Hitler was a symptom, not the cause.

[My Pet Orangutan]

Without Germany's long history of antisemitism, militarism, nationalism and authoritarianism, Hitler could not have happened. He was a symptom, not a cause

It's time to put this cause/symptom canard to bed.

Trump was more than a symptom. He was the malignant catalyst that transformed the party formerly known as the GOP into an irredeemable, antidemocratic traitorfest.

[JI7]

1. It's both in a way. But sometimes when people say that it dismisses the evilness of Hitler or Trump

or whoever we are talking about.

[smirkymonkey]

2. Agree 100%

[My Pet Orangutan]

3. It takes skill to meld our long lived dark angels into a hell hound.

- not intelligence, but a ravenous capacity for evil.

[Hoyt]

4. Basically agree, but trump would have been just another A-hole without tens of millions of rubes.

Eliminating trump wouldn't make it all go away.

[My Pet Orangutan]

5. Agree. Tump was a catalyst.

The reaction can not be undone.

[smirkymonkey]

10. No, but it might not have turned it in to a dedicated hate group.

He was the catalyst for getting these people to come together in their hatred and evil. Without him, they might still be out there, but they wouldn't be as focused or as powerful.

[msfiddlestix]

6. It's true Hitler was a symptom, but...

He epitomized the evil the existed. But that level of evil was nourished, encouraged, drilled, and demanded by a singularly most evil figure as the ultimate catalyst... This is also Trump at this particular moment. He has more power in this respect than David Duke could have ever hoped to achieve. And this is why he needs to be treated like Charles Manson in our justice system, and it can't happen soon enough. Every day that goes by without consequences, is another day he is able to amass power.

The media keeps insisting that he no longer has power because he lost his favorite platforms. His power has been diminished somewhat but not nearly enough as evidenced by members of Congress, Senate, Military, Police Force, GOP, Fox executives and others in important and powerful positions in our culture and governance.

Trumps Lieutenants also have to be held to meaningful and lasting account once and for all and it has to happen now.

[Boomerproud]

8. Yes! Great post.

[msfiddlestix]

12. my joy and optimism on inauguration day and the 1st week of Biden's administration

is beginning to evaporate or be greatly diminished with Moscow Mitch holding on to power in the Senate, and Criminal Congress critter nut-cases, racists and gun humping narcissistic insurrectionists in the House.

Of course, I'm always overjoyed whenever I see and hear Biden Admin and Press Sec holding pressers.

However, the very FACT that the Orange Faced psychopath wanna be dictator has not been arrested, but remains free and at large and continues to enjoy being the leader of the Republican party, is cause for the same level of alarm, angst and alarm for me, as it had before the election.

I was for the impeachment trial. But now I've changed my mind. I want him PROSECUTED and thrown in Prison for life and I want to see his arrest right now. Justice denied is justice delayed. The Capitol is a Crime Scene, and the chief perps are still free, regardless of the arrests of a few low hanging fruit followers.

Sorry for my pessimistic downer. I can't shake it off right now.

[smirkymonkey]

16. Hear, hear!

[Klaralven]

7. Hitler was more a product of the failed, decadent, multi-cultural, empire of Austria-Hungary

It was during the carnival of 1913 that a young Stalin arrived in Vienna on a mission that would launch him into the upper echelon of Russian revolutionaries, and it was here that he first collided with Trotsky. It was in Vienna that the failed artist Adolf Hitler kept daubing watercolors and spouting tirades at fellow drifters in a flophouse. Here Archduke Franz Ferdinand had a troubled audience with Emperor Franz Joseph-and soon the bullet that killed the Archduke would set off the Great War that would kill ten million more.

Thunder at Twilight: Vienna 1913/1914

https://www.amazon.com/Thunder-at-Twilight-Frederic-Morton/dp/0306823268

[WhiskeyGrinder]

9. A white supremacist country elected a white supremacist president. The system upholds itself.

[roamer65]

11. The Treaty of Versailles.

The extreme punitive measures imposed on Germany was a big reason for Hitler’s rise. It gave him all he nationalistic fuel he needed to gain power. There was incredible resentment in Germany over the terms in the treaty and Hitler exploited it to the fullest.

We didn’t repeat that mistake after WW2 and look where Germany is now. A thriving democracy at the the heart of the EU.

There has been a fascist undercurrent in the United States for a long time. The America First crap before WW2 shows that to be the case.

[Turin_C3PO]

13. It's both, I'd say.

The ingredients were present but Trump is the chef that baked them into one vile cake.

[Mike 03]

14. Thank you. I almost couldn't bring myself to click on this post, and it would have been my loss.

[Act_of_Reparation]

15. Bingo.

Fascism thrives on preexisting social conditions.