Replying to Avatar atyh

If I am being honest, what bothers me most about the Nazi era of Germany is not the idea that a failed, homeless artist with a meth addiction would become a tyrannical, murderous dictator, but that the Nazis are represented as a fringe movement supported by fringe people.

This is an absolute lie.

And it is intentional.

Because the truth is even more disturbing. If we face the reality that the Nazi Party was main stream popular culture in Germany (and even in much of the west at the time), we have to face some very disturbing things about ourselves. If we cant blame it on a "fringe leader" with a "fringe group", then we have to ask ourselves, "could I become a Nazi if the conditions were right?"

So let me spoil it for you...

The answer is yes.

Statistically, chances are, you would have been one of the people out there waving a little Nazi flag yourself. And telling yourself, "just dont get involved, its none of your business" when you saw the injustice starting to manifest.

Have you ever noticed most of the photos of Nazis focus on Hitler, and NOT the massive adoring crowds? Have you ever wondered why? Its because we want to forget. It terrifies us. And it should.

So here are some photos of what things really looked like. Of how easy it is to get swept up in the movement. Think about it. Think how much easier your life would have been if you just went along with the crowd. And how much harder it would be to stand against it.

And if you think this post in unnecessary and melodramatic, perhaps you are unaware of where we are.

One big difference between that time and ours:

Hitler didn't trust the German people would keep following him if they knew what he was up to. Hence the pathological secrecy of the Nazi regime. The number of free Germans who knew what Treblinka really was was never more than hundreds, hence the need to use the inmates for everything.

And whenever Hitler got caught by his people doing something he said he wasn't doing, like executing the disabled or removing crosses from Bavarian schools, he stopped abruptly and changed tack. He was nearly overthrown in '34 by angry crowds when he was slow about this.

Nazi-era Germans were braver and more moral than any Western population today.

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