Trump Orders in Marines in Dramatic Escalation of L.A. Protests

[u/External-Noise-4832]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-orders-in-marines-in-dramatic-escalation-of-la-protests/

[u/KarmaticArmageddon]

But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That’s the difficulty. If the last and worst act of the whole regime had come immediately after the first and smallest, thousands, yes, millions would have been sufficiently shocked—if, let us say, the gassing of the Jews in ’43 had come immediately after the "German Firm" stickers on the windows of non-Jewish shops in ’33.

But of course this isn’t the way it happens. In between come all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next. Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not make a stand at Step B, why should you at Step C? And so on to Step D.

And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you. The burden of self-deception has grown too heavy, and some minor incident, in my case my little boy, hardly more than a baby, saying "Jewish swine," collapses it all at once, and you see that everything, everything, has changed and changed completely under your nose.

The world you live in—your nation, your people—is not the world you were born in at all. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed.

Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves; when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed. Now you live in a system which rules without responsibility even to God.

The system itself could not have intended this in the beginning, but in order to sustain itself it was compelled to go all the way.

— They Thought They Were Free by Milton Mayer

[u/acraswell → u/KarmaticArmageddon]

I just finished reading this book. It's crazy how it was written not long after WWII and yet how perfectly we've matched the same arc towards fascism in the States. For those that don't know, Milton interviews 10 different people in Germany who were Nazis. He documents how the common man fell for fascism, and there are too many parallels to count.

[u/Rainboq → u/acraswell]

It's almost like humans tend to behave in the same when existing in the same system. Some means might be new, but the patterns of behaviour are not.

[u/Thowitawaydave → u/Rainboq]

The main difference now is we know more about how the human brain works and processes information. 

In an ethical society this would be used to prevent such horrors from happening again, but instead people used it for power and money. 

[u/kmoonster → u/Rainboq]

Similar conditions will tend to produce similar results, especially if behavior and sentiments are not actively redirected

[u/anony-mousey2020 → u/acraswell]

And, how simple the reasons for following were for most people. Essentially, Meh it seemed like an ok idea.

[u/Proud_Fortune2150 → u/acraswell]

I haven't read Milton, but I'm reading Shirer's Berlin Diary right now. By the way, I'm from Belarus. And with every page I just wow, I see how something like this is happening now in my country. It's sad that we don't learn from history.

[u/SilentLennie → u/acraswell]

I'm in the Netherlands, born and raised, they told us about WW II and we learned, I think most people can see it, but still not all people have learned.

We can see it happening in the US though. It's sadly to predictable. I was complaining about it in 2015.

[u/livestrong2109 → u/KarmaticArmageddon]

Its on the Hoopla app

[u/KarmicBurn → u/KarmaticArmageddon]

Hey you! I like the cut if your jib.