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Why did the German people follow Hitler?
"Nazis took advantage of German’s fears of a far left or communist government take-over, as well as exploiting long existing and underlying prejudices by scapegoating a minority, the Jews, as being responsible for all their woes.
Hitler and his Nazis were handed the keys of government by the weak old guard ruling Germany in January 1933 in a jaundiced attempt to hold on to their own power, and the Nazis took full advantage of this by consolidating their own power and outsmarting their “handlers”. Unemployment dropped from 6 million to less than 1 million by 1937 and Germany regained the respect and prestige that it had lost after 1918.
The Nazis, having silenced or eliminated most internal opposition, were now firmly in control. They continued to appeal to German’s sense of pride and patriotism on a primal level with pageantry unseen since Roman times and an almost intoxicating “symphony” of music, color and symbolism which pervaded the nation. In a modern equivalent of bread and circuses, it reached it’s zenith with the spectacle of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and all helped along by a propaganda machine that would make even today’s politicians green with envy.
But the events of 1938, which included the Anschluss of Austria and the Sudetenland crisis, revealed to Germans just how reckless and dangerous Hitler could be. That turbulent year culminated with Kristalnacht on November 9 and 10, and marked the unofficial start of the Holocaust. While most Germans were silent witnesses by that time, knowing full well what opposition to the regime could bring, most were also equally appalled by the persecutions, and realized the regime had gone much too far. But by this time the nation and it’s institutions were firmly in the grip of the Nazis, and most German’s realized there was little if anything that could be done to stop them."


Written by someone in Germany…. I added the underscoring

 

Godwin's Law. You lost the argument before it even began... unless you didn't intend this historical reference to relate to any modern political situation.

 

OK and your point?

 

That's okay. I'm not here to win anything. Thanks for the definition.

 

Well then; Success!

 

Just looking for input...I'm not sure how to process the article by myself.

 

Then was then and this is now. Though there are similarities and lessons to be learned from this, they will not. Divisions in this country will prevent any acceptance of the intended thinking so it is a deaf ear scream.

 

If we want to avoid “Operation Hummingbird” we must do all we can to increase unemployment.

 

Reaction to the loss of the war, the egregious treaty that resulted and the Weimar Republic is how Hitler was able to rise to power. A similar horror (the Terror) occurred with the French Revolution but without a strong leader it was limited to a "circular firing squad" where the French expended all their energies and a good deal of their population killing each other. Then Napoleon came along, got the French organized and tried to take over the world. The closest approximation of the conditions that could cause such a thing today is probably Venezuela with its oppressive regime and desperate population. If a Napoleon or Hitleresque leader gained power there you might see the kind of popular following that allowed Hitler to do what he did. Of course this is just my opinion.

 

True. After reading it I felt kind of relaxed. It's humbling to realize that there is no longer anything that can be said or done.

 

"In Venezuela, the state has created hunger games and these games have morphed into war games. There is a war of the state against citizens and a war of citizens and against citizens. These war games, more so than the drop in the price of oil, are the essence of Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis."

 

After reading this I am now super enlightened and realized trump is hitler and will now switch to Bernie sanders
Thank you

 

Too late...you missed the boat

 

One of the last WW2 veterans in my community was buried today. He was 96. I don’t think anything we can say or do today can influence what happened in the 1930’s and ‘40’s. We can thank the American guys/gals that are left from that era, and that’s about it.

 

The German people were not "lead" by Hitler. Hitler is what they wanted. They loved that someone was saying what they all wanted said. He spoke for them. He was on their side. Hitler did not "lead" the German people as much as he reflected them.

At least at first. After that, it was too late.

Nothing good comes from disagreeing with people rather than ideas, but the very worst things come from agreeing with people rather than ideas.

 

Why did the Germans follow Hitler?

The dissidents had no choice but to follow, political correctness would not allow opposing views.

 

They were desperate, no matter who they voted for things just got worse. But then you could make the same case for Italy and Mussolini and The US and FDR. The old paradigm died kicking and screaming. And took a lot killing but die it did. It has now been replaced and the replacement in the current time is also beginning to falter. It is based on control of as much as possible as high up as possible and it is dying because the pace of change now well exceeds it's ability to predict or control. And thus things are beginning to come apart at the seams.

 

Yes were some interesting comparisons to FDR: "By the latter part of the 1930s, many Germans had the same perception about Hitler that many Americans had about Roosevelt. They honestly believed that Hitler was bringing Germany out of the Depression. For the first time since the Treaty of Versailles, the treaty that had ended World War I with humiliating terms for Germany, the German people were regaining a sense of pride in themselves and in their nation, and they were giving the credit to Hitler’s strong leadership in time of deep national crisis."
What causes you to say that German gov is currently faltering?

 

Not just Germany and this time around Germany will be the last to fall not the first Trump and Boris Johnson symptoms of a growing. Problem.

 

Why did the German people follow Hitler?

For the same reason people followed Charles Manson, Jim Jones, David Koresh, Jesus Christ, etc. The children’s game follow the leader didn’t happen by chance.

In the movie American President there is a scene in which Micheal Douglas and Michael J Fox are discussing this very topic. The end quote was. “People drink the sand because they don’t know the difference.”

 

I agree that it is silly to relate Hitler to modern politics in the US, but that's not what Godwin's Law means. Godwin's Law means that all conversations, if they go on long enough, will turn to Hitler. It has nothing to do with people "losing" the argument by bringing up Hitler, contrary to the meme version of the Law.

 

This is a very good summary. It is apropos today. Socialism appeals greatly to millions of people because they see it as a solution to their difficulties, while millions don't care one way or another. All, in any case, see no downside. By the time socialism takes over the people have willingly given away mush of their liberty in return for promised nirvana. Then when socialism becomes autocratic and the people begin to realize they have been misled -- and as the poet said received grief and pain instead of promised joy -- it is too late. It is always much much harder to get liberty back from a totalitarianism government than it is was to give it away.

 

Your opinion. My opinion is that if your argument is "Hitler", you've lost the argument, therefore Godwin's Law is exactly relevant.

 

Godwin's Law was written by a guy named Godwin, who agrees with me and disagrees with you on this issue. You can hold the meaningless "opinion" that bringing up Hitler means that someone has lost an argument (which is silly nonsense to anyone who reflects on that argument for more than 2 minutes), but calling that "Godwin's Law" is flatly false. You are entitled to your own opinion, not your own facts.

 

Based on that logic, no one could ever discuss the history of WWII. No one could discuss the causes of the Holocaust. The moment any historian brought up Hitler, they would "lose" any historical debate . . . that's as dumb as a sack of hammers.

No, that's not what Godwin's Law actually means. What Godwin's Law ACTUALLY means, according to both me and Godwin (though you have another "opinion") is that "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1." That is, verbatim, what the Law is according to Godwin himself.