Essentially, there have been two reactions over on grad today:
- I didn’t vote, neither of the candidates were going to stop the war in the Gaza Strip, therefore, there could be no good outcome for the US, therefore I can’t be held accountable
- I voted for a third party, which Republicans will have to acknowledge and respect
I’d like to spin your argument into the other direction.
During the 3rd Reich and the years leading up to it, Hitler used the financial crisis, poverty and unemplyment to emtionalize people in order to make them vote for the NSDAP. His party/regime used a psudoscientific and non-factual ideology to dehumanize a part of the population. In this case most prominently jews but other ethnicities, gays, lesbians, disabled, too.
Let’s compare this to Trump and see how accurate the comparison is. There is a financial crisis right now, not as bad as the great depression, but a lot of people in America struggle to meet month’s end from what I understand. Trump uses this, talking about tarrifs and boosting the american economy. He also doesn’t rely on facts or logic in his program. He claims bizarre things like “windmills will give you cancer through the sound they emit” to push against renewable energy and the protection of climate and nature. He also dehumanizes parts of the american population. In his first term he banned Muslims from entering the US. using the already very latent distrust/ hate against the muslim population. He called for a wall on the mexican border, claiming mexican immigrants are through and through criminals, alledgedly endangering US citizens, when in actuality southern states are highly dependent on these immigrants to take low wage jobs in agriculture. Also, as laughable as it is: “They eat the cats” is part of that, too. He also has follows an anti-lgbtq+ ideology.
Hitler of coursed lived in a different time and people back then faced slightly different problems, but the patterns are similar. The goals are similar. They both follow an ideology that values people differently, based on percieved usefullness to a nationalist image of society.
Not comparing right-extremist leaders to the third Reich, not holding them up against that is, disrespectful to those who suffered. Trump has not comitted a genocide, but the ideology he popularized opens the gates far and wide for abuse of any kind. So I believe that we should compare him to Hitler to make it very clear where his actions could very realistically lead.