Many moons ago, then-candidate Joseph R. Biden compared President Donald J. Trump to Joseph Goebbels. For those who are unaware, Joseph Goebbels was Nazi Germany’s Minister of Propaganda. Goebbels is most famous for coming up with Nazi Germany’s propaganda strategy, known as The Big Lie:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State [or media. Eds.] can shield the people from the political, economic, and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the Truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the Truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
Ironically, as the Biden Administration continues its infant existence, it consistently is being exposed for big lies. Not to be outdone, Nancy Pelosi, as well, proliferates many a big lie. Both of these parties have been engaging in ways, one could argue, to “shield the people from the political, economic, and/or military consequences” of their lies. The Democrats and socialist left do not even bother to hide such actions, either. It is all out in the open.
Democrats claim they are fighting misinformation and disinformation, for the safety of the public. People are allowed to believe in conspiracy theories if they want to, that is their first amendment right. Thoughts alone without action towards committing a crime is, not surprisingly, not a crime.
Hell, some conspiracy theories are so bad they can land you in jail. Like conspiring to commit murder or kidnapping. But conspiring with your friends about what you believe is happening right now, whether outlandish or not, is not a crime. Thoughts are not criminal to have; it is the intent to commit crimes that matters and taking some action toward the furtherance of a crime. The definition of conspiring, when the law does not apply, is “(of events or circumstances) seem to be working together to bring about a particular result, typically to someone’s detriment.”
Speaking of potentially outlandish thoughts, I have a few. You know that old, overused adage, “those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it?” Cliché as it is, it is the truth. That matters.
Many people in society today, especially those who studied in government schools, were taught to believe that the Second World War and the rise of Nazi Germany were, basically, entirely due to Hitler’s actions. I would know this because I attended such schools for a given time and scored high in history, only classes I enjoyed until studying for my major.
These reasonings are not entirely wrong. Hitler did have a strong hand in the events of 1935-1945, but to look through this from a lens of majority Hitler’s actions is too narrow in its thinking. Many events and catalysts occurred before, which, had a pretty solid chance of leading us down a different timeline of events. Hitler’s rise did not happen in a vacuum.
To understand the events which lead up to the rise of Hitler is a much more accurate assessment to having a fuller picture of what lead to the rise of Nazi Germany, Communism, and World War II. Many of the events, until recently, did not have a parallel with contemporary times. But indeed, these are some unprecedented times we find ourselves in because Democrats keep making history.
Hitler’s political rise to power was precipitated by the hyperinflation seen in the Weimar Republic during 1921-1923. The hyperinflation was due in-part to the Treaty of Versailles and its hard sanctions upon the newly created Weimar Republic for reparations involving World War I. Before the Weimar Republic, came the long-ruling German Empire. The Central Bank in Germany, to pay for these harsh reparations in a lagging-economy from the Spanish Flu, had to hyperinflate, i.e. overprint, the money supply. Because through taxation and economic output, the government did not have enough money to pay its debt obligations.
At the beginning, four German Marks could purchase one United States Dollar. At the end, four trillion German Marks could buy four United States dollars. The economic woes caused by a hyperinflated economy lead to the rise of socialist and communist factions in the country, who played off the misery seen in the general populations. The leaders of the radical left factions used paramilitary tactics to stifle dissent, though during the rise, it was claimed in the media there was no connection.
Then, the radical left party, the National Socialist German Worker’s Party with help from their Brown Shirts, stole an election through intimidation and force. It worked. They gained the majority of the German Reichstag in 1932. The next year, 1933, the Nazi Party, after winning the majority of the parliament, staged the Reichstag Fire of 1933.
The party then used the false flag situation to demonize and dehumanize their rival political party, to which then violence to stifle their voices was found justified; and the people consented to government intrusions on their rights.
Next, the party passed laws and regulations in the middle of the night that gave unprecedented powers to the person running their party. The people applauded the government as they passed laws that effectively made Hitler a dictator because he promised to bring safety from the communists. Because Nazis were democracy-loving socialists and thus superior.
Of course, the other side was a threat to German democracy, the people rationalized, so it was proper for the government to use its force to stifle ideas that conflicted with the Third Reich. Hell, German people were so on board with the government stifling the other side’s dissent, they would even participate in enforcing the government’s approved and condoned thoughts. Large national industries participated, hand-in-hand, with what the government sought regarding its thought regime. Large industries were handsomely rewarded by the government, especially for responses to crises.
During these pressing times in Germany, many people in the United States were aware of the atrocities unfolding then and later, into the war. The New York Times and other major newspapers, at the time, covered for years for the Nazi Germany regime by denying its atrocities against Jews, Gays, Gypsies, and others. People were condemned for speaking out and typically did not have the largest audiences, probably because many people did not want to confront the reality as it was.
It was not truly understood the reality of what happened at Holocaust concentration camps until the Allies liberated Europe from the tyranny of Nazi Socialism. Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower, after a whole war of fighting the Nazis and realizing the war crimes committed, was still shocked in horror by what was found at these camps.
There are many parallels between the rise of Hitler, Nazi Germany, The Big Lie 1.0, with the current times we live in. Some of these parallels may not seem like it to the untrained eye, but then again, many millions of people did not notice, recognize, or understand what was happening during 1921-1945 until it was too late.
The comparison of contemporary times to the broad perspective of the events which lead to the rise of Nazi Germany, Hitler, and World War II has been a column I have been wanting to write for almost a year. However, back then, there were still too many events which occurred in the twentieth century that there was no parallel in the twenty-first century.
