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Do you see any similarity with the US now(and past) to NAZI Germany?

Did the US adapt the methods, foreign policy and state power of NAZI Germany.


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Maximus Zeebra

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I am talking about the US, especially since year 2000. I am talking about the methods of the Republican party.
I am talking about things like justifications for going to war, the distortion and propaganda surrounding it. I am talking about the police state, and increased right of the government. I am talking about propaganda and brainwashing in general, I am talking about the agenda of the political class, I am talking about foreign policy.
I am basically asking, did the US learn more FROM NAZI Germany, then BY(the bad example)..
 
No, I don't.
 
Sir... if Mike Godwin was dead, he'd be rolling in his grave.
 
Ha, interesting that you post this given the discussion in another thread.

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Keynesianism"]Military Keynesianism[/ame] is about the only similarity i can see (disregarding corporatist similarities seen in all developed nations).
 
Ha, interesting that you post this given the discussion in another thread.

Military Keynesianism is about the only similarity i can see (disregarding corporatist similarities seen in all developed nations).

Interesting point is that the US defense budget has risen 100% the past decade. Even without the Iraq and Afghanistan warfare costs included.
 
Other is easiest..
Yes, I can detect similarities....people are people...
I was not alive back then, I have of course done a little reading on this subject, as all of us have...except our Mr Zee......
We must beware of our extremeists...the conservatives.
 
I am talking about the US, especially since year 2000. I am talking about the methods of the Republican party.
I am talking about things like justifications for going to war, the distortion and propaganda surrounding it. I am talking about the police state, and increased right of the government. I am talking about propaganda and brainwashing in general, I am talking about the agenda of the political class, I am talking about foreign policy.
I am basically asking, did the US learn more FROM NAZI Germany, then BY(the bad example)..

[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_Hitlerum]Reductio ad Hitlerum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
 
We're not exterminating any particular groups based on ideas of racial superiority. That would be a small but noticeable difference.
 
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An incomplete list of tendencies in the U.S. which could also be found in Nazi Germany. Quick and offhand. Obviously many of these overlap. For the most part these are not quite as strong in the U.S., but in a crisis situation they could become much stronger to the point that what few civil liberties have been gained would be suspended indefinitely. Anyone who believes that a state-sponsored genocide could not happen again is extremely naive.

1. Militarism
2. "National security state"
3. Police statism
4. Unilateralism
5. Anti-intellectualism
6. Corporatism
7. Right-wing Authoritarianism; "Fear-based" politics
8. Ultra-nationalism
9. Nativism/Xenophobia/Scapegoating
10. Racist pseudoscience; advocacy of state-sponsored eugenics (e.g. Bell Curve, American Renaissance, CCC, Human Biodiversity Institute)
11. Dumbed-down "faith based" politics (compare to "Positive Christianity")
12. Sexual repression/hysteria
13. Political Correctness (though supposedly of the "left" will be used by the authoritarian right when it suits their purposes)
 
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There are similarities between any two countries, and any two governments, simply by the nature of what countries and governments are. So yes, there are some similarities, but we are not becoming "like" nazi Germany. Not Bush, not Obama, not Bush the elder, not Reagan, not any president or congress in my lifetime has moved us to be in any significant way like nazi Germany. Those on both sides who make nazi comparisons are either ignorant, or irrational.
 
There are similarities between any two countries, and any two governments, simply by the nature of what countries and governments are. So yes, there are some similarities, but we are not becoming "like" nazi Germany. Not Bush, not Obama, not Bush the elder, not Reagan, not any president or congress in my lifetime has moved us to be in any significant way like nazi Germany. Those on both sides who make nazi comparisons are either ignorant, or irrational.
Obviously the U.S. will never be Nazi Germany, but an ultra-nationalistic militarist police state marked by hysteria, xenophobia, anti-intellectualism, exceptionalist and expansionist foreign policies etc., etc. is very much a possibility. To a significant extent those elements (or their foundations) are already in place.

Check out Free Republic sometime for example. It's very easy to find open fantasies of genocide against Muslims, turning the middle east into a "big glass parking lot," etc. The notion that racism is dead in the U.S. is also dead-wrong. People dismiss FR as fringe; if by "fringe" you mean "strongly reflecting the attitudes of at least tens of millions of Americans," I agree.

And times of truly severe economic crisis in the U.S. (along the lines of the Great Depression) have not even hit yet. Should that happen, these tendencies will likely grow much stronger. To assume otherwise is just wishful thinking.
 
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I voted "no, not at all", but then again, the United States did recently elect a charismatic leader promising the moon who's working hard to destroy the country.
 
Obviously the U.S. will never be Nazi Germany, but an ultra-nationalistic militarist police state marked by hysteria, xenophobia, anti-intellectualism, exceptionalist and expansionist foreign policies etc., etc. is very much a possibility. To a significant extent those elements (or their foundations) are already in place.

the Americans are doing what they can to get the socialists and socialism out of government to forestall this.
 
What an asinine O.P. notion. :mrgreen:
 
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the Americans are doing what they can to get the socialists and socialism out of government to forestall this.
I'm no fan of Obama or most Democrats (e.g. too many unprincipled centrists) but unfortunately most of their conservative critics are big supporters of war "socialism" and corporate "socialism" (which are just as "socialist" as anything supported by the Democrats). It's hard to think of anything more statist, collectivist, and big government than the military or police state. "Defense" contractors and most corporations for that matter are far bigger welfare queens than anyone in the ghetto.

*Note: none of these "socialisms" are what I consider real socialism, but what's good for the goose....
 
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I'm no fan of Obama or most Democrats (e.g. too many unprincipled centrists) but unfortunately most of their conservative critics are big supporters of war "socialism" and corporate "socialism" (which are just as "socialist" as anything supported by the Democrats). It's hard to think of anything more statist, collectivist, and big government than the military or police state. "Defense" contractors and most corporations for that matter are far bigger welfare queens than anyone in the ghetto.

*Note: none of these "socialisms" are what I consider real socialism, but what's good for the goose....

Ah, no, don't try to make socialism out to be some beautiful thing infected by capitalism.

Socialism is the colon cancer of political ideology, and to embrace it means the inevitable colostomy bag forever.

Corporate entities have too much power over government for one reason, and one reason only....governments that have too much power always sell control of that power to the highest bidder.

Limit the power available to government, and the desire of individuals and groups to seize that power declines.

Just keep focused on the fact that the so-called health-care debate is nothing more than a means of expending government power, to cite one example.

Governments surrender accrued power by one method and only the one method: armed revolt or threats thereof.

Socialists and their insistence on expanding the power of government are on the morally wrong side of these issues.

Oh, and don't forget, because I don't, Nazi Germany was National Socailist Germany.
 
This has to be the irrelevant comparison yet. :roll:
 
Warhawks remind me of Nazis.
 
The average European....

Insulting America in order to appease internal personal turmoils about the depravity of their own continent. Of all the empires or civilizations in history to seek similarity to (Greek, Roman, British) they will always seek their own Nazi Germany in order to soothe their history.

Of any of the nations in the west to resemble Germany, one could make easy argument over France's behaviors in Algeria where hundreds of thousands were publicly tortured. But making comparisons to Germany would have been unthinkable back then because people's memories were still very clear on the matter. Today? A few waterboarding cases make us Nazis. The ignorant throw a parade after every American stumble and such stumbles absolutely have to be compared to Nazi Germany, don't they? It's fashionable in anti-Americanist Europe. Hell, today Germany isn't even guilty for its past. We call it "Nazi" Germany as if separate from the whole. America doesn't even get that pathetic consideration by those who seek to frangrance their stench.
 
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I am talking about the US, especially since year 2000. I am talking about the methods of the Republican party.
I am talking about things like justifications for going to war, the distortion and propaganda surrounding it. I am talking about the police state, and increased right of the government. I am talking about propaganda and brainwashing in general, I am talking about the agenda of the political class, I am talking about foreign policy.
I am basically asking, did the US learn more FROM NAZI Germany, then BY(the bad example)..


Your parody of some crack pot loser retarded leftist idiot making a retarded comparison of the US to Nazi Germany while probably at the same time offending jews and everyone else who lived through the holocaust is fantastic. Almost convincing. Two thumbs up. Those morons who make asinine comparisons of the US to Nazi Germany are ****en retarded. I think those retards are the reason why a lot of people think that you should have to pass a IQ test to vote or to breed.
 
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The average European....

Insulting America in order to appease internal personal turmoils about the depravity of their own continent. Of all the empires or civilizations in history to seek similarity to (Greek, Roman, British) they will always seek their own Nazi Germany in order to soothe their history.

Of any of the nations in the west to resemble Germany, one could make easy argument over France's behaviors in Algeria where hundreds of thousands were publicly tortured. But making comparisons to Germany would have been unthinkable back then because people's memories were still very clear on the matter. Today? A few waterboarding cases make us Nazis. The ignorant throw a parade after every American stumble and such stumbles absolutely have to be compared to Nazi Germany, don't they? It's fashionable in anti-Americanist Europe. Hell, today Germany isn't even guilty for its past. We call it "Nazi" Germany as if separate from the whole. America doesn't even get that pathetic consideration by those who seek to frangrance their stench.

No matter what the thread, you seem to constantly infer that Europeans are in denial of past atrocities, and commenting on, what Europeans see as America abusing its power-is in some way linked to self denial. I seriously fail to see the link?
All, or pretty much all, Western powers have risen to where they are today through committing Atrocities in one war or another. That does not stop such societies evolving and commenting on what they see as an injustice.
We can, as a society, face up and move on from our pasts, what one generation did does not have to hinder the development of the next. Germany's need to distance itself from the Nazi regime shows how far it has came from its previous ideology. 'You', saying Europe cannot pass judgement, because of past atrocities is ludicrous.

[edit for spelling]

Paul
 
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I answered NO, not at all. American action [post 9/11] was reactive. Nazi action was pro-active, big difference.

Paul
 
No matter what the thread, you seem to constantly infer that Europeans are in denial of past atrocities ......

Perhaps you can shed some light then. Our European critics never criticize without seeking their own past to do it....

Why is it that no matter what America does, there is always the quest to compare America to the worst Europeans have to offer? During the 80s Europeans were fond of expressing how America was going to bring about the end of the world (and mass protests and negative polls ensued). During the 90s Europeans expressed their disgust over Bosnia and Kosovo despite the human carnage that was going igbnored by Europeans before we even got there and forced a hand. And over the last decade we have been compared to Nazis and even as far as labeled as Germany's equivelent.

Always, Europeans seek the worst scenario and attach America to it. My perspective on European "denial" is more about soothing internal turmoils than it is about fantacizing a different past.
 
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