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Originally Posted by marichiko
Many Germans realized at the time that Hitler was very bad news. They didn't need the perspective of history to tell them this. Unfortunately, they were co-erced into silence. The rest of the world just hoped the whole thing would go away. It didn't.
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It was not many who opposed Hitler. Posted is history. Back in 1932/33, those events and laws were considered good for Germany - by most Germans. Crowds were robust and enthusiastic in parades for Hitler even in Austria. Those events we view from an historical perspective - that undermined democracy in Germany - were considered by most Germans then as good for Germany. Nazi party got more votes than all other poltical parties combined.
Hilter's book Mein Kampf really demonstrates why he could do these things and become popular. His supporters were easily bored by things too complex. Hitler attacks and undermines the bourgeois and intellectuals using simplistic reasoning and intimidation. His book was written so that those who need everything in an MTV format would never see his fallicies and errors. Having neutralized those who read and understand long posts, he then could recruit on sound byte reasoning. IOW he recruits those who think in 'good verses evil' terms. He undermines the bourgeois and intellectuals who view the world from reality - by blaming them for all Germany's problems. No wonder Hitler was so popular. Those who should have seen the danger never bothered to read Mein Kampf. It was too difficult for them to read even though most every German who got married was required to buy the book.
Most interesting is how Hitler writes. Long, sometimes confusing sentences so that those who are easily bored will zone out. Readers instead will believe what they are told in MTV sound bytes because they skimmed or only thought they had read Hitler's book. Having not read the details, the lesser intelligent people were empowered to become Hitler's Brown Shirts.
Those who cannot follow long, complex details of reality are easily recruited to the 'dark side' of extremism. This provided Hitler with so much power that even Kaiser Wilheim supported Hitler. The devil is indeed in the details. In Hitler's case, the details were (probably) intentionally made unreadable so that his power base would only hear an MTV type of summary. We call it propaganda. It uses simplistic concepts such as 'good verses evil'. Hilter in early 1930 Germany could gain over 50% of the votes - more votes than all other political parties combined. He was that popular that he could even eliminate democracy - and the poeple wanted it. Back then, those events were considered good by most Germans. Today we view the same events as evil. It is called perspective. What was once considered good is now called evil.
Which should we confront - what was considered good then or what is considered evil today?