6 ms·

It's easy and comforting to dismiss the idea as hyperbole, but there is a lot of concrete evidence pointing in the other direction. He's not Hitler--he's somet

It's easy and comforting to dismiss the idea as hyperbole, but there is a lot of concrete evidence pointing in the other direction. He's not Hitler--he's something new. But anyone who has studied history a bit recognizes similarities in rhetoric and tactics. Given that he is the commander and chief of the most powerful military in history, it seems natural to ask whether there might be also be similarities when it comes to political and societal goals. Given the stakes involved, I can't see how playing it down and hoping for the best is a wise approach.

nyolfen 10y ago
he's a right wing populist demagogue, of which there have been countless examples. almost none of them were hitler or anything comparable, and while i am not looking forward to the next 4-8 years, it's not like he published a manifesto on the proclivities of the jew or proposed annexing mexico. quite the opposite on both counts, in fact.
- alex_young 10y ago
  Trump has repeatedly promoted using nuclear weapons against adversaries without any nuclear deterrent [0] and refers to people he doesn't like as animals [1]. What do you call that? Sounds like the pretext for genocide to me. [0] https://thinkprogress.org/9-terrifying-things-donald-trump-has-publicly-said-about-nuclear-weapons-99f6290bc32a https://thinkprogress.org/9-terrifying-things-donald-trump-h... [1] https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/787782613633208320 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/78778261363320832...
  - nyolfen 10y ago
    i don't know what to tell you dude, he says stupid shit constantly and i think you should pay more attention to actual policy proposals and implementations than his idiotic tweets and context-free clickbait articles with the most hyperbolic statements that could be extracted from the record for your own sanity. if you're worried about a "pretext for genocide" i'd be way more worried about someone like duterte.
    - danenania 10y ago
      Trump has voiced support for Duterte and his policies, by the way.
- danenania 10y ago
  There's no comparison. How many right wing populists have had an organization like the NSA at their disposal? While he's clearly got some work to do in bringing the military and intelligence communities to heel, the potential danger if he's successful is extreme.
- emmelaich 10y ago
  Is he even right-wing? He's in favour of universal health care and was a major contributor ($300k) to Hillary's previous campaign. Populist and (wannabe) demagogue I'll give you.
Touche 10y ago
The reason the comparison is downplayed is because Hitler committed genocide and attempted to exterminate an entire race. Not only did he do these things, he talked about them before he had gained political power. Now I am no Trump fan, and frankly think he's one of the worst president's we've ever had. But that doesn't make him Hitler; because as far as I am aware he's never said anything about wanting to commit genocide.
- warlox 10y ago
  Bannon has, though. He thinks the correct solutions are the ones presented in Camp of the Saints.
  - jmorphy88 10y ago
    in what way is Camp of the Saints an endorsement of genocide?
    - warlox 10y ago
      Come on. The main idea of that book is that not massacring all the arriving brown people is a mistake. Of course, seeing as your username has an 88 in it, I really doubt your comment was sincere. Passages from the book: http://emptylighthouse.com/camp-saints-most-hideous-passages-steve-bannons-bible-1824052337 http://emptylighthouse.com/camp-saints-most-hideous-passages... Analysis: http://theweek.com/articles/611274/dystopian-antiimmigration-book-camp-saints-really-racist-why-are-bunch-smart-conservatives-praising http://theweek.com/articles/611274/dystopian-antiimmigration...
- aryehof 10y ago
  "Exterminate an entire race" - if your referring to Jews, then it is sad that you adopt Hitler's position that Jews are a separate and distinct race. That position is the start of a slippery slope that ends with them being sub-human and "other" than "us".
  - Touche 10y ago
adrianratnapala 10y ago
It's difficult to see much similarity between what the Trumpets have done and what the Nazis had done by the time they won their election. Moreover, we rarely appreciate how vile the politics of the western world was in those days. On the one hand it was the age of Organisational Man, who worked for big companies, or states more centralised than any in history. Indeed, with colonialism still not dead, a realist thinker might imagine that iron-fisted empires were the way of the future. On the other hand, racism was still acceptable, not just among right-wing thugs like Hitler, but also on the left from the progressive eugenics movement, genocidal communist fantasists like H.G. Wells and plain-old to American bigots like Woodrow Wilson. In those days it was fashionable for intellectuals to think that liberal-democracy was a has-been that could not organise well enough to Do What Needs To Be Done (and what "needed" to be done, was of often genocide). It was in this cultural milieu that the Nazis and Bolsheviks rose and did what they did. Conditions like that don't exist in the West any more. I can see trends that might lead back to similar conditions -- but it will take a good 50 years for them to mature.
- danenania 10y ago
  The problem is that we're never going to see conditions like the ones that led to Nazism or Bolshevism again. It's not that easy. It's like trying to identify the next Facebook by looking for companies who are copying Facebook--the next Facebook will be something completely different, just like the next infamous totalitarian dictator will be completely different. If we're going to sit around waiting for the guy to commit genocide and start a world war before we take the threat seriously, it will be far too late to do anything about it. We need to look for leading indicators.
  - adrianratnapala 10y ago
    But what do you mean by not "sitting around"? The tendency to treat Trump as inherently illegitimate and to ignore the voters behind him is just the kind of condition that might lead to future horrors. You might argue (though I wouldn't) that Trump's silliness is also such a leading indicator. But so what? In a democracy both sides get their chance to push pull.

nyolfen 10y ago

he's a right wing populist demagogue, of which there have been countless examples. almost none of them were hitler or anything comparable, and while i am not looking forward to the next 4-8 years, it's not like he published a manifesto on the proclivities of the jew or proposed annexing mexico. quite the opposite on both counts, in fact.

alex_young 10y ago
Trump has repeatedly promoted using nuclear weapons against adversaries without any nuclear deterrent [0] and refers to people he doesn't like as animals [1]. What do you call that? Sounds like the pretext for genocide to me. [0] https://thinkprogress.org/9-terrifying-things-donald-trump-has-publicly-said-about-nuclear-weapons-99f6290bc32a https://thinkprogress.org/9-terrifying-things-donald-trump-h... [1] https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/787782613633208320 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/78778261363320832...
- nyolfen 10y ago
  i don't know what to tell you dude, he says stupid shit constantly and i think you should pay more attention to actual policy proposals and implementations than his idiotic tweets and context-free clickbait articles with the most hyperbolic statements that could be extracted from the record for your own sanity. if you're worried about a "pretext for genocide" i'd be way more worried about someone like duterte.
  - danenania 10y ago
    Trump has voiced support for Duterte and his policies, by the way.
danenania 10y ago
There's no comparison. How many right wing populists have had an organization like the NSA at their disposal? While he's clearly got some work to do in bringing the military and intelligence communities to heel, the potential danger if he's successful is extreme.
emmelaich 10y ago
Is he even right-wing? He's in favour of universal health care and was a major contributor ($300k) to Hillary's previous campaign. Populist and (wannabe) demagogue I'll give you.

Touche 10y ago

The reason the comparison is downplayed is because Hitler committed genocide and attempted to exterminate an entire race. Not only did he do these things, he talked about them before he had gained political power. Now I am no Trump fan, and frankly think he's one of the worst president's we've ever had. But that doesn't make him Hitler; because as far as I am aware he's never said anything about wanting to commit genocide.

warlox 10y ago
Bannon has, though. He thinks the correct solutions are the ones presented in Camp of the Saints.
- jmorphy88 10y ago
  in what way is Camp of the Saints an endorsement of genocide?
  - warlox 10y ago
    Come on. The main idea of that book is that not massacring all the arriving brown people is a mistake. Of course, seeing as your username has an 88 in it, I really doubt your comment was sincere. Passages from the book: http://emptylighthouse.com/camp-saints-most-hideous-passages-steve-bannons-bible-1824052337 http://emptylighthouse.com/camp-saints-most-hideous-passages... Analysis: http://theweek.com/articles/611274/dystopian-antiimmigration-book-camp-saints-really-racist-why-are-bunch-smart-conservatives-praising http://theweek.com/articles/611274/dystopian-antiimmigration...
aryehof 10y ago
"Exterminate an entire race" - if your referring to Jews, then it is sad that you adopt Hitler's position that Jews are a separate and distinct race. That position is the start of a slippery slope that ends with them being sub-human and "other" than "us".
- Touche 10y ago

adrianratnapala 10y ago

It's difficult to see much similarity between what the Trumpets have done and what the Nazis had done by the time they won their election. Moreover, we rarely appreciate how vile the politics of the western world was in those days. On the one hand it was the age of Organisational Man, who worked for big companies, or states more centralised than any in history. Indeed, with colonialism still not dead, a realist thinker might imagine that iron-fisted empires were the way of the future. On the other hand, racism was still acceptable, not just among right-wing thugs like Hitler, but also on the left from the progressive eugenics movement, genocidal communist fantasists like H.G. Wells and plain-old to American bigots like Woodrow Wilson. In those days it was fashionable for intellectuals to think that liberal-democracy was a has-been that could not organise well enough to Do What Needs To Be Done (and what "needed" to be done, was of often genocide). It was in this cultural milieu that the Nazis and Bolsheviks rose and did what they did. Conditions like that don't exist in the West any more. I can see trends that might lead back to similar conditions -- but it will take a good 50 years for them to mature.

danenania 10y ago
The problem is that we're never going to see conditions like the ones that led to Nazism or Bolshevism again. It's not that easy. It's like trying to identify the next Facebook by looking for companies who are copying Facebook--the next Facebook will be something completely different, just like the next infamous totalitarian dictator will be completely different. If we're going to sit around waiting for the guy to commit genocide and start a world war before we take the threat seriously, it will be far too late to do anything about it. We need to look for leading indicators.
- adrianratnapala 10y ago
  But what do you mean by not "sitting around"? The tendency to treat Trump as inherently illegitimate and to ignore the voters behind him is just the kind of condition that might lead to future horrors. You might argue (though I wouldn't) that Trump's silliness is also such a leading indicator. But so what? In a democracy both sides get their chance to push pull.