Posted on 02/23/2016 1:42:28 PM PST by Citizen Zed
To understand the rise of Hitler and the spread of Nazism, I have generally relied on the German-Jewish emigre philosopher Hannah Arendt and her arguments about the banality of evil. Somehow people can understand themselves as "just doing their job," yet act as cogs in the wheel of a murderous machine. Arendt also offered a second answer in a small but powerful book called "Men in Dark Times." In this book, she described all those who thought that Hitler's rise was a terrible thing but chose "internal exile," or staying invisible and out of the way as their strategy for coping with the situation. They knew evil was evil, but they too facilitated it, by departing from the battlefield out of a sense of hopelessness.
One can see both of these phenomena unfolding now. The first shows itself, for instance, when journalists cover every crude and cruel thing that comes out of Trump's mouth and thereby help acculturate all of us to what we are hearing. Are they not just doing their jobs, they will ask, in covering the Republican front-runner? Have we not already been acculturated by 30 years of popular culture to offensive and inciting comments? Yes, both of these things are true. But that doesn't mean journalists ought to be Trump's megaphone. Perhaps we should just shut the lights out on offensiveness; turn off the mic when someone tries to shout down others; reestablish standards for what counts as a worthwhile contribution to the public debate. That will seem counter to journalistic norms, yes, but why not let Trump pay for his own ads when he wants to broadcast foul and incendiary ideas? He'll still have plenty of access to freedom of expression. It is time to draw a bright line.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
“rise of Hitler”, “spread of Nazism”, and “banality of evil”
And that’s just in the opening sentence!
LOL.
This is stupid.
It’s beyond amazing how greasing up the slippery slope toward the abyss we’re on is of the utmost importance to the entire traditional media, most corporations, and major political parties.
If The Donald’s slogan was “Let’s Make America Into a Banana Republic”, all of the above would love him.
Funny, I see no real comparison between Trump and Democrat Socialist Worker Party types, however Hillary, Sanders, Obama... Are The National Socialist Worker Party!
I am not a trump supporter, however there is NO WAY I believe he is the next hitler nor are his supporters nazi.
I may think they are misguided nazi NO!!!!
I hope that by getting through their Hitler phase this early, the meme will be too worn out for use later on. Nah, who am I kidding? The Democratic operatives with bylines have no shame, imagination, or ethics. What we see is what we’ll get.
Or barking like a dog while telling a “joke” in Reno?(hildebeast) Kinda thought that might be a howard dean moment but it wasn’t. YEEEAWWWW! :>)
Absolutely agree. At this point my vote is primarily due to their betrayal.
Couldn’t even finish the first sentence.
Trump may not be my particular cup of tea, but his crowds seem to be much closer to ordinary people than the robots who swept ObaMao into office.
The Washington Compost. They’re still alive?
5.56mm
I think it equally valid to compare Hitler's earlier supporters to Trump supporters. Germany would not have supported Hitler if they could have seen what he would become and what was to come for Germany. The clues were present, but the Hitler supporters just wanted to shake things up and overthrow the establishment, stop the dilution of the German people and make Germany great again.
Danielle Allen, the Godwin's Law invoker, who is paid by Harvard.
Danielle Allen, Harvard professor.
“widely known for her work on justice and citizenship...”
http://ethics.harvard.edu/people/danielle-allen
{”The moment of truth: We must stop Trump The Uniparty”
Fixed it.}
I would posit to you and all the trump folks who can’t seem to wrap their heads around this:
BOTH must be stopped. BOTH are equally dangerous to the life of this country.
At least an attractive idiot.
“Trump is Hitler” isn’t quite good enough, we need to start playing up the “Trump is the Antichrist” angle some more.
C’mon, people, get with it.
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