Saturday, August 29, 2020

Have You Ever Played The "Who's The Nazi" Game?

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Taegan Goddard dug up this wonderful Dorothy Thompson piece from a 1941 issue of Harper's Magazine, Who Goes Nazi?. This is an especially poignant question for me right now, not just because of what Trump has done to the Republican Party--and half the country-- but because I am in the middle of watching the excellent series, A French Village, which I cannot recommend strongly enough-- 7 dramatic seasons starting in 2009 about a small French village occupied by the Germans in 1940. Over the course of the show, the villagers adapt, many choosing collaboration, others choosing passive or active resistance. I keep wondering how long it will take, if Trump wins a second term, for California, for example, to turn into Un village français.





Dorothy Thompson's article may need to be updated soon. "It is," she wrote 80 years ago, "an interesting and somewhat macabre parlor game to play at a large gathering of one’s acquaintances: to speculate who in a showdown would go Nazi. By now, I think I know. I have gone through the experience many times-- in Germany, in Austria, and in France. I have come to know the types: the born Nazis, the Nazis whom democracy itself has created, the certain-to-be fellow-travelers. And I also know those who never, under any conceivable circumstances, would become Nazis. It is preposterous to think that they are divided by any racial characteristics. Germans may be more susceptible to Nazism than most people, but I doubt it. Jews are barred out, but it is an arbitrary ruling. I know lots of Jews who are born Nazis and many others who would heil Hitler tomorrow morning if given a chance. There are Jews who have repudiated their own ancestors in order to become 'Honorary Aryans and Nazis'; there are full-blooded Jews who have enthusiastically entered Hitler’s secret service. Nazism has nothing to do with race and nationality. It appeals to a certain type of mind." [How prescient of her, writing so many years before the on-set of Israel's Likud Party!]
Kind, good, happy, gentlemanly, secure people never go Nazi. They may be the gentle philosopher whose name is in the Blue Book, or Bill from City College to whom democracy gave a chance to design airplanes-- you’ll never make Nazis out of them. But the frustrated and humiliated intellectual, the rich and scared speculator, the spoiled son, the labor tyrant, the fellow who has achieved success by smelling out the wind of success-- they would all go Nazi in a crisis.

Believe me, nice people don’t go Nazi. Their race, color, creed, or social condition is not the criterion. It is something in them.

Those who haven’t anything in them to tell them what they like and what they don’t-whether it is breeding, or happiness, or wisdom, or a code, however old-fashioned or however modern, go Nazi. It’s an amusing game. Try it at the next big party you go to.
Let's look at Congress. Can you name 10 who would never, under any circumstances collaborate with a Trump/Nazi Regime? How about 10 who would be the most eager to be part of it? My guesses are just Democrats since you can pretty much consider all Republicans eager to get on board.
NEVER (JAMAIS):

AOC
Rashida Tlaib
Ilhan Omar
Jamie Raskin
Ro Khanna
Barbara Lee
Pramila Jayapal
Ted Lieu
Jan Schakowsky
Jerry Nadler

As Willing As Deputy-Prefect Sevier...Though Maybe Not As Excited By The Prospect As Philippe Chassagne:


Anthony Brindisi
Josh Gottheimer
Ben McAdams
Tulsi Gabbard
Henry Cuellar
Abigail Spanberger
Steny Hoyer
Kendra Horn
Collin Peterson
Stephanie Murphy
Did I leave anyone out? Please let me know in the comments if you have any good nominations-- for either list... or if I've been too harsh or too kind to any of these politicians. I'd love to know what you think.



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7 Comments:

At 2:24 PM, Blogger VG said...

Interesting post, Howie, given a recent experience with a French woman who lives in my condo complex. I had several French lessons with her, on and off pre-pandemic. I liked her a lot, and we became casual friends, exchanging emails and talking on the phone from time to time. We often spoke French mixed with English on the phone. She is a well-educated and well-read person on the face of it.

She is married to an American who is at present a high level administrator at Emory Hospital. I reckon she has been in the US for at least 30 years, but has not become a citizen. One can be a dual citizen of France and the US.

I phoned her on July 14 to wish her "happy Bastille day", snd then the conversation turned various things. I can't remember, as hard as I try, what we were discussing when she volunteered this sentiment:

"Trump knows how to roll up his sleeves and get things done."

I replied that Trump was a psychopath and has severe dementia and is deteriorating rapidly. She came back with a firm NO and repeated what she had just said.

I was shocked, because I never ever had any reason to suspect that she held such views.

So there's your Nazi, hidden in plain sight.

 
At 3:21 PM, Anonymous Wileybud said...

Raul Grijalva belongs in the "Never (Jamais)" side of things.

 
At 6:18 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anyone who works for a corporation is already a collaborator.

 
At 8:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Due to her affinity for the fascist Narenda Modi, Tulsi Gabbard lost any chance of my support early. Plus, she manipulates using her looks. Never had a good relationship with a woman who does that, but that doesn't make her a Nazi like her political connections do.

 
At 9:34 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

coupla things:

"Believe me, nice people don’t go Nazi. Their race, color, creed, or social condition is not the criterion. It is something in them."

It's something MISSING in them. it's usually called empathy. IMO, it's a learned skill and, in this shithole, nobody has been teaching it for 50 years.

Putting Nadler in the 'never' column is horse shit. he's the chair of the judiciary committee. he has the duty to impeach not only trump but kkkavanaugh and others, yet he puts party first, as all Nazis do, and refuses to do his job.

he's not an active Nazi like the Nazis and several democraps. But he's a leading passive Nazi. You need to honor pelo$i here for her tyrannical running of the democrap house caucus as enablers of trump and the Nazis... so they can run against them... for as many more actual elections as may happen. That it is not certain that ANY further elections may happen is due as much to pelo$i, Nadler and democraps doing nothing as it is due to trump probably declaring martial law.

In fact, you need to name 275 in congress and Bernie in that same, passive Nazi, category.

But more important, you'll need to put all 62 million potted plants who have been trying to elect passive Nazis since 1980.

I truly believe that all the genuine "nevers" do not vote for either party.

If you do vote for either party, you are a tacit accepter... an enabler, at the very least.

 
At 9:54 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

After WWII, there were multiple social experiments conducted. The results indicated that everyone who has an authoritarian personality (follower or leader), is prone to being a Nazi. And as I remember it, about half of all participants were so prone.

Very few flatly refused from the beginning of the experiments.

Perhaps tribalism is a feature of that flaw in human nature?

 
At 11:47 PM, Anonymous ap215 said...

Max Rose belongs in the Deputy-Prefect Sevier thread

 

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