Thread by @denise_dewald

Remember: the desensitization to death and suffering that the 1918 flu brought paved the way for fascism in the 1920s and 1930s.

Or you could also say that fascism desensitized us to death and suffering.

"Influenza deaths themselves had a strong effect on the share of votes won by extremists, specifically the extremist national socialist [Nazi] party.”

Not really a surprise that eugenicists (or those that survived) would be bolstered by a pandemic.

independent.co.uk/news/health/19…

Don't forget about other atrocities that occurred during the 1930s:

The Spanish Civil War
The Holodomor in Ukraine
The Rape of Nanking

It wasn't just the WW1 trenches. The whole world went mad.

Interesting read on the effect of pandemics. They can spawn either hate and atrocities, or compassion and social renewal. Likely much depends on the underlying psyche. Scary stuff given the current climate. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

I am certainly not saying that flu caused the descent into fascism. It just helped it on its way. There were many factors, most prominently WW1, inflation, wealth inequality.

But personal experience of illness and death changes people in profound ways and colors everything.

And not to mention that a big part of the reason that the Treaty of Versailles was so bad was that President Wilson, who would have been a moderating force, had the flu during the negotiations newyorker.com/news/daily-com…