Lies and Distortions, Then and Now
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… the dread consequences of a regime’s calculated and incessant propaganda.
10/18/2020 . I recently began reading William Shirer’s classic work on Nazi Germany, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich . It is a voluminous work of over twelve hundred pages, tracing the time of the Nazi regime from the early life of Adolph Hitler through the Second World War.
Mr. Shirer was an American journalist who lived in Germany during Hitler’s rise to power, the prewar Nazi years, and (I think) the first year of the war. So in addition to his journalistic approach to describing this time (via tons of captured documents at the war’s end), he provides an eyewitness account of Germany’s transition from a republic to totalitarianism.
This is fascinating material and an easier read than you might think. I was especially struck by the similarities to our time. Such similarities have been noted by a lot of writers today (in the alt-press, not in the mainstream), but I did not start the book with the intention of looking for historical parallels. They just popped out at me.
I’m not referring to similarities between Hitler and any current politicians, though I’m sure I could find plenty. No, what struck me was Mr. Shirer’s accounting of totalitarian goals and how they are the same today. Also, his description of the attitude of the common people when the Nazis were in total control, echoes current attitudes. There’s much more, but let me just touch on these two items.
When the home of the German parliament, the Reichstag, burned on Feb 27, 1933, the Nazis quickly blamed it on the Communists and implemented a decree ‘…“for the Protection of the People and the State” suspending the seven sections of the constitution which guaranteed individual and civil liberties.’ Even back then, the Reichstag Fire was deemed suspicious outside of Nazi circles. Today, it resembles false flag events where the authorities immediately identify perpetrators and enact legislation that curtails civil liberties (i.e., the 9/11/2001 Event and the Patriot Act).
Hitler’s decree implemented “Restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press; on the rights of assembly and association; and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic and telephonic communications….” (Re: Chpt 7 The Nazification of Germany: 1933-34, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer).
These restrictions were apparently a primary goal for Hitler and reflect those restrictions we are experiencing today under COVID-19 “lock-downs.” Freedom of the mainstream press has long been compromised so that it only spouts government and oligarch narratives rather than news. Free expression is shouted down by paid Antifa and BLM groups. Opinions counter to the mainstream narrative are excised from Internet platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. And certainly our Constitutional rights to free assembly and association are violated by facemask and social-distancing edicts.
Chapter Eight of Mr. Shirer’s book is a long description of life in the Third Reich before the war. It is presented in categories that reflect how Nazi propaganda and policy twisted education, justice, culture, workers, etc. Most startling is how accepted were all the Nazi lies and distortions. It is a theme expressed in Mr. Shirer’s account of the rise of Nazism. The Nazis, though always a minority, came to dominate every aspect of German life and destroyed anything counter to their memes. This is what totalitarian regimes do.
It is the common people’s acceptance, as described in the book, that is so striking to me. Mr. Shirer talks about encountering people who made “outlandish assertions,” obviously “…parroting some piece of nonsense they had heard on the radio or read in the newspapers.” If he pointed out that they were speaking Nazi propaganda, they would return “…such a stare of incredulity, such a shock of silence, as if one had blasphemed the Almighty….” And so he learned “…how useless it was even to try to make contact with a mind which had become warped and for whom the facts of life had become what Hitler and Goebbels, with their cynical disregard for truth, said they were.” (Re: Chpt 8 Life in the Third Reich: 1933-37, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer).
This sounds to me like people advocating mask-wearing and social-distancing with religious fervor, and condemning with equal fervor those who disagree (or just being astounded that anyone would disagree). And all in the face of evidence that the CV19 “pandemic” is a hoax.
Mr. Shirer came to the conclusion that it was useless to try to change the mind of people who had so thoroughly bought into ruling power propaganda. I feel the same way. The stakes today, however, are higher than in Mr. Shirer’s time. Then, it was a block of countries suffering under degrees of fascist rule. Today, it is the whole world under the thumb of “elites” imposing a New World Order (via Agenda 21, the Great Reset, etc). And our rulers now have much better tools with which to enforce their rule.
What can stop them?
10/18/2020 . I recently began reading William Shirer’s classic work on Nazi Germany, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich . It is a voluminous work of over twelve hundred pages, tracing the time of the Nazi regime from the early life of Adolph Hitler through the Second World War.
Mr. Shirer was an American journalist who lived in Germany during Hitler’s rise to power, the prewar Nazi years, and (I think) the first year of the war. So in addition to his journalistic approach to describing this time (via tons of captured documents at the war’s end), he provides an eyewitness account of Germany’s transition from a republic to totalitarianism.
This is fascinating material and an easier read than you might think. I was especially struck by the similarities to our time. Such similarities have been noted by a lot of writers today (in the alt-press, not in the mainstream), but I did not start the book with the intention of looking for historical parallels. They just popped out at me.
I’m not referring to similarities between Hitler and any current politicians, though I’m sure I could find plenty. No, what struck me was Mr. Shirer’s accounting of totalitarian goals and how they are the same today. Also, his description of the attitude of the common people when the Nazis were in total control, echoes current attitudes. There’s much more, but let me just touch on these two items.
When the home of the German parliament, the Reichstag, burned on Feb 27, 1933, the Nazis quickly blamed it on the Communists and implemented a decree ‘…“for the Protection of the People and the State” suspending the seven sections of the constitution which guaranteed individual and civil liberties.’ Even back then, the Reichstag Fire was deemed suspicious outside of Nazi circles. Today, it resembles false flag events where the authorities immediately identify perpetrators and enact legislation that curtails civil liberties (i.e., the 9/11/2001 Event and the Patriot Act).
Hitler’s decree implemented “Restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press; on the rights of assembly and association; and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic and telephonic communications….” (Re: Chpt 7 The Nazification of Germany: 1933-34, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer).
These restrictions were apparently a primary goal for Hitler and reflect those restrictions we are experiencing today under COVID-19 “lock-downs.” Freedom of the mainstream press has long been compromised so that it only spouts government and oligarch narratives rather than news. Free expression is shouted down by paid Antifa and BLM groups. Opinions counter to the mainstream narrative are excised from Internet platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. And certainly our Constitutional rights to free assembly and association are violated by facemask and social-distancing edicts.
Chapter Eight of Mr. Shirer’s book is a long description of life in the Third Reich before the war. It is presented in categories that reflect how Nazi propaganda and policy twisted education, justice, culture, workers, etc. Most startling is how accepted were all the Nazi lies and distortions. It is a theme expressed in Mr. Shirer’s account of the rise of Nazism. The Nazis, though always a minority, came to dominate every aspect of German life and destroyed anything counter to their memes. This is what totalitarian regimes do.
It is the common people’s acceptance, as described in the book, that is so striking to me. Mr. Shirer talks about encountering people who made “outlandish assertions,” obviously “…parroting some piece of nonsense they had heard on the radio or read in the newspapers.” If he pointed out that they were speaking Nazi propaganda, they would return “…such a stare of incredulity, such a shock of silence, as if one had blasphemed the Almighty….” And so he learned “…how useless it was even to try to make contact with a mind which had become warped and for whom the facts of life had become what Hitler and Goebbels, with their cynical disregard for truth, said they were.” (Re: Chpt 8 Life in the Third Reich: 1933-37, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer).
This sounds to me like people advocating mask-wearing and social-distancing with religious fervor, and condemning with equal fervor those who disagree (or just being astounded that anyone would disagree). And all in the face of evidence that the CV19 “pandemic” is a hoax.
Mr. Shirer came to the conclusion that it was useless to try to change the mind of people who had so thoroughly bought into ruling power propaganda. I feel the same way. The stakes today, however, are higher than in Mr. Shirer’s time. Then, it was a block of countries suffering under degrees of fascist rule. Today, it is the whole world under the thumb of “elites” imposing a New World Order (via Agenda 21, the Great Reset, etc). And our rulers now have much better tools with which to enforce their rule.
What can stop them?
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