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Again, that does not ring true given the conversations I've had with people alive at the time. Jewish people were scapegoated for the destruction of the German

Again, that does not ring true given the conversations I've had with people alive at the time. Jewish people were scapegoated for the destruction of the German economy. Not everyone who accepted that narrative would have believed death was a just response. Any competent propagandist would have left the question of what a proper response was open so people would have imagined that what they thought was proper would happen. The closest modern equivalent I can think of would be Occupy Wall Street. If the leaders of OWS had formed their own political party in the wake of the 2008 bailouts and ridden a wave of public anger into office, they would have probably had the political capital to seize all bankers' assets as stolen goods and hold them to await trial. It would have taken an order of magnitude more political capital to simply start executing them without trial.

goto11 6y ago
> Again, that does not ring true given the conversations I've had with people alive at the time. Have you considered that these people might have an interest in downplaying how much they knew? > The closest modern equivalent I can think of would be Occupy Wall Street. You should be ashamed of yourself for making that comparison.
- SuoDuanDao 6y ago
  >Have you considered that these people might have an interest in downplaying how much they knew? Certainly, and I've also considered that an army which killed civilians during the war would be interested in playing up how much the civilians knew. I've listened to both sides and made my decision which story sounds more plausible. >You should be ashamed of yourself for making that comparison. If I wasn't clear, I was talking about the conditions that gave rise to the ideology, not the ideologies themselves. We are very lucky that racial and economic resentments have stayed mostly decoupled since the second world war. I am not remotely ashamed for describing how similar a modern example is to half of that wicked formula. To me, taking responsibility for my ancestors has nothing to do with paying blood money and everything to do with remaining vigilant to familiar precursors. I'd be ashamed for staying silent if I see a modern parallel.
  - ihm 6y ago
    You are comparing the blaming bankers who were actually responsible for the financial crisis to the scapegooating of Jews in Nazi Germany, and this was the closest modern example you could think of in a world where e.g., there are concentration camps on the American-Mexican border.

goto11 6y ago

> Again, that does not ring true given the conversations I've had with people alive at the time. Have you considered that these people might have an interest in downplaying how much they knew? > The closest modern equivalent I can think of would be Occupy Wall Street. You should be ashamed of yourself for making that comparison.

SuoDuanDao 6y ago
>Have you considered that these people might have an interest in downplaying how much they knew? Certainly, and I've also considered that an army which killed civilians during the war would be interested in playing up how much the civilians knew. I've listened to both sides and made my decision which story sounds more plausible. >You should be ashamed of yourself for making that comparison. If I wasn't clear, I was talking about the conditions that gave rise to the ideology, not the ideologies themselves. We are very lucky that racial and economic resentments have stayed mostly decoupled since the second world war. I am not remotely ashamed for describing how similar a modern example is to half of that wicked formula. To me, taking responsibility for my ancestors has nothing to do with paying blood money and everything to do with remaining vigilant to familiar precursors. I'd be ashamed for staying silent if I see a modern parallel.
- ihm 6y ago
  You are comparing the blaming bankers who were actually responsible for the financial crisis to the scapegooating of Jews in Nazi Germany, and this was the closest modern example you could think of in a world where e.g., there are concentration camps on the American-Mexican border.