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Can the average person understand that you can basically make an argument for pretty much anything, and that it doesn't mean you support the thing or what it ha

Can the average person understand that you can basically make an argument for pretty much anything, and that it doesn't mean you support the thing or what it has done ? The nazi argument is itself particularly stupid because it seems to me it's super important from an historical point of view, and particularly relevant these days, to understand why 50%+ of the population was supporting the nazi when they came to power. And for the porn arguments it's dumber.. just go see reddit life stories of people in family where sex talks where baiscally banished and they had problems later (unwanted pregnancies, banished from their families, stds etc...). I'm not even sure at that point that it's a worse thing that children watch instead of not watching it.

jacquesm 4y ago
> to understand why 50%+ of the population was supporting the nazi when they came to power. Small correction: But they weren't! In the last free elections (1932) about 33% of the Germans supported the Nazi's, they managed to turn that into a good 90% or so by the time the war broke out 6.5 years later. So once in power they consolidated their large minority through an immense propaganda campaign (unlike anything seen on the planet until that point) to steamroll the country into supporting them using every dirty trick in the book. So yes, it is very relevant today, but even more so if you consider how a new medium can be subverted to consolidate power well beyond where it was previously possible.
- davidguetta 4y ago
  It's not "just propaganda": many Germans got rich at that period, there was an actual economic overturn of germany before the war, and Hitler played on the fact that many felt victims and humiliated by the versailles treaty after WWI. This was also consequences of some parts of the "nazi ideology". Yelling "Nazi is bad", while absolutely true for the war, the racist ideology and the holocaust, is often used as nothing else than a tribal rally cry to make us feel better than what happen (often with good intention). But it hides the whole complexity of the situation and individual experiences at that time, and the most important fact: same stuff like the holocaust and wars could re-happen in the same conditions. People can justify absolutely anything crazy against a perceived enemy as soon as they feel "victims" in a way and it happens every day.
  - jacquesm 4y ago
    Absolutely, 'it can't happen here' is a complete delusion, it can happen here and in fact to a certain degree it is already happening here. But from my reading without that massive propaganda engine, especially Hitlers radio broadcasts of Goebbels poison there would have been more Germans still thinking clearly. I can't recommend this book enough for a - chilling - insight into the runup to World War II and how the propaganda engine set the stage for what followed: https://www.amazon.com/Nazi-Conscience-Claudia-Koonz/dp/0674011724 https://www.amazon.com/Nazi-Conscience-Claudia-Koonz/dp/0674... It is especially sobering when you realize how much of that parallels developments today.

jacquesm 4y ago

> to understand why 50%+ of the population was supporting the nazi when they came to power. Small correction: But they weren't! In the last free elections (1932) about 33% of the Germans supported the Nazi's, they managed to turn that into a good 90% or so by the time the war broke out 6.5 years later. So once in power they consolidated their large minority through an immense propaganda campaign (unlike anything seen on the planet until that point) to steamroll the country into supporting them using every dirty trick in the book. So yes, it is very relevant today, but even more so if you consider how a new medium can be subverted to consolidate power well beyond where it was previously possible.

davidguetta 4y ago
It's not "just propaganda": many Germans got rich at that period, there was an actual economic overturn of germany before the war, and Hitler played on the fact that many felt victims and humiliated by the versailles treaty after WWI. This was also consequences of some parts of the "nazi ideology". Yelling "Nazi is bad", while absolutely true for the war, the racist ideology and the holocaust, is often used as nothing else than a tribal rally cry to make us feel better than what happen (often with good intention). But it hides the whole complexity of the situation and individual experiences at that time, and the most important fact: same stuff like the holocaust and wars could re-happen in the same conditions. People can justify absolutely anything crazy against a perceived enemy as soon as they feel "victims" in a way and it happens every day.
- jacquesm 4y ago
  Absolutely, 'it can't happen here' is a complete delusion, it can happen here and in fact to a certain degree it is already happening here. But from my reading without that massive propaganda engine, especially Hitlers radio broadcasts of Goebbels poison there would have been more Germans still thinking clearly. I can't recommend this book enough for a - chilling - insight into the runup to World War II and how the propaganda engine set the stage for what followed: https://www.amazon.com/Nazi-Conscience-Claudia-Koonz/dp/0674011724 https://www.amazon.com/Nazi-Conscience-Claudia-Koonz/dp/0674... It is especially sobering when you realize how much of that parallels developments today.