Will we pay attention? Why would we? We've never done it before.

As far as the comparisons with Hitler go, there appears to exist this meme, invented decades ago, that once the Hitler-comparison surfaces, that's the end of any meaningful dialogue. And, yes, too many comparisons were brandished nilly-willy only to derail sensible argument into a shouting match. What we forgot though, is that Hitler was a politician, a demagogue, and that his followers were people who simply had had enough. The Hitler minority party turned simmering discontent into a highly motivated grass-roots movement. Then he coalesced enough support from those who had too much to lose by ignoring this movement. The same human frailties exist today, and authoritarian leaders everywhere know this, and exploit human's willful ignorance. The Republican party (that proudly names itself the Grand Old Party without anyone noticing the irony) has already bowed to extremism. The easy road for most politicians: easy fundraising from the elite who wants to stay in power and an easy to manipulate base of voters prepared to use violence to cajole the rest of the nation into submission.

It has been going ok for the majority in the Western world during the past 70 years. We are lulled into sleep. We assume eveything will be fine. If you make a comparison of Trumpism with fascism the response from the majority on the left and the right, is, predictably, that you must be a radical lefty, because that was then. Germans were crazy. Hitler was an aberration. Just look at the tapes of the ranting idiot.

That should scare us. A ranting idiot can gain the support of the masses. Under the guidance of idiotic rants millions of pepole have been slaughtered on the battlefield and in gas chambers. How was that possible? Normal people were unable to discern that these speeches were madness. Normal people are still here. So are crazy authoritarians. Normal people are still unable to separate cohesive argument from emotional rants.

As if the human frailties that have lead to a whole country acting-out its atrocities under nazi-rule were limited to a certain time, place and nation.

Thanks for your writing.