WWTBAM Bored

I doubt your studies went this deep.

From Gulag Archipelago:

"Survivors of Orotukan (a punishment camp in the Soviet Gulag) said they would have preferred the gas chamber."

But, by all means, continue to live in your little sheltered world where the 3rd Reich is the only standard for evil.

Spock wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 05, 2020 1:44 pm

But, by all means, continue to live in your little sheltered world where the 3rd Reich is the only standard for evil.

I don't think that Krox or anyone said that the Third Reich was the only standard for evil. It is, however, one of the very few that got into power through Democratic elections and then subverted those institutions, which make comparisons to it particularly valid in terms of looking at the rulers of Westernized democracies.

silverscreenselect wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 05, 2020 2:07 pm

Spock wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 05, 2020 1:44 pm

But, by all means, continue to live in your little sheltered world where the 3rd Reich is the only standard for evil.

I don't think that Krox or anyone said that the Third Reich was the only standard for evil. It is, however, one of the very few that got into power through Democratic elections and then subverted those institutions, which make comparisons to it particularly valid in terms of looking at the rulers of Westernized democracies.

https://mises.org/library/three-new-dea ... -loved-fdr

Beebs52 wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 05, 2020 2:42 pm

silverscreenselect wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 05, 2020 2:07 pm

Spock wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 05, 2020 1:44 pm

But, by all means, continue to live in your little sheltered world where the 3rd Reich is the only standard for evil.

I don't think that Krox or anyone said that the Third Reich was the only standard for evil. It is, however, one of the very few that got into power through Democratic elections and then subverted those institutions, which make comparisons to it particularly valid in terms of looking at the rulers of Westernized democracies.

https://mises.org/library/three-new-dea ... -loved-fdr

So what do you make of trump's fawning over Putin, Kim Jong-il, and other semi-dictators?

Bob Juch wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 05, 2020 6:01 pm

Beebs52 wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 05, 2020 2:42 pm

silverscreenselect wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 05, 2020 2:07 pm

I don't think that Krox or anyone said that the Third Reich was the only standard for evil. It is, however, one of the very few that got into power through Democratic elections and then subverted those institutions, which make comparisons to it particularly valid in terms of looking at the rulers of Westernized democracies.

https://mises.org/library/three-new-dea ... -loved-fdr

So what do you make of trump's fawning over Putin, Kim Jong-il, and other semi-dictators?

I don't recall him extolling their actual modus operandi.

I will concede the point that the use of the word fascist was hyperbolic and ill-chosen. I also am fully aware that the Nazi regime was far from the only one that persecuted and tortured and killed its own people. As a teacher of American history, I impart to my classes the fact that Stalin's purges and intentional famines killed more people in his own country than Hitler's holocaust. The same could be said for Mao, Pol Pot, Caeucescu, Idi Amin and any number of other dictators past and present. The point in the comparison was not to make it a right wing vs. left wing argument. The point is that the demagoguery, vilification of minorities and "outsiders," suppression and manipulation of the free press, cult of personality, and demonization of political rivals inherent in the Trump administration are all hallmarks of totalitarianism in whatever form - fascist, communist, or anything in between.