[sauropod]

Some people seem to think that the Arendt list is somehow faulting the Left. It’s not, at least not intentionally. She said these factors were present in both Germany, which went to the hard right, and Russia, which went to the hard left.

The article loses me right there.

Hitler, and his regime, were Leftist.

[KarlInOhio]

[Hannah Arendt] said these factors were present in both Germany, which went to the hard right, and Russia, which went to the hard left. 

First, fascism was an offshoot of socialism. Mussolini was a loyal member of the Italian socialist party and editor of their newspaper until he left based on foreign policy disagreement - not economic ones.

Second, although the economic right/left axis is important, more important is the authoritarian/freedom axis. In the end the economic justification of a totalitarian state doesn't matter because the government is in charge of everything and the individual citizens are not.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

“Loneliness Social Atomization Loss of Faith In Hierarchies And Institutions The Desire To Transgress And Destroy Indifference to Truth, and the Willingness To Believe Useful Lies A Mania for Ideology A Society That Values Loyalty More Than Expertise The Politicization of Everything If you think we’re not going on full-tilt on these things, you aren’t paying attention.”

More punctuation and less capitalization, please.

[imardmd1]

The author of this piece is Rod Dreher (click here)

[SheepWhisperer]

It's good to look ahead and determine who will be your “block captain”, should the communists take over this nation.

They are the leftist rats on your street, the busy bodies, gossips and snitches. They will potentially report you, swat you, or red flag you.

I know who mine is and is plain as day. Couple neighbors and I have discussed this topic and keep our information and beliefs to ourselves and when other neighbors start repeating this neighbor's busy body gossip, we plainly reply that this person is too much into everyone’s affairs and if they're gossiping about me, or the other neighbors they are doing it about you too, so be careful what you talk about. This has quieted it down a bit.

[PGR88]

The absolute first requirement for woke totalitarianism is government and bureaucratic centralism. Once you have power collected in the center, in the national government, its only a matter of time.

And in America today, nearly all Americans love the power of Fed.gov.

[Thank You Rush]

Very good - thanks for posting. We can see exactly what is described and it’s not comfortable. Who promised us comfort? No one. Did we ever expect it to happen to our country? I, for one say NO! A lot of grumblings and “what ifs” went on during the ‘60’s - 70’s and beyond..with relatives, friends and neighbors surely but did we expect it to really happen?

[JimRed]

She said these factors were present in both Germany, which went to the hard right, and Russia, which went to the hard left.

99% excellent, until the final paragraph. There was nothing "right" about National Socialism.