2010-202x America is in major danger of repeating many/most 1930s errors and STUPIDITY. Most obvious is “America First” mentality – selfish isolationism to let other democracies suffocate and die, or be overrun by fascist dictatorships. Counterparts to 1930s Far Right talking heads spew disinformation.
Several elements of “14 characteristics of fascism” are obvious in 2023 America: identify enemies and scapegoats; rampant sexism; religion and government intertwined; corporate power protected; labor power suppressed; disdain for intellectuals and art; rampant cronyism; fraudulent elections [ which HAVEN’T occurred yet – but the Far Right is working on this: smear campaigns to manipulate; legislation to control voters & gerrymandering; use judiciaries to manipulate/control elections – see 2000 presidential “election.”]
THE most obvious test of democracies is Russia’s Ukraine invasion. If this ends with Russian control of ANY Ukrainian territory, the world will be headed for a repeat of the 1938 Austrian Anschluss and 1938-39 Nazi assimilation of Czechoslovakia. Dictators don’t stop until they’re defeated. Putin has gotten away with atrocities in 3 nations.
As the following will show, Hitler had considerable support in America – even DURING World War II. “American” companies actively aided Hitler, profited from it – and GOT AWAY WITH IT – during a war. Is that the definition of “treason”???
***”We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”
[Winston Churchill]
1]. James Pool and Susan Pool: “Who Financed Hitler”
– “If “The International Jew was the Bible, then to the Nazis Henry Ford must have seemed a God. His anti-Semitic publications led many Germans to become Nazis. Baldur von Schirach..stated at the..Nuremberg War crimes Trial: “You have no idea what a great influence this book [The International Jew] had on the thinking of German youth..”..After 1933, it became a stock item of Nazi propaganda..
Not only did Hitler specifically praise Henry Ford in “Mein Kampf,” but many of Hitler’s ideas were a direct reflection of Ford’s racist philosophy..some passages are so identical it has been said Hitler copied directly from Ford’s publication.
“In the minds of Ford and Hitler, Communism was a completely Jewish creation>”. Ford’s condemning democracy influenced German businessmen – America wouldn’t object to Germany becoming an authoritarian state. Later American protests about German treatment of Jews. disregarded, felt Ford secretly approved it.
“That Henry ford..gave money to the National Socialists directly or indirectly has never been disputed, said Konrad Heiden [Hitler] biographer.” July, 1938, Ford awarded “the Grand Cross of the Supreme Order of the German Eagle,” the highest medal that could be given to a non-German. Hitler had Ford’s picture in his office.
*** “The scapegoat is necessary as a symbol of evil which it is convenient to cast out of the social order and, which, through its very being, confirms the remaining members of the community as good.” [Thomas Szasz]
2]. James Pool: “Hitler and His Secret Partners”
– “Opinions expressed publicly and privately to Nazi emissaries by Kennedy, Lindbergh, and the Windsors led Hitler to believe..there was a large body of opinion in America and Britain that was sympathetic to nazism and had no objection to anti-Semitism. The effect of this on Hitler turned out to be disastrous..lead him to believe he could get away with military aggression and persecution of the Jews but it also helped him convince his German partners..that a powerful segment of opinion in the United states and Britain had no objection to Nazi goals..The political goals of Kennedy and Lindbergh were much alike. Both favored appeasement for Britain and isolationism for the United States…Lindbergh’s report was..useful to Chamberlain to help him frighten the French into abandoning the Czechs at Munich.”
*** “Frogs will permit themselves to be boiled to death. If the temperature of the water in which the frog is sitting is slowly raised, the frog does not become aware of the danger until it is too late to do anything about it.”
[Robert Theobald]
3] Bradley Hart: “Hitler’s American Friends”
– “Nazism had tentacles that touched every American community..Thousands..joined groups like the German American Bund and the Silver Legion..Supporters of celebrity radio host Father Coughlin’s Christian Front roughed up Jews..and discouraged Americans from shopping at Jewish-owned stores..close to a million prepared to vote for a long-shot third party presidential candidate espousing a pro-Hitler platform, and over ten million we could classify as “Hitler’s American friends in waiting” in one form or another.
“The culminating moment of Hitler’s American friends came in the 1940-1941 period, when anti-intervention sentiment reached its peak simultaneously with power of the far right.”
*** “An infallible method of conciliating a tiger is to allow oneself to be swallowed,” [Konrad Adenauer]
4]. Charles Higham: “Trading With the Enemy”
– “The tycoons were linked by an ideology: the ideology of Business as Usual. Bound by reactionary ideas, the members sought a common future in fascist domination, regardless of which world leader might further that ambition.
“In 1942 Standard Oil of New Jersey mangers shipped the enemy’s fuel to neutral Switzerland..the Chase Bank in Nazi-occupied Paris after Pearl Harbor was doing millions of dollars’ worth of business with the enemy with full knowledge of the head office..Ford trucks were being built for German occupation troops in France..Colonel Sosthenes Behn, head of the international American telephone conglomerate ITT, flew from New York to Madrid to Berne during the war to help Hitler’s communications systems..ITT built the Focke-Wulfs that dropped bombs on British and American troops..crucial ball bearings were shipped to Nazi-associated customers in Latin America with the collusion of the vice-chairman of the U.S. Production Board in partnership with Goring’s cousin in Philadelphia..such arrangements were known about in Washington..”
*** “Wealthy men are insolent and arrogant; their possession of wealth affects their understanding; they feel as if they had every good thing that exists; wealth becomes a sort of standard of value for everything else; and therefore they imagine there is nothing it can’t buy.” [Aristotle]
5] Edwin Black: “IBM And The Holocaust”
– “As the third Reich embarked on its plan of conquest and genocide, IBM and its subsidiaries helped create enabling technologies, step-by-step, from the identification and cataloging programs of the 1930s to the selections of the 1940s.
“Aided by the company’s custom-designed and constantly updated Hollerith systems, Hitler was able to automate his persecution of the Jews..IBM technology was used to organize nearly everything in Germany and then Nazi Europe, from the runnings of railroads and organizing of concentration camp labor.
“IBM and its German subsidiary custom-designed complex solutions, one-by-one, anticipating the Reich’s needs. They did not merely sell the machines and walk away. Instead IBM leased these machines for high fees and became the sole source of the billions of punch cards Hitler needed.”
IBM transferred U.S. jobs to Germany and dodged U.S. taxes. IBM sabotaged international boycott of Germany’s economy. IBM got crucial help from some in government – gets immunized after the war!!!!!
*** “Men with power have an extraordinary capacity to convince themselves that what they want to do coincides with what society need done for its [own] good.” [Raymond Vernon]
*** “Not only does money speak; it also imposes silence.” [Aldous Huxley]
6] Democracy and rule of law are being tested by autocratic dictatorships. In a repeat of 1930s corporate greed – sanctions against and criticism of – anti-democratic regimes is. AGAIN being sabotaged by “American” corporations.
At least one “American” company has been alleged “trading with the enemy” of democracy – Putin. There are likely others..
China broke a 50 year treaty on Hong Kong in less than 25 years. They’ve virtually stamped out real democracy in the imprisoned city. They claim an island 100 miles off their shore, populated originally by people other than mainland Chinese, to be part of China. Corporate response to all this: DOING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
Corporations, for decades, screamed about “intellectual property’ rights, have manipulated international treaties to protect those “rights.’ These same corporations GAVE AWAY. those business secrets to China todo business there.
In response to Chinese aggression – “American” corporations HAVE. DONE. NOTHING. They COULD have made a statement when China broke the Hong Kong treaty. – THEY DID NOT. Making money was and IS more important. What will these “American” corporations do when/if China aids Russia’s Ukraine invasion???
China is a threat to world democracy – part of their plan dominating the world. China’s power comes from “American” corporations’ plants there – moving 5 million American manufacturing jobs and several million other jobs to China. this wealth greatly aids the FAR RIGHT THREAT TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY – and obviously aids Chinese power and aggression.
The lessons of the 1930s are obvious. Democracies almost waited until it was too late to stop what – to this point – was and is, THE single most evil regime in world history. THE question now, in 2023: do we have the will to do what is NOW , again, required to prevent a new anti-democratic coalition from accomplishing what the Nazis almost succeeded in doing????????????
*** “When it comes time to hang the capitalists, they will vie with each other for the rope contract.” [Lenin]
With Justice For All 