Current Events > If you were born in munich in 1901, do you think you would have wound up a Nazi?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Too young to fight in WW1 but old enough to suffer through the hardships and scoff up the propaganda

What do you think?

There's strong arguments to be made that anyone born in a certain place at a certain time will be sheep to the norms of the era.

There's plenty of interviews with Nazi soldiers who openly call WW2 a defensive war and deny any war crimes while deriding Russia and the Atomic Bomb. 60+ years of drinking the kool-aid

But at the same time there are always contrarians and freethinkers who prove this is not an absolute. There have been absolutionists since the Roman Empire for example.

There was a lot of opposition to the Nazi party (who never had a majority from a fair election) until they took over with violence



Also I guess for the sake of argument you're born a white dude here. The scenario doesn't really work if you're a black Jew.

What do you think?

I'd like to think I would be one of the few who openly opposed them in the street and got killed or arrested for it.

---

Am I in government? Am I in the military?

Am I comfortable fleeing the country?

No. No. Yes.

Therefor.... No. I would not have become a Nazi. Quite the contrary.

Xethuminra posted...

Am I in government? Am I in the military?

Am I comfortable fleeing the country?

No. No. Yes.

Therefor.... No. I would not have become a Nazi. Quite the contrary.

I guess you're roughly in the same position you are now.

What did your dad do? If he was a teacher or a mechanic then he is in 1901 too.

If he was an office drone then I guess he is whatever an 1902 office drone would be. A clerk /factory worker

---

I would subvert them.

Welcome! To the United Sancta of Xethuminra!
(formerly known as Nazi Germany aka Dumphole)
Where we have Jewish leadership, and Jewish music, and Jewish art.

All are welcome here! We will sell you technology !! Hehehehehe

what if you infiltrated the nazi regime to take it down from the inside?

Yes

no one can answer this question, you wouldn't even be you

---

Turtlebread posted...

no one can answer this question, you wouldn't even be you

A fair point

I'd like to think I could do the third option, but honestly, without really being there, I wouldn't know.

There's a massive gap between just clicking an option that is good and actually doing it.

---

You want land, you buy it legally.

Crazy people!!!

I hope not but people are a product of their environment.

Who knows what sort of propaganda was in circulation in those days and to what effect. For somebody that grew up German and only spoke German I don't know how practical fleeing the country because you disagree with it's politics would be.


---

ZevLoveDOOM posted...

what if you infiltrated the nazi regime to take it down from the inside?

Well a few tried

Von Stauffenberg famously attempted to assassinate Hitler and his plan was foiled because some goon happened to move his briefcase further awsy from Hitler shortly before it exploded

I kinda hated how in the Hollywood movie they made out that Von Stauffenberg was a hero and a good person.

He really wasn't, trying to kill Hilter doesn't make you defacto good. Stalin killed a shitton of Nazis

Turtlebread posted...

no one can answer this question, you wouldn't even be you

meh , that's a cowards answer to me.

Sure you can't answer definitively, but you can speculate

It's a Socratic exercise and you learn from thinking about it.

---

Im happy to participate in this exercise. The Nazis were stupid and I suspect manipulated by China or Russia.

Xethuminra posted...

I suspect manipulated by China or Russia.

Interesting. Care to elaborate?

---

I could see it happening...

Thats a bit frightening ngl.

I was bullied in school, and well, i do know the feelings of hatred and petty vengeance, so its definitely possible.

...unless i end up dying too soon due to Autism... who knows.

EDIT: This isnt me thinking anyone born under specific circumstances is gonna end up going the same way, but i could see myself fall victim to Antisemitism or the like, with that trashfire that is the Vienna Treaty.

---

yeah the china angle seems interesting, since they essentially fucked themselves if that was true.

---

Did they?

UnfairRepresent posted...

meh , that's a cowards answer to me.

Sure you can't answer definitively, but you can speculate

It's a Socratic exercise and you learn from thinking about it.

ok, no I wouldn't be a nazi because I'm a really good and brave person

---

Well given my black skin, I somehow doubt it.

---

Xethuminra posted...

Im happy to participate in this exercise. The Nazis were stupid and I suspect manipulated by China or Russia.

US is more likely to be the manipulator more than anyone

---

Yep

---

DJquackquack posted...

Well given my black skin, I somehow doubt it.

UnfairRepresent posted...

Also I guess for the sake of argument you're born a white dude here. The scenario doesn't really work if you're a black Jew.

---

UnfairRepresent posted...

meh , that's a cowards answer to me.

Sure you can't answer definitively, but you can speculate

It's a Socratic exercise and you learn from thinking about it.

Such thinking can lead you to deep thoughts like "I'd like to think I wouldn't, but I don't know". Now that's a brave answer.

---

Racism, concentration camps, & waging an invasion against the most powerful nations in the world does not interest me.

shnangyboos posted...

Such thinking can lead you to deep thoughts like "I'd like to think I wouldn't, but I don't know". Now that's a brave answer.

It's not the answer that's brave, it's actually tackling the question and really thinking about it and the implications of it

---

I'd like to think I wouldn't, but that assumes that I'm as good a person as I think myself to be

It's easy to say "fuck Nazis" now, when there are no major consequences to doing so (fwiw, I'm not putting disdain on people who say "fuck Nazis", since I agree with the sentiment. Fuck Nazis). But saying it there and then, when the rest of the country, save some brave individuals, were caught up in the propaganda?

I hope I would have. I really do
---

Lets be realistic, imagine a counter-scenario. Is that what you all want?

I'll be real and say I probably would be. I'd like to think I wouldn't be one of the ones turning in my neighbors or anything that hardcore, but I'd probably be one of the go-along-to-get-along Nazis who just turn a blind eye to it.

---

Xethuminra posted...

Did they?

I mean if you were manipulating I'd think I'd direct Japan somewhere else.

Russia is more likely than China.

---

If a person was being hounded & hunted by everyone except the Nazis, what would they do?

Xethuminra posted...

If a person was being hounded & hunted by everyone except the Nazis, what would they do?

Well that pretty much describes Finland and they didn't join the Axis

---

Finland is absolutely not a person.

Xethuminra posted...

Finland is absolutely not a person.

https://youtu.be/NM-Y1ch4b5c?t=1m15s

---

ZevLoveDOOM posted...

what if you infiltrated the nazi regime to take it down from the inside?

The perpetrators of Operation Valkyrie were strung up to be hanged on meat hooks via piano wire and were apparently filmed for Hitler's viewing.

---

UnfairRepresent posted...

https://youtu.be/NM-Y1ch4b5c?t=1m15s

I mean I watched it, but I dont know what it has to do with Finland.

---

Alteres posted...

I mean I watched it, but I dont know what it has to do with Finland.

I can't get the time skip to work :(

its meant to just be the last line

---

That would depend on hundreds if not thousands of extenuating circumstances beyond just those two.

DJquackquack posted...

Well given my black skin, I somehow doubt it.

Probably wouldn't be if you were born in imperial germany at the turn of the 20th century

---

All you have to do is look at the cult of Donald Trump to see how easy it is for large amounts of people to be easily swayed one way or another by the media. Anyone who thinks that their personality would make them immune from that in an even worse time of full on governmental indoctrination is silly. Even if you don't believe in it, to simply upend your entire life and flee from your birthplace is not something you can just do on a whim. You need either great resources or great desperation.

Nemu posted...

All you have to do is look at the cult of Donald Trump to see how easy it is for large amounts of people to be easily swayed one way or another by the media. Anyone who thinks that their personality would make them immune from that in an even worse time of full on governmental indoctrination is silly. Even if you don't believe in it, to simply upend your entire life and flee from your birthplace is not something you can just do on a whim. You need either great resources or great desperation.

I'd honestly blame religion more than the media for Trump

Almost his entire voter base is Christian and openly evangelical.

---

If everyone around me was doing something, yeah, I'd probably end up doing it, too, especially if the consequences of not doing that thing were dangerous. I'm not going to pretend I'm a brave enough person to oppose that kind of force. My heart wouldn't be in it, though, and I'd like to think I would only be involved as much as I absolutely had to in order to keep up appearances.

---