ideology.
Ask anyone over the age of 40 from Spain and they will tell you that fascist are right wing.
Or anyone form Chile (Under Augusto Pinochet) or Argentina old enough to remember the right wing juntas that ruled their countries with iron fists.

It’s sad, so very sad that some people have no clue at all of what they are talking about. You mix up liberals, socialist, communist and fascist. Amazing, simply amazing the level of your complete lack of understanding of history and politics is not only astounding it’s dangerous.

Leftists, Progressives and Socialists
by Walter E. Williams

One of the greatest sources of confusion and deception is the difference between leftists, progressives, socialists, communists and fascists. I thought about this as I caught a glimpse of the Oct. 2 “One Nation” march on Washington. The participants proudly marched with banners, signs and placards reading “Socialists,” “Ohio U Democratic Socialists,” “International Socialists Organization,” “Socialist Party USA,” “Build A Socialist Alternative” and other signs expressing support for socialism and communism. They had stands where they sold booklets under the titles of “Marxism and the State,” “Communist Manifesto,” “Four Marxist Classics,” “The Road to Socialism” and similar titles.

The gathering had the support of the AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union, stalwarts of the Democratic Party such as Al Sharpton and organizations such as the NAACP, the National Council of La Raza, Green for All, the Sierra Club, and the Children’s Defense Fund.

What goes unappreciated is that socialists and communists have produced the greatest evil in mankind’s history. You say, “Williams, what in the world are you talking about? Socialists, communists and their fellow travelers care about the little guy in his struggle for a fair shake! They’re trying to promote social justice.” Let’s look at some of the history of socialism and communism.
Nazism is a form of socialism. In fact, Nazi stands for National Socialist German Workers’ Party. Nazis murdered 20 million of their own people and in nations they captured. The unspeakable acts of Adolf Hitler’s Socialist Workers’ Party pale in comparison to the horrors committed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Between 1917 and 1987, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin and their successors murdered, or were otherwise responsible for the deaths of, 62 million of their own people. Between 1949 and 1987, Mao Tse-tung and his successors were responsible for the deaths of 76 million Chinese. The most authoritative tally of history’s most murderous regimes is in a book by University of Hawaii’s Professor Rudolph J. Rummel, “Death by Government.” A wealth of information is provided at his website.

You say, “Williams, isn’t it a bit unfair to lump the “One Nation” communists, socialists and their supporters with mass murderers such as Hitler, Stalin and Mao Tse-tung? After all, they expressed no such murderous goal.” When Hitler, Stalin and Mao were campaigning for political power, you can bet they didn’t campaign on the promise to murder millions of their own people, and probably the thought of doing so never crossed their minds. Those horrors were simply the end result of long evolution of ideas leading to consolidation of power in central government in the quest for “social justice.” It was decent but misguided earlier generations of Germans, Russians and Chinese, like many of today’s Americans, who would have cringed at the thought of genocide, who built the Trojan horse for a Hitler, a Stalin or Mao to take over. But as Voltaire said, “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”

While America’s leftists, socialists and communists condemn Hitler, they give the world’s most horrible murderers a pass. First, they make a false distinction between fascism, communism and socialism but more importantly, they sympathize with the socioeconomic goals of communism and socialism. The primary goal of communism and socialism is government ownership or control over the means of production. In the U.S., only a few people call for outright government ownership of the means of production. They might have learned that government ownership would mess things up. Instead, they’ve increasingly called for quasi-ownership through various forms of government regulation, oversight, taxation and subsidies. After all, if someone has the power to tell you how you may use your property, it’s tantamount to his owing it.

I believe most Americans find the ideals and principles of socialism, communism and progressivism repugnant, but by our sanctioning greater government centralization and its control over our lives, we become their dupes or, as Lenin said, “useful idiots.”

(Relatively speaking, how can National Socialism be so popular in Russia today if over 24 million died fighting Hitler? What cultivating environment is necessary to bring such extreme views to such popularity?)

Those involved with Neo-Nazi movements in Russia are a very tiny, but violent, group.

A better question would be: why do Putin and others in Russia attempt to glorify or whitewash the legacy of Stalin? He killed tens of millions of his own people and his ethnic genocides predated Hitler’s.

Without each other and their regimes, Stalin and Hitler could not have murdered as many people as they did. No doubt they are rotting in hell together, if there is one.

Sam,stop, you’re wrong. You are not allowed to say that fascism is solely a left leaning ideology. So you’re saying Hitler was a liberal? Was he liberal or was he conservative? Why did Hitler rid Germany of the Socialists? Was he pro immigrant?

Did you even listen to the show?

I happened to visit East Berlin the summer before the Wall fell, and there near the Brandenburg Tor, on Unter den Linden, I saw an Anti-Fascist parade, which apparently was a very frequent occurrence. My German was just good enough to figure out that the Communists considered not only West Germany to be fascist (in 1989), but all who were not Communists. They were marching against fascists like me and the rest of the USA.
After that, I consider name-calling a whole ‘nother art in propaganda, wherever it is used.

Or for that matter, Nicolae Ceauşescu of Romania. I don’t know whether “fascism” would be the correct term to describe his regime and that of the other two I mentioned, but the fact is that both left and right are eerily similar when it comes to totalitarianism. But of course, by citing dictators only on the right, one can maintain an illusion or imply that the left is not totalitarian.