One of the things that doomed Weimar Germany

[gulliver]

50. It's the Internet and smartphones in everyone's hands.

True, the Internet spreads cult manias and feeds feelings of widespread anger and misunderstanding. But we'll never see epic parades of goose-stepping soldiers or death camps. We're getting close to surveillance of everyone by everyone. Individuals and multi-national corporations aren't going to let a Third Reich happen. They don't let anything happen.

Plus, don't forget the guns everywhere in the country in hands across the political spectrum. That raises the possibility of localized violence, but I would argue it makes a totalitarian dictatorship basically impossible.

That doesn't mean Trump and his Republicans can't disgrace and kill us all, of course. With Trump in the White House and his finger on the nuclear button, there's always a chance that the Republicans could far outdo the Nazis in terms of death toll. Republicans can continue to let climate change ruin the future for our kids. They can keep abetting COVID in its war against humanity by failing to vaccinate their lower end numbskulls. They can continue to stand in the way of energy modernization jobs and innovation...