my pet theory is that we have to hyperfocus on hitler not just because he was the worst about this shit, although he absolutely was and by a wide margin, but mostly because it takes the heat off of the entire progressive movent which we all hold so dear
the progressives of course owned and ran the universities, most of which put their names and reputations on the popular eugenics programs of the united states
today most historians are employed by those same universities
so anyway you can imagine how this usually plays out
to this day i have no idea how the entire progressive establishment managed to avoid perpetual shame because im pretty sure everyone at the time remembered all those court opinions and laws and essays about sterilizing and murdering undersirables
in fact these were the most prominent heirs of Lyman Beecher, of the Social Gospel, of the great Yankee Benevolent Societies
for another view of the cultural valence of eugenics, check out this map from 1926
the states in white?
didnt pass sterilization laws
makes u think
"oops"
". . ."
". . ."
" . . . oops"
any comment @RockefellerFdn
fortunately historians after 1945 corrected the record
you see, american eugenics was DIFFERENT
@JonEntine sets the record straight here, and i think none of us can argue with his lucid framing
contemplate this on the tree of woe
appendix
"ok fine we did forced sterilization but the murder was all nazi brain worms"
this is a depressing thread so i offer one consolation in closing
eugenic euthenasia occurred in the United States, but was only carried out (unsurprisingly) by doctors, and only covertly
they thought normal americans would be outraged, and i think they were correct.
because,
we have another study of a contemporary culture, one that had extensive exchanges with the united states, as described above
hitler DID carry out a widespread euthenasia program of physically and mentally ill people
as with most nazi programs it was a fucking cockup and normal germans were quick to figure out what was going on when hair and ash started raining down from the sky in their own cities
i imagine this may have influenced the distant placement of later death camps for (eg) jews
the people of germany did not like this one bit when they found out
families frequently did all they could to save their relatives and _crowds_ protested
i find this incredibly brave. let me reiterate that they were openly opposing
- adolf hitler
- in nazi germany
- in wartime
notably, the vatican condemned the killings when they became something like public knowledge
the church did not wholly cover itself in glory--many german clergy were supportive--but some bishops were incredibly outspoken, and apparently commanded popular support
I'm not a scholar and won't claim certain causality, but I suspect that the lesson was taken from Akton T4 that "actually normal people don't generally support industrial murder, it fucking horrifies them in fact," and as evidence i shall provide a map in the following tweet
this is the best map i could find; in polish or smth
what you need to know is
1. concentration camps (where jews et al were *held*) were different than death camps (where they were murdered en masse)
2. circles are concentration camps
3. squares are death camps
i direct you to notice that though germany is full of concentration camps, the death camps--auschwitz, treblinka, sobibor--were built far from germany, in areas of poland and belarus controlled by the wehrmact
i suggest this was not entirely for reasons of homicidal efficiency
wow
i had actually read this (year ago?) but forgot it almost immediately
*kristallnacht* also scared the normies
not even randos either: a majority of NAZI PARTY MEMBERS condemned it (survey data, small sample, fine; just, gosh)
i get it now, this is legit. reddit objects are objects recommended to _entry-level enthusiasts_ by topical subreddits because they work well to improve lives over baseline with a relatively low level of effort for a majority of cases
realistically there's no way to stop people from tacitly or explicitly allocating taxes and benefits on the basis of race and large portions of the country have interests in this happening or ideological commitments to doing so
the norms to which new immigrants are assimilating and young natives inculcated are immensely ethnically charged without any public and common ideal of transcending race for an american identity, an identity which frankly doesnt even exist anymore
the rheinweisenlager were a bunch of concentration camps in the original sense where surrendered wehrmacht soldiers were held for several months in 1945
the camps were run by the US, apparently, and that's important