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America Needs a History Lesson…Fast…This Is Not a Joke!
We have long had the luxury of not knowing history well. Russians only know a perverse propagandistic version of world history from the past hundred years, and Americans don’t know any history at all. Our education system has failed us, which is part of why we are here today.
Nazi Germany, for instance, is far enough in the past that most people can’t understand its relevance to our current times. Historically-unaware people think that the regime initiated by Adolf Hitler was the creation of one man (many probably don’t even know who Hitler was). They wrongly believe that fascism was all about the “legal” isolation of German Jews, which then ultimately led to the extermination of Jews throughout Europe.
The extreme side of fascism was about the extermination of Europe’s Jews, but it was the everyday, mundane side of fascism, which is about a lot less, and that makes it so dangerous. Fascism succeeds when the people keep it all together. Many have written about the role the bureaucracy plays in the ultimate success of fascism, and that is absolutely correct. If the bureaucracy is not aligned with the despot, then the extremism is like trying to make a warming fire with flash paper.
