this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2024
178 points (96.8% liked)

politics

19096 readers
3395 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

The AfD only exists and has power now because it was explicitly allowed to continue existing due to a (bullshit) court ruling that it wasn't big enough at the time to constitute a threat. Your own example doesn't even make sense because the AfD got where it is now exactly because they weren't stamped out when they should've been.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

The court order would have never been brought forward if the ideology had been successfully stamped out post-war. Ultimately, an idea cannot be forcibly destroyed though, only driven into hiding where it can continue to fester underground and through back-channels, as the John Birch Society did here in the States.

This is why addressing the root socioeconomic and individual psychological causes becomes necessary. While most people like to focus on one or the other, I think both are necessary.

edit for grammar

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Clever trying to strawman the argument into "suppressing Nazism actually works forever and never needs to be reapplied." from "suppressing Nazism works". Part of the ongoing post-war stamping out of Nazism is exactly the kind of thing that court failed to uphold. Again, your example makes no sense at all because the AfD should have been stamped out under the law but was given a ludicrous exception. Had it been dissolved when it was small, Germany would not be in this predicament.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It's not a strawman, I think you mean shifting a goalpost. It's not that either though, since my position has remained completely consistent. I'm arguing it does not work, the problem of right wing authoritarianism was never actually addressed. It was driven underground, it was hidden, it's symptoms were masked as people went around thinking "no problems here!". This was a grave error. From its position underground, it was only a matter of time before it at some point rose threaten society again.

The solution you advocate for requires a neverending process of rolling the dice, hoping no Nazi infiltration into courts or higher government has happened. This does not work, it is not a viable long-term solution. A long term solution must take both a societal and medical perspective into account to understand how a person actually becomes a Nazi.

The medical part is largely under-discussed, it's only recently that physiological changes in the brain differentiating these sorts of conservatives are becoming more recognized, and explaining why an ideology of fear is so much more effective on them than you or I.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

This is true of other beliefs as well. The failure of Reconstruction is a parallel of not addressing the real problems and just patching things and calling them fixed, only for them to fester for decades erupting in sores and infection constantly.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Agreed. I would point to widespread systemic racism as an evidence of this festering. And this was despite Ulysses S Grant's, as President and controlling both Houses of Congress at the time, attempted harsh persecution of the KKK during Reconstruction. There's just only so much you can do against what is essentially a domestic guerilla campaign. They hide. Really well. They come out and do things when you're not watching, and flee when faced with real danger.