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Germany waged two world wars over 20 years and tens of millions of people died because of that. Germany, even at its scientific height was racist and nationali

Germany waged two world wars over 20 years and tens of millions of people died because of that. Germany, even at its scientific height was racist and nationalist. Hitler didn't come to power in the 30s without generations of Germans being the foundation. The US is very far from that. I don't understand the massive overreaction. The United States in the 60s was a place where there were sundown towns that blacks dared not travel. In 2004 they were seriously considering a constitutional amendment against gay marriage. Now? We can't lose sight of progress and we can't overreact to the sway of government. All progress has not been lost and the US is not in the dire state some act like it is.

ythn 10y ago
Take a look at your leader. He is figuratively Hitler and rapidly implementing full blown fascism. It wouldn't surprise me if Muslims are being hauled away by the trainload to secret labor camps before his term is done.
- fixermark 10y ago
  They're unlikely to be secret in the information age. Not even the CIA's blacksite torture program could be hidden, thanks to casual plane-watchers noting unusual traffic around military airfields. No, the depressing thought is that it's far more likely to be out-in-the-open labor camps. Americans already interned their Japanese-American population during World War II; we get irrational when we feel threatened.
- sctb 10y ago
  We've asked you before—this account and previous ones—to please comment civilly and substantively or not at all. We have to ban this account if you continue to violate the guidelines this way.
soundwave106 10y ago
I don't think it's a bad thing to bring up the negatives of what happens when nationalism is at its worst. I agree that we can't lose sight of our accomplishments -- not all is dire, and the United States is quite far from a Germany scenario as of now. But a bit of nationalism has crept up in the politics of the United States and several other European countries. Bringing up what happened when nationalism ran wild is relevant. After all, even with the current policies Trump enacted, it is not impossible that our nation will lose out on being the home of the next Einstein, just because they were born in the wrong place.
timthelion 10y ago
But the US has a history of racism, slavery (even today, in the prisons), genocide angainst the natives, Christian supremasism leading the military to torture people without cause [1], mass internment of native Americans, Japanees, and Irish. In US history, Americans have already killed more inocent civilian Native Americans and blacks than the germans killed Jews, Polls and Gypsies. Unlike the Germans, Americans still deny their own hollocaust of the Natives. Claiming that it was smallpox, which echos the hollocaust deniers claims of typhus quite clearly. And in the past 30-40 years, Americans have been quiet about this. This has become taboo. But many people, even in the US government, such as Jeff Sessions, and Donald Trump are rooted to the history of racism and genocide. They are alive today, and they are ruling the country. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_torture_and_prisoner_abuse#/media/File:AbuGhraibDogs03.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_torture_and_prisone...
- aaron-lebo 10y ago
  The US obviously isn't perfect. It has a very sordid past. It's just that it's sordid past isn't any worse than others (this is a human problem) and at its best it does stand for something - continual progress. You are also absolutely incorrect on numbers of Native Americans or blacks killed vs the Nazi actions. The Nazis killed tens of millions systematically, not even counting incidental casualties. The Native Americans were not systematically wiped out. The vast majority died prior to contact with Europeans due to simple disease. There's really no contesting this, all you can do is contest the numbers. Something like 50+% (conservative numbers) of the NA population pre-contact was killed by disease. Many Native American tribes experienced great depopulation, averaging 25–50 percent of the tribes members lost to disease. Additionally, smaller tribes neared extinction after facing a severely destructive spread of disease.[2] The significant toll that this took is expounded upon in the article Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas. A specific example was Cortes' invasion of Mexico. Before his arrival, the Mexican population is estimated to have been around 25 to 30 million. Fifty years later, the Mexican population was reduced to 3 million, mainly by infectious disease. This shows the main effect of the arrival of Europeans in the new world. With no natural immunity against these pathogens, Native Americans died in huge numbers. The eminent Yale historian David Brion Davis describes this as "the greatest genocide in the history of man. Yet it's increasingly clear that most of the carnage had nothing to do with European barbarism. The worst of the suffering was caused not by swords or guns but by germs."[9] By 1700, less than five thousand Native Americans remained in the southeastern coastal region.[4] In Florida alone, there were seven hundred thousand Native Americans in 1520, but by 1700 the number was around 2000.[4] That of course does not deny the past. The US mistreated natives and exploited them, there is no doubting this. Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions have literally never publicly made a statement supporting genocide. The gap between reactionary politics and genocide is vast. Has Trump at age 70 ever even killed a man? Where does this idea that he's going to become genocidal comes from? How can you equate his actions (no deaths) to something which killed tens of millions?

ythn 10y ago

Take a look at your leader. He is figuratively Hitler and rapidly implementing full blown fascism. It wouldn't surprise me if Muslims are being hauled away by the trainload to secret labor camps before his term is done.

fixermark 10y ago
They're unlikely to be secret in the information age. Not even the CIA's blacksite torture program could be hidden, thanks to casual plane-watchers noting unusual traffic around military airfields. No, the depressing thought is that it's far more likely to be out-in-the-open labor camps. Americans already interned their Japanese-American population during World War II; we get irrational when we feel threatened.
sctb 10y ago
We've asked you before—this account and previous ones—to please comment civilly and substantively or not at all. We have to ban this account if you continue to violate the guidelines this way.

soundwave106 10y ago

I don't think it's a bad thing to bring up the negatives of what happens when nationalism is at its worst. I agree that we can't lose sight of our accomplishments -- not all is dire, and the United States is quite far from a Germany scenario as of now. But a bit of nationalism has crept up in the politics of the United States and several other European countries. Bringing up what happened when nationalism ran wild is relevant. After all, even with the current policies Trump enacted, it is not impossible that our nation will lose out on being the home of the next Einstein, just because they were born in the wrong place.

timthelion 10y ago

But the US has a history of racism, slavery (even today, in the prisons), genocide angainst the natives, Christian supremasism leading the military to torture people without cause [1], mass internment of native Americans, Japanees, and Irish. In US history, Americans have already killed more inocent civilian Native Americans and blacks than the germans killed Jews, Polls and Gypsies. Unlike the Germans, Americans still deny their own hollocaust of the Natives. Claiming that it was smallpox, which echos the hollocaust deniers claims of typhus quite clearly. And in the past 30-40 years, Americans have been quiet about this. This has become taboo. But many people, even in the US government, such as Jeff Sessions, and Donald Trump are rooted to the history of racism and genocide. They are alive today, and they are ruling the country. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_torture_and_prisoner_abuse#/media/File:AbuGhraibDogs03.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_torture_and_prisone...

aaron-lebo 10y ago
The US obviously isn't perfect. It has a very sordid past. It's just that it's sordid past isn't any worse than others (this is a human problem) and at its best it does stand for something - continual progress. You are also absolutely incorrect on numbers of Native Americans or blacks killed vs the Nazi actions. The Nazis killed tens of millions systematically, not even counting incidental casualties. The Native Americans were not systematically wiped out. The vast majority died prior to contact with Europeans due to simple disease. There's really no contesting this, all you can do is contest the numbers. Something like 50+% (conservative numbers) of the NA population pre-contact was killed by disease. Many Native American tribes experienced great depopulation, averaging 25–50 percent of the tribes members lost to disease. Additionally, smaller tribes neared extinction after facing a severely destructive spread of disease.[2] The significant toll that this took is expounded upon in the article Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas. A specific example was Cortes' invasion of Mexico. Before his arrival, the Mexican population is estimated to have been around 25 to 30 million. Fifty years later, the Mexican population was reduced to 3 million, mainly by infectious disease. This shows the main effect of the arrival of Europeans in the new world. With no natural immunity against these pathogens, Native Americans died in huge numbers. The eminent Yale historian David Brion Davis describes this as "the greatest genocide in the history of man. Yet it's increasingly clear that most of the carnage had nothing to do with European barbarism. The worst of the suffering was caused not by swords or guns but by germs."[9] By 1700, less than five thousand Native Americans remained in the southeastern coastal region.[4] In Florida alone, there were seven hundred thousand Native Americans in 1520, but by 1700 the number was around 2000.[4] That of course does not deny the past. The US mistreated natives and exploited them, there is no doubting this. Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions have literally never publicly made a statement supporting genocide. The gap between reactionary politics and genocide is vast. Has Trump at age 70 ever even killed a man? Where does this idea that he's going to become genocidal comes from? How can you equate his actions (no deaths) to something which killed tens of millions?