It is part of the predictable schtick for fascists to promise minions what they'll do, and then to do it. It's one part narcissism, one part chauvinism, and one part boosterism - screaming to the peanut gallery about intentions and the better life sure to come. It is the myopia, and the sheer, repetitive arrogance, of liberals and democrats (an inbred superiority bias) never to believe, or conceive of, what evil spews, which allows evil regularly to steal a march on democracy. Sometimes, as in the 1930s, more than one. This is helped by a constant and deliberate, unrepentant resort to lies, misdirection, and faux egalitarianism on evil's part, which seizes on and transmogrifies every instance of inequality, every failure of imagination, and every slippage of morality to pummel the presumed upholders of a failed, mendacious status quo with glibly rendered, self-evident truths and quick-fixes.
The road to madness is likewise paved in part by intellectual Quislings and flagrant opportunists, viz the shrill Western separatist crowd, who promise that a little sugar here, a little compromise there will stave off the imaginary wolf while, coincidentally, stuffing their own pockets and placating their own self-interested base. Every threatened polity has seen such internal cowardice and greed; every surviving one has had to make terrible choices and long-term investments of mind and matter to see them off. It isn't, in the end, the ignorant that float MAGA's boat, though dumbness and the hollowing out of civil society certainly helps. It is, rather, the acquisitive, the amoral, the rapacious, the grotesquely wealthy, the unimaginatively thuggish and violent. The comparison of Miller to Hitler is apt, perfect, and thunderous. You are not misreading the moment. Nor am I. Canadians need to think, act, and plan accordingly. And really, really quickly.
As always, Dan, so on point! If only we could live long enough to see the “slow fade away” of the current fascists in power to the south of us. I fear the erosion and descent into law of the jungle/rule of the strong over the weak has only just started. At this early juncture, all we can do is name the evil that is now dominating: fascism, as you have continually done. After having served as a Canadian foreign service officer in Cuba, I know only too well that fascists can come in all political stripes - communist, libertarian or anarchist - controlling the weak is a reflex common to all rogue regimes. We have a rogue regime now on our doorstep. Appreciate you reminding readers about Thucydides and Athens.
Really sharp way to frame it, especially the “can you tell which is which” move. One thing your piece highlights that we rarely talk about is how our own system treats the word “fascist” as almost unspeakable even as the ideas creep in. In Ottawa, the Speaker has literally ruled “fascism” unparliamentary when used about another MP, on the grounds that it poisons debate. That taboo makes it even easier for this kind of rhetoric to slide by without being named.
The Miller-Hitler comparison is absolutely chilling and well done. That Athenian epilogue about th Melian dialogue is particularly powerful, showing how brutality and betrayal ultimately backfire even when you 'win' in the short term. I've been thinking alot lately about how fast we've normalized language that wouldve been unthinkable in mainstream politics five years ago. The 'Why We Fight' reference is timely, feels like we need that moral clarity again but dunno if we can get there.
Trump also said in his National Security Speech that European countries have to limit immigration from non-European places or they will cease to be European. The only reason he would care is that he believes in the Master Race theory of A. Hitler.
Also, one must remember that fascism fares very poorly economically since they fail to produce anything more advanced than very simple products like oil, drugs or avocados since otherwise the strong would loose power to the knowledgeable… as elaborated on in
Strange the treatment of blacks in the US military was missed in the WHY WE FIGHT films. Segregated, unable to use the same water fountains. They wondered why they did fight for a country that was still largely Jim Crow. Nazis made a big deal of this in propoganda: What are you fighting for? Tuskegee Airmen, and the Tuskegee Experiment which was ongoing at the time and covered at medical conventions filled with American doctors. I guess this would be Fascism's parallax view.
HA! The same could be said of you and your writings, as interesting as they are. I assume you are asking me to prove that Hitler never called himself a fascist. As you know, it is hard, if not impossible, to prove a negative.
However, I have said clearly what you should review to see that Hitler acted, within Germany, as a socialist. Read his programme of 1922 (which he never changed) and look at all the socialist programmes he put in place for Germans.
I think that you should be interested in developing a true historical picture regarding a much quoted and referenced period. This is especially true given the proven and accepted fact that there is no equal to the evil of the Hitler regime in known history.
This way we can stop trying to diminish Hitler's evil by trying to elevate silly bully boy comments from small fry today to his level.
After all, six million people are not about to be murdered... deported maybe.
I was referring to your first comments, which are full of certainty and empty of anything else. As this is. But please do chime in when you have an actual argument to make.
Sir, I absolutely admire and respect the way in which you engage with negativity or specious comments. Not sure if it's the water, but there are a lot of pretty, uh, unique commenters here. I'm a fan, and look forward daily to your notes too.
Found it!!! However, your comparison and effort to equate what Miller said to a statement by Hitler is an extreme example of a false equivalency. It is historically inaccurate and even insulting to suggest that the braggadocio of a loud mouth like Miller rises anywhere close to the pure evil of Hitler's drivel.
Much like your earlier claim that the bust of Churchill is misplaced in Trump's oval office because Churchill would have disproved of Trump and his policies. It showed a remarkable misunderstanding of the great man and his astonishing proclivity for practicality.
I have no love for Trump and his minions but I have a stronger dislike for over-the-top, one sided messaging that pushes past the line into propaganda.
BTW, Hitler never referred to himself as a fascist. He always called himself and his movement national-socialist. Look at his party platform of 1922. Also Look at his social programmes that provided for subsidized cruises, public libraries and access to the opera for workers. He spent a great deal of time organizing German society into various organizations... sort of like Stalin was doing in Russia.
Stating a view emphatically does not prove the view is correct. If you have reasoning and evidence to support your views, and show I am wrong, please share. Otherwise, this is only so much waving of hands.
Yeah, I did and it wants me to subscribe to the NYT. I dropped my subscription to that rag years ago. If that's your source well... Remember Walter Duranty who said that Stalin's Ukrainian Famine that eventually killed 10 million or so wasn't happening and Guido Enderis who wrote that Hitler was really a peace-loving guy who didn't really hate the Jews?
A statement that outrageous and out of step with modern liberal sentiment by Miller must be quoted more widely by numerous and more creditable sources than the NYT. I just can't find it.
The statements you quote reflect a belief that the law of the jungle is the natural order of humanity, not the rule of law, as reflected in the social contract spoken of by the Enlightenment philosophers. As these philosophers went to great lengths to argue, the state of nature is, per Thomas Hobbes, a state of human life that is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short".
That's what it all comes down to for the neoliberal/fascist - it's all about me, and what's best for me as opposed to what's best for all.
It is part of the predictable schtick for fascists to promise minions what they'll do, and then to do it. It's one part narcissism, one part chauvinism, and one part boosterism - screaming to the peanut gallery about intentions and the better life sure to come. It is the myopia, and the sheer, repetitive arrogance, of liberals and democrats (an inbred superiority bias) never to believe, or conceive of, what evil spews, which allows evil regularly to steal a march on democracy. Sometimes, as in the 1930s, more than one. This is helped by a constant and deliberate, unrepentant resort to lies, misdirection, and faux egalitarianism on evil's part, which seizes on and transmogrifies every instance of inequality, every failure of imagination, and every slippage of morality to pummel the presumed upholders of a failed, mendacious status quo with glibly rendered, self-evident truths and quick-fixes.
The road to madness is likewise paved in part by intellectual Quislings and flagrant opportunists, viz the shrill Western separatist crowd, who promise that a little sugar here, a little compromise there will stave off the imaginary wolf while, coincidentally, stuffing their own pockets and placating their own self-interested base. Every threatened polity has seen such internal cowardice and greed; every surviving one has had to make terrible choices and long-term investments of mind and matter to see them off. It isn't, in the end, the ignorant that float MAGA's boat, though dumbness and the hollowing out of civil society certainly helps. It is, rather, the acquisitive, the amoral, the rapacious, the grotesquely wealthy, the unimaginatively thuggish and violent. The comparison of Miller to Hitler is apt, perfect, and thunderous. You are not misreading the moment. Nor am I. Canadians need to think, act, and plan accordingly. And really, really quickly.
As always, Dan, so on point! If only we could live long enough to see the “slow fade away” of the current fascists in power to the south of us. I fear the erosion and descent into law of the jungle/rule of the strong over the weak has only just started. At this early juncture, all we can do is name the evil that is now dominating: fascism, as you have continually done. After having served as a Canadian foreign service officer in Cuba, I know only too well that fascists can come in all political stripes - communist, libertarian or anarchist - controlling the weak is a reflex common to all rogue regimes. We have a rogue regime now on our doorstep. Appreciate you reminding readers about Thucydides and Athens.
Really sharp way to frame it, especially the “can you tell which is which” move. One thing your piece highlights that we rarely talk about is how our own system treats the word “fascist” as almost unspeakable even as the ideas creep in. In Ottawa, the Speaker has literally ruled “fascism” unparliamentary when used about another MP, on the grounds that it poisons debate. That taboo makes it even easier for this kind of rhetoric to slide by without being named.
The Miller-Hitler comparison is absolutely chilling and well done. That Athenian epilogue about th Melian dialogue is particularly powerful, showing how brutality and betrayal ultimately backfire even when you 'win' in the short term. I've been thinking alot lately about how fast we've normalized language that wouldve been unthinkable in mainstream politics five years ago. The 'Why We Fight' reference is timely, feels like we need that moral clarity again but dunno if we can get there.
Trump also said in his National Security Speech that European countries have to limit immigration from non-European places or they will cease to be European. The only reason he would care is that he believes in the Master Race theory of A. Hitler.
"Can you tell which is which?"
Yes.
"The second statement is Hitler’s, by the way. The first, Miller’s.
Not that it makes any difference."
It does make a difference.
Pray tell, what's the difference?
Also, one must remember that fascism fares very poorly economically since they fail to produce anything more advanced than very simple products like oil, drugs or avocados since otherwise the strong would loose power to the knowledgeable… as elaborated on in
this wonderful thread on X https://x.com/kamilkazani/status/1501360272442896388?s=46
Strange the treatment of blacks in the US military was missed in the WHY WE FIGHT films. Segregated, unable to use the same water fountains. They wondered why they did fight for a country that was still largely Jim Crow. Nazis made a big deal of this in propoganda: What are you fighting for? Tuskegee Airmen, and the Tuskegee Experiment which was ongoing at the time and covered at medical conventions filled with American doctors. I guess this would be Fascism's parallax view.
HA! The same could be said of you and your writings, as interesting as they are. I assume you are asking me to prove that Hitler never called himself a fascist. As you know, it is hard, if not impossible, to prove a negative.
However, I have said clearly what you should review to see that Hitler acted, within Germany, as a socialist. Read his programme of 1922 (which he never changed) and look at all the socialist programmes he put in place for Germans.
I think that you should be interested in developing a true historical picture regarding a much quoted and referenced period. This is especially true given the proven and accepted fact that there is no equal to the evil of the Hitler regime in known history.
This way we can stop trying to diminish Hitler's evil by trying to elevate silly bully boy comments from small fry today to his level.
After all, six million people are not about to be murdered... deported maybe.
I was referring to your first comments, which are full of certainty and empty of anything else. As this is. But please do chime in when you have an actual argument to make.
Sir, I absolutely admire and respect the way in which you engage with negativity or specious comments. Not sure if it's the water, but there are a lot of pretty, uh, unique commenters here. I'm a fan, and look forward daily to your notes too.
Thanks for this - very well, and succinctly I might add, said. Much appreciated.
Found it!!! However, your comparison and effort to equate what Miller said to a statement by Hitler is an extreme example of a false equivalency. It is historically inaccurate and even insulting to suggest that the braggadocio of a loud mouth like Miller rises anywhere close to the pure evil of Hitler's drivel.
Much like your earlier claim that the bust of Churchill is misplaced in Trump's oval office because Churchill would have disproved of Trump and his policies. It showed a remarkable misunderstanding of the great man and his astonishing proclivity for practicality.
I have no love for Trump and his minions but I have a stronger dislike for over-the-top, one sided messaging that pushes past the line into propaganda.
BTW, Hitler never referred to himself as a fascist. He always called himself and his movement national-socialist. Look at his party platform of 1922. Also Look at his social programmes that provided for subsidized cruises, public libraries and access to the opera for workers. He spent a great deal of time organizing German society into various organizations... sort of like Stalin was doing in Russia.
Stating a view emphatically does not prove the view is correct. If you have reasoning and evidence to support your views, and show I am wrong, please share. Otherwise, this is only so much waving of hands.
Yeah, I did and it wants me to subscribe to the NYT. I dropped my subscription to that rag years ago. If that's your source well... Remember Walter Duranty who said that Stalin's Ukrainian Famine that eventually killed 10 million or so wasn't happening and Guido Enderis who wrote that Hitler was really a peace-loving guy who didn't really hate the Jews?
A statement that outrageous and out of step with modern liberal sentiment by Miller must be quoted more widely by numerous and more creditable sources than the NYT. I just can't find it.
It is quoted widely. Or you can watch the whole interview on CNN.
Please provide a reference for the quote attributed to Miller as I was unable to find it.
Thanks.
Click the link in the sentence with "yesterday on CNN."
The statements you quote reflect a belief that the law of the jungle is the natural order of humanity, not the rule of law, as reflected in the social contract spoken of by the Enlightenment philosophers. As these philosophers went to great lengths to argue, the state of nature is, per Thomas Hobbes, a state of human life that is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short".
That's what it all comes down to for the neoliberal/fascist - it's all about me, and what's best for me as opposed to what's best for all.
Bullies always end up lonely...or dead. Another Valentine’s Day may be in store.