Hitler won mass support because a major economic crisis had driven Germany into a deep depression: Banks crashed, businesses folded, & millions lost their jobs.
Hitler offered voters a vision of a better future - 'sunlit uplands', you might say.
The poorest people in Germany voted for Hitler's opponents, notably the Communists & the moderate left-wing Social Democrats, but the lower-middle classes, the bourgeoisie, the unorganized workers, the rural masses, and the older traditionalists all gave their votes to Hitler.
Whereas other politicians seemed to dither or act as mere administrators, Hitler projected purpose & dynamism.
He proved a master at denouncing conventions & manipulating the media. He issued an endless stream of #slogans, & hammered them home to win potential supporters over.
He would put Germany first. He would revive the nation’s rusting industries, laid to waste by the economic depression. He would crush the alien ideologies - socialism, liberalism, communism - that were 'undermining the nation’s will to survive & destroying its core values'.
Hitler’s early speeches “used vulgar comparisons” & “the cheapest allusions.” Hitler’s language was never measured or careful, but “like something merely expulsed", full of base allegations & vile stereotypes, precisely designed to gain maximum reaction & media attention.
Aided by his talented #propaganda chief Dominic Cummings - sorry, Joseph Goebbels, Hitler not only flaunted his vulgarity and exploited tribal hatreds; he also lied and lied and lied his way to success, as well of course as crassly negatively stereotyping Jews & other minorities.
Few took Hitler seriously or thought that he would actually put his threats against the country’s tiny Jewish minority, his rants against feminists, left-wing politicians, homosexuals, pacifists, and liberal newspaper editors, into effect.
Nazi propaganda mocked disabled people; within a few years, they were being sterilized and then exterminated.
Hitler called for the return of the death penalty, & within a short space of time, the executions began again.
Germany pulled out of international organizations & tore up treaties with cynical abandon.
The Nazis’ triumphantly declared their "departure from the community of nations".
Hitler said he would “rather die” than sign anything that was not in the interests of the German people.
German politics in 1933 is the story of how the Nazis shut down the country’s democratic institutions, destroyed the freedom of its press & media, and created a one-party state in which opposition was punishable by imprisonment, banishment, or even death.
Newspapers were weakened by economic pressures, editors were forced out, reporters disciplined & increasing number of newspapers were shut down altogether, leaving only a captive press that confined itself to parroting the “news” issued by the government in Goebbels' briefings.
With the disappearance of a critical media, the path was open for a massive expansion of political corruption at every level of the regime.
The Nazi regime was a kleptocracy; dependent on patronage & clientelism & devoid of formal procedures for appointments or rules of conduct.
Even after the legal profession & the judiciary had been purged of the Nazis’ opponents, some judges retained a modicum of honesty & independence. Hitler was furious when the Supreme acquitted most of the alleged perpetrators of the Reichstag fire.
Plenty of Germans disapproved of these & other measures: Hitler didn’t attain supreme power on a wave of popular acclamation.
On the contrary, in the last free elections of the Weimar Republic, the left-wing parties won more votes & seats in national parliament than the Nazis.
But the Left was divided, spending as much time fighting each other as they did trying to stop Hitler from establishing a dictatorship.
Their rhetoric was feeble compared to his, their supporters less fanatical, their electoral propaganda less powerful & less sophisticated.
The concentration of political & legislative power in the cabinet didn’t last long. Beneath the surface appearance of normality, the cabinet was being marginalized as Hitler appointed his own cronies & disciples to new positions or pushed out his conservative coalition partners.
Senior civil servants were fired if they made any difficulties.
Hitler's decisions were increasingly made on the hoof, by verbal order, leaving behind no paper trail.
He made sure that the armed forces were on his side by giving them massive increases in funding.
Hitler’s seizure & remaking of the state was buttressed by a wholesale reorganization of the education system & efforts to redefine German culture. The intellectual quality of German universities, which led the world in research before 1933, plummeted, & never fully recovered.
Before Hitler took over, a fifth of all university students were enrolled in the humanities; by the eve of the war, that portion had been cut in half.
Half of all students were taking degree courses in medicine, its importance boosted by the Nazis’ focus on research & eugenics.
The main objective of Nazi education & culture was not to distract people from important issues, but to instill a new sense of patriotism. Pupils were made to salute the flag before school every morning. #History lessons were turned into a celebration of past German heroes.
The regime constantly targeted minorities as a way of mobilizing popular approval & support.
But it wasn’t the kind of dictatorship that depended solely on repression, important though it was. A key part of the process was the vilification of political opponents.
The moderately progressive Social Democrats were damned as “November #traitors".
Nazi media and officialdom heaped abuse on democrats and harassed them at every turn.
With the support of the country’s military-industrial complex - grudging & cautious at first; then fulsome & enthusiastic - Hitler threw caution to the wind.
His #indifference to human suffering, and his willingness to devise and use weapons of mass destruction, knew no bounds.
Hitler was a media figure who gained popularity & controlled his country through speeches & publicity. Far from being a consistent & undeviatingly purposeful politician, he was temperamental, changeable, insecure, allergic to criticism, & often indecisive & uncertain in a crisis.
Everyone concerned about #democracy should read 'HITLER: ASCENT, 1889–1939', by Volker Ullrich - the Nazis were “a warning from #history” we would do well to heed it.
We know what the early #warning signs are, & they are ALL present, now, here in Britain.
The second THREAD is about the influence of James McGill Buchanan, who was on the Board of Advisors of the free-market Independent Institute & the #IEA, an ex-president of the Mont Pelerin Society, & a 'Distinguished Senior Fellow' of the #Cato Institute:
Just to make it crystal clear that imho Boris Johnson is NOT a genocidal dictator intent on world domination, & I'm perfectly aware of Godwin's Law & the dangers of overstating any similarities, but in the context of the draconian #PoliceCrackdownBill, the parallels are #uncanny.
'When at Times the Mob Is Swayed: A Citizen’s Guide to Defending Our Republic', describes how America’s constitutional checks & balances were pushed to the brink by a president consciously following Hitler’s early 1930s #propaganda & policy template.
#OnThisDay, 21 July, 1969, the Chicago Daily News published: The ‘love it or leave it’ nonsense, by Sydney J. Harris.
It began: One of the most ignorant and hateful statements that a person can make is “If you don’t like it here, why don’t you leave?”
I reproduce it, below.
Harris was born in London in 1917, moving to the US in 1922. A formidable journalist who established a distinct voice integrating incisive social commentary with wit and humour, his weekday column, ‘Strictly Personal’, was syndicated in 200 US newspapers.
The ‘love it or leave it’ nonsense, by Sydney J. Harris.
One of the most ignorant and hateful statements that a person can make is “If you don’t like it here, why don’t you leave?”
That attitude is the main reason America was founded, in all its hope and energy and goodness.
A few thoughts on Bob Vylan leading the #GlastonburyFestival crowd in chants of "Death to the IDF" (Israeli Defence Force), livestreamed by the @BBC, and the mischaracterisation of the chant by some MPs, news media, and activists.
In England, where #GlastonburyFestival is located, all of us have the right to freely express our criticism of anyone or anything - as long as there is no intent to provoke immediate unlawful violence or there is a reasonable likelihood it will occur as a consequence.
In England, free speech is protected under Article 10 of the Human Rights Act 1998. However, inciting violence is a criminal offence under several laws which attempt to balance public safety with free expression rights.
In many countries, especially since Musk bought Twitter/@X, underregulated online extreme content has been used to groom and radicalise vulnerable people.
Too many cowardly politicians are scared to speak up for fear of being branded 'anti-free speech'.
Some MPs who have been in parliament for many years NEVER appear on any of the @BBC's "flagship" politics shows - but Reform's privately educated shit-stirring 'anti-elite' former Tory Sarah Pochin - an MP for FIVE WEEKS - gets her own special introduction on #PoliticsLive.
Politicians using dangerously irresponsible anti-Muslim rhetoric know their comments are normalising Islamophobia and endanger British Muslim women. Islamophobic incidents rose by 375% in the week after Boris Johnson called veiled Muslim women “letterboxes” in 2018.
#PolitcsLive
Britain prides itself in NOT being the sort of country that tells women how to dress. States that do dictate women’s clothing (eg Iran, Sudan, Saudi Arabia) are vilified as misogynistic & ultra-controlling: the antithesis of the enlightened, liberal west. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
The 'Women's Safety Initiative' is an anti-migrant AstroTurf disinformation group founded by Jess Gill, a Fellow of the Koch-funded climate change denial group, the Foundation for Economic Education, & an apprentice at the Mises Institute. The '1 in 4' claim is a lie.
Before I outline the evidence that (despite what we are told every day by politicians, activists, and news media) there is no discernable link between either legal or illegal immigration and increased crime rates in OECD countries, including ours, some context about Jess Gill.
Jess Gill’s involvement with these radical free-market climate change denying Koch foundation funded organisations is deeply concerning.
The WSI exploits young women to make misleading claims about supposed links between immigration with women’s safety.
"Foreigners" DO NOT claim £1BILLION/month in benefits.
This disgusting anti-migrant dogwhistle by shameless liar and former Head of Policy Exchange, Neil O'Brien MP, is just one of several recent dispicable divisive Telegraph front page lies.
WTAF @IpsoNews? @HoCStandards?
The claims that the UK spends £1bn/month "on UC benefits for overseas nationals" (O'Brien) and "Foreigners claim £1bn a month in benefits" (Telegraph) are revealed to be lies in the article: the£1bn relates to "Benefits claims by HOUSEHOLDS with AT LEAST ONE FOREIGN NATIONAL."
The Telegraph claims that (unnamed) "experts suggested the increase reflected a SURGE in the number of asylum seekers being granted refugee status and in net migration."
To evaluate/make sense of this sensational unsourced claim, additional context is needed (but not provided).