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Who Goes Nazi? (1941)

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Re: Who Goes Nazi? (1941)

#91

Post by tamana »

BogusIKnow wrote: post #58

"Dorothy Thompson (9 July 1893 – 30 January 1961) was an American journalist and radio broadcaster, who in 1939 was recognized by Time magazine as the second most influential woman in America next to Eleanor Roosevelt. She is notable as the first American journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany in 1934 and as one of the few women news commentators on radio during the 1930s. She is regarded by some as the "First L…

First Lady of American Journalism is a horribly sexist and paternalistic title to give. It discredits her work. Reflective of the sexism of the time, though, that even a great leader of a field is imagined only as the Wife of something.

Re: Who Goes Nazi? (1941)

#92

Post by tamana »

ericd wrote: post #70
woodruffw wrote: post #20

Very thought provoking. In spirit, it reminds me of The True Believer [1], published about a decade later. Take Nazism and replace it with any other movement of discontent (just or unjust), and you have a general critique of mass movements a la Hoffer. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_True_Believer

Interesting, thanks for the link. This part strikes me as particularly relevant to the current state of things in the US, especially for blue collar/middle class: The "New Poor" are the most likely source of converts for mass movements/for they recall their former wealth with resentment and blame others for their current misfortune. Examples include the mass evictions of relatively prosperous tenants during the Engli…

History is always the upper and (part of) the middle classes trading placdes.

Re: Who Goes Nazi? (1941)

#93

Post by pinewurst »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #35
pinewurst wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mr C? "He is the product of a democracy hypocritically preaching social equality and practicing a carelessly brutal snobbery. He is a sensitive, gifted man who has been humiliated into nihilism." I didn't read him as psychopath so much as someone nursing serious grudges about his perceived exclusion from the top rank of society. Enough that he'd delight in "setting things right" even Nazi style. That was, for me, the…

I meant Mr D: "He spends his time at the game of seeing what he can get away with. He is constantly arrested for speeding and his mother pays the fines. He has been ruthless toward two wives and his mother pays the alimony. His life is spent in sensation-seeking and theatricality. He is utterly inconsiderate of everybody. He is very good-looking, in a vacuous, cavalier way, and inordinately vain. He would certainly f…

I think of D as a sociopath who could be Nazi or "patriot" depending on which one would give him current advantage.

Re: Who Goes Nazi? (1941)

#94

Post by [deleted] »

marbletiles wrote: post #63
danjayh wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just cannot believe what's on some of those slides. Here are some snippets -- imagine if you were to swap the races around, and replace every 'white' with 'people of color', every 'asian' with 'white', and every 'people of color' with 'asian'. If you do these mental gymnastics, some of these slides will seem incredibly offensive -- so how is it that they're acceptable at all , regardless of what the races are. Here…

Because they describe asymmetric power relationships, so you can't meaningfully flip them. "Workers can sack employers at will, and that causes employers financial hardship, so we need employer protection laws" is a less-charged example of why it doesn't work just to straight flip such types of statement.

[deleted]

Re: Who Goes Nazi? (1941)

#95

Post by tamana »

Colorful and imaginative writing. 75 years on, did it ever show to have a kernel of truth? It reads like a Just So Story that lets anyone call anyone else a Nazi in spirit.

I'e bet there are plenty of As to Es on both side of the Nazi divide.

Re: Who Goes Nazi? (1941)

#96

Post by dang »

batz wrote: post #5

The essence of any totalitarian strategy is to seize some resources, invent a necessarily preposterous myth, then in exchange for demonstrating belief in the myth, re-distribute the resources arbitrarily among a minority of people who are easily replaceable and know it. The secret is to then reward people from the majority for denouncing and replacing members of the minority for not being zealous enough, so that they…

This is the sort of generic ideological tangent that adds little value and reliably turns a discussion into a flamewar. The tell-tale signs are (a) that there's nothing specific, no engagement with the concrete material of the post, no sign of curiosity—just blaring a pre-existing position, and (b) the casual dropping of a match ("how ISIS works, how feminism annexed academia") on the ground that was just soaked with petrol.

It doesn't matter what one blares for or against; please don't do it in the first place. HN threads are for conversation, not ideological soapboxes.

Re: Who Goes Nazi? (1941)

#97

Post by dang »

BogusIKnow wrote: post #58

"Dorothy Thompson (9 July 1893 – 30 January 1961) was an American journalist and radio broadcaster, who in 1939 was recognized by Time magazine as the second most influential woman in America next to Eleanor Roosevelt. She is notable as the first American journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany in 1934 and as one of the few women news commentators on radio during the 1930s. She is regarded by some as the "First L…

Dorothy Thompson is a fascinating and important historical figure, hugely famous in her prime, but much diminished when she died and largely forgotten now. She is due to be rehabilitated. I'd be surprised if it didn't happen in the next few years.

I've been told that http://www.amazon.com/American-Cassandra-Life-Dorothy-Thomps... is a good bio.

Re: Who Goes Nazi? (1941)

#98

Post by zipwitch »

rustynails wrote: post #72
batz wrote: post #5

The essence of any totalitarian strategy is to seize some resources, invent a necessarily preposterous myth, then in exchange for demonstrating belief in the myth, re-distribute the resources arbitrarily among a minority of people who are easily replaceable and know it. The secret is to then reward people from the majority for denouncing and replacing members of the minority for not being zealous enough, so that they…

That's an excellent comment. Very insightful. I saw a rebuttal of the feminisation of education, but here's a good link that talks about the modern disparity. It's quite prejudiced (eg. Ignores a huge shift away from boys performance - which any honest person knows is true), http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/education/09college.html?p... This article even gets offended when girls aren't totally dominating by an overw…

It's strange how the article you linked doesn't actually mention feminism at all.

It's almost as though you don't know what you're writing about.

Re: Who Goes Nazi? (1941)

#99

Post by zipwitch »

fennecfoxen wrote: post #61
lumberjack wrote: post #19

I think to better understand why people are attracted to Fascism it is better to read about the rise of Mussolini than about the rise of Nazism. Mussolini essentially was going to make Italy "great again". He was a former socialist but not an internationalist. While communists promised economic justice, fascists promised a better prouder more powerful nation. Today you expect wealthy people to be economically liberal…

> Today you expect wealthy people to be economically liberal but in those days many were attracted by the premises of fascism. Oh, fascism can be great for the wealthy. Your company becomes an instrument of the state, turning your economic power into political power, and you don't need to worry about nonsense like Competition anymore.

I've seen the term 'inverted totalitarianism' to describe how the US is in a similar, but different place to pre-WWII fascism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism

Re: Who Goes Nazi? (1941)

#100

Post by BWStearns »

fleitz wrote: post #38
Riod wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Way to shoehorn BLM and feminism (both movements seeking equal rights) into the same frame as ISIS and Trump.

Their objectives may differ but their recruitment methods are the same, disaffected people who believe they have nothing, and won't ever amount to anything because the world is against their group. If you want to see how racist america is and how you can't succeed look at how poorly the Japanese have done after interment, if it wasn't for affirmative action ivies would be all Asian.

Skipping all of the maddening and difficult things to address in your statement, I assure you that not a single Japanese person (or any person really) has ever succeeded economically or otherwise after interment.
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