by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
It’s sometimes easy to dismiss Trump as a political has been and a big old dingus. And, yet, I’m reading a biography about the political ascent of Hitler and I’m just past the part where Hitler tried to overthrow the Weimar Republic via his failed Beerhall Putsch.
What’s so alarming is, if you do a 1-to-1 between Trump’s January 6th Insurrection and Hitler’s Beerhall Putsch, Trump came a lot closer to getting what he wanted than Hitler. With the Beerhall Putsch, Hitler would have had to have marched on Berlin to successfully overthrown the government there. Meanwhile, Trump at the time of the January 6th Insurrection WAS the government and, to some extent, the only reason why he failed was Mike Pence simply did his job.
Had things worked out just a little bit differently on January 6th, Trump could have at least forced the country into chaos and potentially civil war. And there was just as much of a chance that he could have successfully pulled off an autogolpe and continued to stay in power.
So, the case could be made that Trump in 2020 and Hitler in 1923 were far more similar than one might first thing. And, what’s worse, Trump was actually more dangerous than Hitler.
The key thing we have to appreciate is how popular fascist autocracy is in the United States at the moment. A number of things superficially suggest that there might be a civil war instead of a slide into autocracy, but I continue to be very dubious of such a notion.
Just because the United States is far bigger and more diverse than the Weimar Republic doesn’t mean we’re any less likely to embrace fascism when the time comes. The American center-Left is a pushover and unless something I just can’t predict happens, they will suffer the same fate as Russian liberals when Putin came to power — exile, arrest and or death.
I would estimate that around 48% of the American population looking forward to a white, autocratic Christian ethno state. A lot of that 48% doesn’t really appreciate what it is exactly that they want, but they know it when they see it. As such, I continue to believe that on a macro historical scale MAGA could be as dangerous, if not more dangerous, than the Nazis.
Ultimately, more people will die because of MAGA than the Nazis.
I think this because either we have a civil war in the United States that causes WW3, or the United States becomes a MAGA themed America First Fortress which will so destabilize the world order that…a WW3 happens. And given the issue of race in the United States, it’s very likely that once we get our MAGA fascist state that it will go after African Americans, gays and…Jews. And loudmouth cranks like me.
Form follows function.
And the diverse nature of America could very well make our new fascist MAGA overlords feel more insecure to the point that they decide to have a “Final Solution” of their own.
Here’s something interesting to think about when it comes to comparing Hitler and Trump — both of them make no bones about their long-term intentions. Hitler wrote Mein Kampf while Trump did a lot of deranged tweets that gave people a real-time understanding of his thinking.
Form follows function. There are so many eerie similarities between Trump and Hitler that you have to take the rise of MAGA in the United States just as seriously as that of the NSDAP in the Weimar Republic. As of right now, the only thing that is a major difference between Trump and Hitler is Trump is not a Great Man.
He’s just an avatar, a vessel for white Christian rage in the United States. Trump is so stupid and so lazy that he is more of a transitional figure than Hitler, who shaped history to his will. So, in that sense, it’s probably going to be Trump’s fascist successor who will be America’s Hitler, or maybe some mish-mash of Hitler and Putin.
The point is — if you have the means, start making your plans for getting the fuck out of the United States. I’m a broke ass motherfucker so I’m going to have to stay and fight. But at least 1 million wealthy, well educated liberals are going to leave the US starting in late 2024. You should probably make your plans now to beat the rush.
The Philippines is lovely.
