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Mar 15, 2021 29 tweets 18 min read Read on X
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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.

thenation.com/article/archiv…
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. Image
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. Image
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'. Image
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. Image
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. ImageImageImage
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. Image
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. ImageImage
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. ImageImage
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.

#PoliceCrackdownBill ImageImage
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. ImageImageImage
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. ImageImage
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. ImageImage
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. ImageImage
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. ImageImage
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. ImageImage
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. ImageImageImage
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. ImageImage
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. ImageImage
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. ImageImageImageImage
The moderately progressive Social Democrats were damned as “November #traitors".

Nazi media and officialdom heaped abuse on democrats and harassed them at every turn. Image
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. ImageImage
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. ImageImage
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.

#PoliceCrackdownBill ImageImage
While I'm NOT saying 'Boris Johnson is Hitler', I AM saying the parallels are pretty uncanny.

While you're here, a couple of other THREADS you might be interested in.

The first is on forty years of increasingly deregulated free-market capitalism:

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.

milwaukeeindependent.com/articles/civil…

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More from @docrussjackson

Mar 31
🧵 QUALITY OF LIFE - DENMARK🇩🇰 vs USA🇺🇸

JD Vance has told Greenlanders that life with the US would be better than with Denmark.

Musk, Trump & Vance insist that Europe is in many ways inferior to the US.

But how accurate are their claims? What does the evidence say?

#FactCheck Image
Brainwashed by billionaire's propaganda, force-fed a diet of dumbed-down soundbites, divisive, misleading bigoted rhetoric, and adolescent memes, many Americans simply have little idea about how their quality of life compares to the average European's.

Let's consider the best evidence, and compare the US to Denmark on multiple key quality of life indicators:

🚨 Danes on average live four years longer than Americans

🚨 The US is 24th in the world in the happiness rankings. Denmark is No 2 (after Finland)
Read 20 tweets
Mar 25
🧵 Online #Incel communities foster misogyny, resentment & extremism, which have led to multiple murderous attacks in the US & UK, motivated by hatred toward women.

Their echo chambers also amplify mental health issues like isolation & anger, radicalizing vulnerable men & boys. Image
In the US, proven murders attributable to incels include: Elliot Rodger, who killed 6 & injured 14 in a shooting & stabbing spree; Lyndon McLeod shot & killed 5; & Mauricio Garcia shot & killed 8 & injured 7.

In the UK, Jake Davison shot & killed 5, including a 3-year-old girl. Image
Farage defended his Reform UK MP who was jailed for repeatedly kicking his girlfriend (which wasn't disclosed to voters before he was elected), & in 2014, he dismissed as "just a joke" an MEP's comment that beating women "helps bring wives back to Earth."

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Read 14 tweets
Mar 19
#THREAD

When is a “think tank” not a think tank?

A 🧵 about how spurious and inflammatory claims, based on unevidenced cherry-picked data, are passed off as truth by partisan private limited companies and used as a weapon to divide voters and to scapegoat and demonise migrants. Image
At 1.32pm on Monday 10th March, The Telegraph published the claim that based on “the first data analysis of its kind. Data from the Ministry of Justice, obtained under freedom of information laws,” shows that “Foreigners [are] convicted of nearly a quarter of sex crimes.” Image
Chris Philp, shadow home secretary, said the figures were “shocking.”

Shadow justice secretary, Robert Jenrick, said: “Not only is mass migration making us poorer, but this data proves it’s also making us dramatically less safe.”

A Govt spokesman did not dispute the figures. Image
Read 40 tweets
Mar 17
🧵

Democracy is under attack. As with the US, Italy is 1 of 5 European Govts undermining the rule of law ‘in nearly all aspects’, with changes to the judiciary & a “heavy intolerance to media criticism”, fueling Europe’s deepening “democratic recession”.

theguardian.com/world/2025/mar…
A report by Civil Liberties Union for Europe said Italy was one of five “dismantlers” – with Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania & Slovakia – that “intentionally undermine the rule of law in nearly all aspects”.

Hungary has long been an “electoral autocracy.”

theguardian.com/world/2022/sep…
“Europe’s democratic recession has deepened.”

The report highlights judicial systems subject to political manipulation, weak law enforcement against corruption, overuse of fast-track legislative procedures, harassment of journalists & growing restrictions on peaceful protests.
Read 16 tweets
Mar 14
🧵

Many of Britain's most vocal 'anti-establishment' voices attended some of the most expensive schools on earth.

These broken boys masquerade as 'anti-elite' while serving the interests of the ultrarich by turning working class people against each other using 'Divide & Rule'. Image
Moscow born Konstantin Vadimovich Kisin came to the UK aged 11 & was sent to Clifton College boarding school (current fees: up to £18,360/term).

He recently said about Rishi Sunak "He’s a brown Hindu; how is he English?" He's a regular speaker at Paul Marshall's ARC conference. Image
Rupert James Graham Lowe was sent to Radley College, an all-boys independent boarding school (current fees: up to £19,200/term).

Lowe worked in the City of London for companies such as Morgan Grenfell, Deutsche Bank and Barings Bank. Image
Read 13 tweets
Feb 28
🧵

Jacob Rees-Mogg's dad's 1997 book was originally called The Sovereign Individual: *How to Survive & Thrive During the Collapse of the Welfare State*😱

It predicted “cybercurrency,” the decline of nation-states & the ascendance of a “cognitive elite” who would rule the world.
My own summary is above, but journalist @gilduran76 - of the brilliant #FrameLab - has now written his own summary, review and interpretation of it, which I reproduce with a few links and commentary, below.

Access his original (25 February) article here:

thenerdreich.com/the-sovereign-…
To fully understand Silicon Valley’s project to destroy democracy, read 'The Sovereign Individual: How to Survive and Thrive During the Collapse of the Welfare State.'

In 1999, it was rebranded as 'The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age.' Image
Read 39 tweets

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