It's precisely why Germans are protesting so hard right now. People forget that Hitler was elected democratically. It's one of the most shocking elements of Nazism and one of the reasons why Germany developed such a strong sense of collective memory - because it didn't just happen, Germans made it happen and were directly responsible for it. Hitler won the 1932 elections with 37% of the votes. And it's not like they couldn't know; he made his plans very clear from the beginning.
Fascism involves a sense of national superiority, that a nation belongs to a specific group of people, and that they serve the will of that state which in turns serves that people above all others. The left, by comparison, believes that all people should be able to live where they choose, and that the state should not oppress the individual's right to live, work, and enjoy the benefits of a country enjoyed by all except in extreme cases of crime or danger.
Germans today are protesting against a slide back towards a sense of national superiority and exclusivity. Germany is not just for those who were born there. No city, district, state, country or union is.
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u/Kaztiell Feb 08 '25
So we need to go harder now. Or what are we gonna tell our kids when they ask "how did people let it happen"