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Sep 21, 2022 23 tweets 10 min read Read on X
#THREAD

Just wanted to share a few lesser-known facts about 1930s Germany which given the #CostOfLivingCrisis & a new PM, seem salient, taken predominantly from The Third Reich Trilogy by British historian Richard J. Evans, hailed as a "masterpiece of historical scholarship."
Evans produced the report into the writings of David Irving who had claimed he'd been defamed as a Holocaust denier. The report proved irrefutable: Irving had deliberately distorted & manipulated historical evidence to bring it in line with his prejudices. Irving lost the case.
Almost every day I see the tired old claim that because the Nazis had 'socialist' in their official party name, they *were* socialists - despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, including the fact they imprisoned & executed socialists, union organisers & other left-wingers.
The Nazis were hostile to the idea of social welfare in principle, & upheld instead the Social Darwinist concept that the feeble should perish.

They condemned the welfare system of the Weimar Republic as well as private charity, accusing them of supporting the inferior & weak. Image
Social welfare has been demonised & decimated for decades by those who subscribe to #neoliberal policies: the stated aim of the global network of free-market 'think tanks' (lobbyists) who wield so much influence over the UK & US Governments is to reduce or ideally end welfare. Image
Over the last fifty years, league tables created to measure such nebulous concepts as "economic freedom" by think tanks (lobbyists) such as the Heritage Foundation, show that neoliberalism is about ringfencing economic power- even at the cost of democracy.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
Faced with mass unemployment/poverty during the Great Depression, the Nazis set up charitable institutions to help racially-pure Germans in order to maintain popular support, while arguing it represented "racial self-help", not indiscriminate charity or universal social welfare. Image
We see echoes of this argument today, on social media & in right-wing national newspapers eg in the dog-whistle calls for only British nationals to receive any benefits, or to have access to social housing or the #NHS, despite Britain's legal responsibilities to no-UK citizens. Image
The Nazi Winter Relief of the German People & National Socialist People's Welfare (NSV) were quasi-private institutions, which encouraged donations from Germans to help others of their race, but those refusing to donate faced severe consequences, & money was used for rearmament.
Unlike Weimar Republic social welfare institutions, the NSV provided support only to those who were "racially sound, capable of & willing to work, politically reliable, & willing & able to reproduce." Non-Aryans, the "work-shy", "asocials" & the "hereditarily ill" were excluded. ImageImage
The propagandistic Winter Relief campaigns were a major source of Nazi funding, supplanting tax-funded welfare & freeing up money for rearmament, while the disabled & homeless were actively persecuted, labeled as "life unworthy of life" or "useless eaters.
disabilitynewsservice.com/disabled-mans-…
The Nazis banned all trade unions, & replaced them with the German Labour Front (DAF), controlled by the Nazi Party. They also outlawed strikes & lockouts. The stated goal of the German Labour Front was not to protect workers, but to increase output. ImageImage
William L. Shirer wrote that the German Labour Front was "a vast propaganda organization... a gigantic fraud." A board of trustees run by representatives of the Nazi Party, the DAF & the Chamber of Economics was set up to centralize economic activity.

Real wages in Germany dropped by roughly 25% between 1933 & 1938 - coincidentally, the real wages of UK council workers have fallen by 25% since 2012, & UK academic pay has also fallen behind inflation by 25% since 2009. Image
Along with the abolition of the right to strike, workers were also in large part rendered unable to quit their jobs. 'Labour books' were introduced in 1935, & the consent of the previous employer was required in order to be hired for another job. Image
Let us #NeverForget that arguably the biggest single factor which led directly to the rise of the Nazis, was the introduction of economic measures which disproportionately hit the poorest after Germany's economy collapsed in 1928 - what today we might call #austerity. Image
The Chancellor at the time, Heinrich Brüning, favoured austerity measures & liked to issue "notverordunungen" — emergency decrees. He quickly implemented drastic public spending cuts in an effort to get the country back on track & foolishly centralised important fiscal decisions. Image
The political ramifications of these measures were almost immediate & went beyond the Nazi Party. The austere fiscal policy combined with a depression-induced public-sector slowdown worsened the economic situation for Germans, & it radicalized people across the social spectrum. Image
As the German people lost faith in their government's ability to manage the situation, unemployed & low-income Germans became more likely to turn to the Communist Party, whereas middle- & upper-income Germans were more likely to turn to the Nazis.

A dangerously polarised country like ours, increasingly tired of its leadership & losing trust in its democratic institutions' ability to protect citizens, can learn from Germany's example - including how quickly bad policies can push voters to extremes.

I've previously discussed many of the undeniably uncanny parallels between contemporary Britain & 1930s Germany before, in this #thread.

#NeverForget #NeverAgain #EnoughIsEnough 🙏

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More from @docrussjackson

Mar 27
#THREAD

More than a year since @elonmusk bought @X with a promise to "defeat the spam bots or die trying", the problem is worse than ever, with much of the bot traffic casting doubt on climate science.

Here's what Mr Musk doesn't want you to know...

abc.net.au/news/science/2…
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One morning in January this year, marine scientist @ProfTerryHughes opened @X (Twitter) & searched for the Great Barrier Reef.

"I keep an eye on what's being tweeted about the reef every day," Professor Hughes, a leading coral research expert, said.

What he found surprised & confused him; hundreds of bot accounts tweeting the same strange message with slightly different wording.

"Wow, I had no idea that agricultural runoff could have such a devastating impact on the Great Barrier Reef," one crypto account, tweeted. Image
Read 45 tweets
Mar 26
#THREAD

FACT: The extremist @Conservatives appear to be led by delusional racist liars.

"London has become the crime capital of the world"?

According the Crime Survey for England & Wales, you're LESS likely to be a victim of crime in London than across the country as a whole.
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In London, 14.9% of people experienced a crime either to their person or household year ending September 2023, compared to 15.7% nationally.

The latest homicide stats position London not as "crime capital of the world", but as having the 237th most homicides/capita of any city. Image
When it comes to antisocial behaviour, the crime survey shows London has one of the lowest rates. In the year to September 2023, just 26.4% of people said they’d witnessed or experienced antisocial behaviour, compared with 34.2% across England and Wales. Image
Read 15 tweets
Mar 26
#THREAD

On 16th June 2016, Nigel Farage launched ’s Breaking Point poster. The same day, Jo Cox was murdered by Thomas Mair who shouted "This is for Britain".

Four days later, UKIP Leader Farage spoke at a public meeting in Gateshead under this backdrop: Leave.EU
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Current Reform Party leader, multimillionaire Richard Tice, was a founder & co-Chair of & Leave Means Leave. The similarities between the Breaking Point poster & a Nazi propaganda film picturing large streams of Jewish refugees as a threat, are undeniable. Leave.EU


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Witnesses testified that during the attack on Jo Cox, Mair had cried out "This is for Britain", "Keep Britain independent", and "Britain first".

Far-right white supremacist Mair was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and an act of terrorism.

theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/n…
Read 7 tweets
Mar 21
#THREAD

I'm old enough to remember when @BBCPolitics shows had serious panelists on, were well chaired by politically savvy people, & were worthy of being taken seriously.

This week on the increasingly clickbaity #bbcqt, for his TENTH appearance in ten years, is Rod Liddle... Image
The damaged & troubled Rod Liddle has forged a career by using grotesque rhetoric designed to outrage decent normal people.

A young Liddle considered becoming a teacher, but decided against it on the grounds that he "could not remotely conceive of not trying to shag the kids." Image
Liddle was the Editor of the @BBC's Today programme from 1998 to 2002.

In 2001, BNP leader Nick Griffin was interviewed in the aftermath of the race riots in Oldham. The BBC was fiercely criticized for giving the BNP publicity and credibility it did not warrant.
Read 48 tweets
Mar 14
#THREAD

The UK Government's new definition of extremism is straight out of Orwell's 1984: its focus is ideas - thoughts - not actions.

Effectively, Thought Police will ban from contact with Govt any groups who exhibit Thought Crime (political thoughts unapproved by the régime).
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Michael Gove wants to use parliamentary privilege to name groups under his new definition of extremism, despite government lawyers warning him about the legal implications of doing so.

The @Conservatives are the most dangerous extremist group in Britain.

theguardian.com/politics/2024/…
The Govt’s new preferred option for Anti-Muslim Hate Advisor is Haras Rafiq, former CEO of Quilliam, which was funded by pro-Trump donors, & which worked with US-based anti-Muslim think-tanks that promoted the far-right Great Replacement conspiracy theory.
Read 35 tweets
Mar 13
#THREAD

Ever heard of "campaign organisation" "End Mass Immigration"? Me neither. Until an account under the name of 'Dr Alan Jerome Harper' (a character from Two & a Half Men), which asserts the Govt is "left-wing", replied to a tweet.

What's this got to do with #TuftonStreet?

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Anyway, in the @X bio of "Dr Harper", there's a link to something called "End Mass Immigration", which describes itself as "a campaign organisation that has been set up by a group of immigration experts from academia, think tanks, politics and the media."

endmassmigration.uk
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30 seconds on Companies House reveals it to be under the parent company name of 'EMMNON Ltd' - Company number 14655016.

It has one active Director, Neil Anderson, & one who resigned in March 2023 - Peter Whittle.

The address for both? #55TuftonStreet. Image
Read 5 tweets

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