re: #424 LudwigVanQuixote

re: #273 Fozzie Bear

see my 403

The bottom line is when I say we are facing Nazis, I am not making an exaggeration.

You’re right, in that the rhetoric and memes are essentially the same. However, the difference here, I think, is that the ultimate goal in the Germany of the 1930s was agitation for another war to restore German pride, and to claim the Lebensraum Hitler coveted. Here and now, the motivation is different - the agitation comes almost entirely from media personalities and the faceless blogosphere, and is motivated mostly by a desire to generate an angry emotional response to build a following. There isn’t really any cohesive thread binding it all together except hatred of ‘liberals’ and all things ‘liberal’.

Should they come to power, all things that smacked of ‘liberalism’, whatever some demagogue might be able to attach that label to, would be in for a hard time. The consequences for domestic and foreign policy would be disastrous. Would they lead to turmoil as great as the Second World War? Hard to say.