Harmless Horrors: The Tools of the Third Reich that Paved the Way to Trump’s America, Part #2

Pillar #2: Saviorism, Coups and Criminals

Then: Nationalism, Persecution, and Anti-Abortion Laws
German Nationalism was extremely popular post WW1. Hitler latched onto its popularity and began speaking in pubs, and even attempted to overthrow the government at what was coined the “Beer Hall Putsch” in 1923. During his trial, he so eloquently and passionately defended himself as a German Nationalist that he was given a greatly reduced sentence and considered a National Hero. The judge was sympathetic to his cause, but felt the need to uphold standards of justice by sentencing him for five years in Landsberg Prison. He was released with under one year of that sentence in December of 1924. During his time in prison, he wrote Mein Kampf, a manifesto and strategic guide for manipulation of the masses, featuring common anti-abortionist arguments as a basis of German Supremacy, demonization of the Jewish People, a cry for a Pure Aryan Race, and turning Germany into a War Machine Empire of Global Power. After all, the more true Germans bred, the larger the Empire became on the way toward total global domination and glorifying Germany in the eyes of the one true Christian God. 

After his release, Hitler and his inner circle began a strategic rebuild of the Nazi Party, and successfully lifted the ban placed on the party after the Beer Hall Putsch. Hitler shifted his tactics on gaining power through propaganda sourced from his book, Mein Kampf, and furthered the Nazi cause by gaining legal and democratic support. During his more controlled speeches, Hitler and Goebells focused on exploiting instabilities within the existing German government and used specific rhetoric to emphasize the need of a united front of a German Empire to “protect” German citizens. This nationalistic language became the cornerstone of Hitler’s power. It gained more and more traction throughout the masses–particularly young German men. The Nazi Party emphasized “purity,”--everything from German genetics, to living a “pure lifestyle.” While Hitler had no personal issues with homosexuality, the rhetoric used throughout Mein Kampf and in Goebells speeches and press releases suggested a pure, heterosexual lifestyle and celebrated women being homemakers and men being providers. The idea of a “strong German family unit” was expressed and emphasized, celebrating large German families leading lives with wholesome, Christian values. Goebells and Hitler highlighted the importance of a superior “Aryan Race,” and this began using language that eventually became law to criminalize German Women who sought abortion care. This criminalization did not extend to the Jewish community, under law, and Jewish perpetrators faced less-severe penalties as they were considered “racially inferior.” In some cases, Jewish women were preemptively sterilized by German Nationalist doctors during routine health appointments. Propaganda was also pushed forward to punish, endanger, and essentially cauterize disabled peoples. The dangers of this rhetoric were made into reality once Hitler came into power. Famous doctors like Aspbergers played a central role in demonizing people with disabilities and disorders regardless of race.

Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Hindenburg 10 years after his sentencing for the Beer Hall Putsch. Hindenburg saw Hitler’s popularity as a bolster to his administration, and recognized that having someone so idolized as a "Savior of Germany" in a position of power would be beneficial to the German Government as a whole. Hindenburg believed he could control and manipulate Hitler as a means to his own end. He was greatly mistaken, as Hitler used this new leverage in power as a gripping point and manipulated Hindenburg up until the President’s death on August 2nd, 1934. Hitler publicly declared himself Supreme Ruler of Germany on that very same day.

Now: Nationalism, American Exceptionalism, and Pro-Life Indoctrination
American Nationalism has existed since its founding. Trump was able to utilize nationalist movements and pro-life rhetoric that had long been circulating throughout evangelical spaces already in place as the foundation of his political platform. We all saw this with our own eyes, yet were hesitant to directly compare it to the momentous growth of the Nazi Party. American Exceptionalism told us “that could never be the US.” Except it absolutely could be, was, and has always been.
Hitler modeled his genocide after American Slavery and Indigenous genocide/sterilization of both Indigenous and disabled girls and women, after all. And what about those Japanese Internment Camps? When we fast forward to  Donald Trump's incrimination as a 34 count felon and his expedited preemptive stacking of the Supreme Court, alongside the early machinations of Project 2025 and the Heritage Foundation-while not copy-paste similar-definitely Mein Kampf/Nazi Nationalism inspired. In both instances, the Criminal is the Savior, and Democracy is imploding. 
January 6 was always going to happen. MAGA was a new name for a long-standing movement of White Supremacist values; formed by a collection of cultist groups like the Proud Boys, The Tea Party, Moms for Liberty, The Heritage Foundation, The Family Research Council, etc. There is no denying that January 6 was a monstrous whitehead on the face of American Democracy just waiting to pop from the overflowing infection of Pro-Life, Misogynistic, and Racist Ideologies.
Donald Trump gave these domestic terrorist groups ground to fight and a voice to unite behind decades after the march on Selma and the social justice victory of the Civil Rights Movement.
On the surface, we saw crusty white men and weird AI-faced women storming the Capitol, climbing walls, and pissing on Pelosi’s desk, but underneath it all the FRC and The Heritage Foundation were diligently finalizing a much longer version of Mein Kampf and using the optics of January 6 as a distraction. Project 2025 has been in the works for over 50 years, and it is all about White Men maintaining power during the new age of American Exceptionalism. 
By continuously finding new ways to emphasize Christian family values, criminalize non-white immigrants, demonize the LGBTQIA+ community, attack women’s bodily autonomy by flagging Abortion as anti-life, satanic, and anti-family, the Right was able to manipulate a large sector of the Christian population into believing that Donald Trump and other Old White Assholes like Greg Abbott and Mitch McConnell were patriotic leaders. As if. The GOP’s constant declarations and emphasis on the failure of American Democracy under the rallying cry of “Make America Great Again,” united uneducated, White working class voters of the Rural South and highly educated, wealthy, White men in places like California, Texas, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Coastal Maine, and Florida against the idea of Americans having 1)access to Universal Healthcare and 2) Women, Black People, Non-White Immigrants, Disabled People and Queers having a modicum of autonomy in a system that actively hates them and always has. The main way to do this is through religious indoctrination of both White Women and Youth. Hence the rise in weird, Pseudo-Christian Mega Churches and Tik Tok Pastors. This is not something I have to provide sources for. We have lived it and seen it with our very eyes.
Project 2025 is a compilation of the detailed destruction of every single branch of American Government, Public Health, and Social Service in order to strengthen the bottom line of the American Elites, ie; Bezos, Musk, Zuckerberg, etc. Much like Mein Kampf was to the Nazi Party, it is now the doctrine of the GOP. We can see it in their midnight bill-passing to defund hospitals and give tanning beds a tax-break. We can see it in the tariff wars and the destabilization of the Department of Education. We can see it in the shuddering regret of our conservative dad’s smacking their hands on their foreheads as they realize that they no longer have access to Medicare and their autistic grandchild is now on a government-sanctioned hit list. It is a real thing and our very lives are the bibliography. This is exactly how 1930’s German citizens must have felt, probably.

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