Thread by @marcushjohnson

Extremism is also relative. Extremists never consider themselves to be so. It is very uncomfortable but important to understand how Nazi Germany was inspired in part by US early racial laws and expansionism. assets.press.princeton.edu/chapters/i1092…

https://twitter.com/tomricks1/status/1441106891262681089

Obviously not taught in most schools, it turns the American exceptionalism myth and ethos upside down. It makes people question and the should—how could Nazi Germany’s actions be inspired, even in part, by early American political actors?

Think about it in this way, from the Native American perspective, wasn’t America largely a violent totalitarian regime that could not be trusted? Broken treaties, land theft, genocide?

So when we say “I don’t know how the 1930s could ever happen here” …didn’t a version of that happen here? Obviously not the exact same events, but similar horrific violent events with similar ideological justifications?

It makes you question the framework of what America was really built on, versus what you’re taught. Why don’t we consider Americans extremists the genocide of Native Americans?

The answer is because the victors write history and they always write themselves as the good guys. Extremism can happen here, it has happened here before. These are the difficult and uncomfortable conversations that need to be had to improve what America is and can be.

But we can’t pretend or be ignorant of America’s ideological foundations, its violent history—slavery and genocide included—we’re not THAT different. As a country. Some of worst guys in history were inspired by us. What does that say?

I’m not a pessimist, I’m an optimist about America’s future. I believe a multicultural democracy can work. But it requires, demands, a reckoning with what America has done. We’re still in the early stages of a fundamental shift in what America means.