I think there's a tendency to want to believe that the Reichstag fire was part of a plan. The evil becomes more fantastical. It's scarier to think that the fire happened as fires do and that Hitler seized on the opportunity in rapid stages.
Ah interesting, so I take it you think it was actually just a coincidence? I suspect it was calculated but in the end it doesn’t really matter what the truth was because of how the event was politicized, as is so often the case in hard-to-prove terrorist attacks … but for what it’s worth, the German government did exonerate Van der Lubbe 75 years after the fact. I’m certainly concerned about all of the events both real and imagined that shall be taken advantage of for authoritarian aims in the coming months.
I guess we’ll never know for certain. But as you point out, Nazi popularity had peaked and was headed down so Hitler and his advisors would have been eager to latch on to anything that would prevent another election. It makes me think that Trump could be more dangerous as we head in to the midterm elections where it’s likely the Republican party would lose their trifecta.
I think you’re spot on there, and postponing or otherwise doing away with elections is a classic despot move, especially b/c in the next two years there will be a whole lot of jostling for position amongst the world’s other Strong Men. I just re-watched Leave the World Behind by Sam Esmail, which is an admittedly extreme take on all the ways in which, as Kurt Vonnegut says, excrement could hit the air conditioning unit in the USA, but it does provide a few intriguing thought experiments.
The piling up of events that in isolation make no sense and then all add up is chillingly familiar.
And what I’ve been trying to tell fellow Americans since this person began to run in 2015. We are at the end of that wire now. The barbed one that gets strung crating the final deadly boundaries.
What always sticks with me is how complacent we all are in a society that has preached comfort and isolationism (see: Netflix & Chill) as if-not-virtuous-at-least-aspirational. I am curious (excited probably isn't the right word) to see how folks respond when the proverbial barbed wire starts to tighten around them ... because the sad fact remains that for most people in early authoritarian societies, they rarely feel *personally* threatened until the wheels are in significant motion.
There is a movie I just happened upon “Hotel Artemis” with Jodie Foster. Future dystopia LA in 3 years (2028) looks very possible. It was shot in 2016 (note year of US admin ascendancy) released in 2018.
It’s a simple plot. It’s the visuals—blade runner-esque (though nothing will ever compare) enough to ring the alarm “we are here” and the militarization of police is complete.
It made me realize that with 50 states each form of dystopia is going to take on its own characteristics. The divide between where to live for a semblance of rights is going to become more critical. Traveling across state borders a whole other thing.
I am old enough to have traveled across Europe when moving from country to country required passing security gates. Two sets. One for each country. Car searches. Bag searches on trains. Complete shake down at certain ones. I have a feeling that is going to pale in comparison with the technology we have now.
I think there's a tendency to want to believe that the Reichstag fire was part of a plan. The evil becomes more fantastical. It's scarier to think that the fire happened as fires do and that Hitler seized on the opportunity in rapid stages.
Ah interesting, so I take it you think it was actually just a coincidence? I suspect it was calculated but in the end it doesn’t really matter what the truth was because of how the event was politicized, as is so often the case in hard-to-prove terrorist attacks … but for what it’s worth, the German government did exonerate Van der Lubbe 75 years after the fact. I’m certainly concerned about all of the events both real and imagined that shall be taken advantage of for authoritarian aims in the coming months.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jan/12/secondworldwar.germany
I guess we’ll never know for certain. But as you point out, Nazi popularity had peaked and was headed down so Hitler and his advisors would have been eager to latch on to anything that would prevent another election. It makes me think that Trump could be more dangerous as we head in to the midterm elections where it’s likely the Republican party would lose their trifecta.
I think you’re spot on there, and postponing or otherwise doing away with elections is a classic despot move, especially b/c in the next two years there will be a whole lot of jostling for position amongst the world’s other Strong Men. I just re-watched Leave the World Behind by Sam Esmail, which is an admittedly extreme take on all the ways in which, as Kurt Vonnegut says, excrement could hit the air conditioning unit in the USA, but it does provide a few intriguing thought experiments.
The piling up of events that in isolation make no sense and then all add up is chillingly familiar.
And what I’ve been trying to tell fellow Americans since this person began to run in 2015. We are at the end of that wire now. The barbed one that gets strung crating the final deadly boundaries.
What always sticks with me is how complacent we all are in a society that has preached comfort and isolationism (see: Netflix & Chill) as if-not-virtuous-at-least-aspirational. I am curious (excited probably isn't the right word) to see how folks respond when the proverbial barbed wire starts to tighten around them ... because the sad fact remains that for most people in early authoritarian societies, they rarely feel *personally* threatened until the wheels are in significant motion.
It’s so much closer than they think it is.
There is a movie I just happened upon “Hotel Artemis” with Jodie Foster. Future dystopia LA in 3 years (2028) looks very possible. It was shot in 2016 (note year of US admin ascendancy) released in 2018.
It’s a simple plot. It’s the visuals—blade runner-esque (though nothing will ever compare) enough to ring the alarm “we are here” and the militarization of police is complete.
It made me realize that with 50 states each form of dystopia is going to take on its own characteristics. The divide between where to live for a semblance of rights is going to become more critical. Traveling across state borders a whole other thing.
I am old enough to have traveled across Europe when moving from country to country required passing security gates. Two sets. One for each country. Car searches. Bag searches on trains. Complete shake down at certain ones. I have a feeling that is going to pale in comparison with the technology we have now.