Aug 16, 2022·edited Aug 16, 2022Liked by Tereza Coraggio
Thank you for your well-considered and thought-provoking response to our dialogue, Tereza.
At the risk of skipping over all of the positive contributions you made to this exchange, I do need to push back on your pushback regarding Hitler and the Nazis :-)
I never denied that Hitler and the Nazis performed a miraculous feat by restoring the pulverized German economy—indeed, I said as much in a comment on my first post in response to someone questioning the official Holocaust story:
“That’s not to say Hitler didn’t have his pluses (God knows this will be later taken out of context and used against me ;-)—he loved animals, brought us the Volkswagen, and salvaged an economy decimated by the brutality of the Versailles Treaty. That said, I draw the line at tyranny ;-)” (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/a-primer-for-the-propagandized/comment/2548442)
Dictatorships are well-known for being able to perform such feats—just ask Justin Trudeau, who said the country he admires most is China because “their basic dictatorship is actually allowing them to turn their economy around on a dime” (https://rumble.com/vv0of1-flashback-trudeau-i-admire-chinas-dictatorship.html).
I don’t have time to go into extensive detail on this subject because I’m trying to wrap up a time-sensitive article (that actually ties into this topic, coincidentally), but I do discuss this in more detail in the comment thread above.
We have a gargantuan amount of uncontested primary sources, eyewitness testimonies of not only victims but also perpetrators, and historical evidence demonstrating that the Third Reich was a totalitarian dictatorship (I don’t think Hitler apologists even deny this as the trail of discrimination and oppression is baked into the legislation itself) and guilty of crimes against humanity. Whether it was six million or two million Jews who were exterminated (among other victims such as the disabled, infants, gypsies, homosexuals, and political dissidents) scarcely matters—the fact that people were incarcerated against their will (even if they weren’t murdered, which the evidence overwhelmingly supports) is enough to merit condemnation of the regime.
For those who question the nefarious actions of the Third Reich, I recommend the following books as they share eyewitness testimonies from the perspectives of ordinary Germans, Nazi Party members, and the executioners themselves:
I agree with your daughter - that those of us who consider ourselves awake to the current propaganda - we just haven't found the cult that might suck us in yet. I wonder what am I not yet awake to? I also wonder about how to move forward, with many of my friends and family hurt by vaccine rules in the last two years. I have my own feelings about it, but only lost a few friendships and had some hard conversations. A friend of mine leads Authentic Communication groups, and he says the most powerful motivator for change is through relationship. We apologize, we change because we care about our impact on those we love. It is a freedom for relationship change, not a forcing or blaming or shaming into change. I wonder if there is a way forward here. Or do we do our own work to heal ourselves, knowing that we probably are hurting others in ways we don't see yet? We're no different than anyone else. We all are perpetrators in some way.
Thank you for your well-considered and thought-provoking response to our dialogue, Tereza.
At the risk of skipping over all of the positive contributions you made to this exchange, I do need to push back on your pushback regarding Hitler and the Nazis :-)
I never denied that Hitler and the Nazis performed a miraculous feat by restoring the pulverized German economy—indeed, I said as much in a comment on my first post in response to someone questioning the official Holocaust story:
“That’s not to say Hitler didn’t have his pluses (God knows this will be later taken out of context and used against me ;-)—he loved animals, brought us the Volkswagen, and salvaged an economy decimated by the brutality of the Versailles Treaty. That said, I draw the line at tyranny ;-)” (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/a-primer-for-the-propagandized/comment/2548442)
Dictatorships are well-known for being able to perform such feats—just ask Justin Trudeau, who said the country he admires most is China because “their basic dictatorship is actually allowing them to turn their economy around on a dime” (https://rumble.com/vv0of1-flashback-trudeau-i-admire-chinas-dictatorship.html).
I don’t have time to go into extensive detail on this subject because I’m trying to wrap up a time-sensitive article (that actually ties into this topic, coincidentally), but I do discuss this in more detail in the comment thread above.
In short, I don’t claim the official narrative propounded by the victors was 100-percent accurate, but that doesn’t mean Goebbels’s propaganda was “the truth,” as the Good Germans (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/are-you-a-good-german-or-a-badass) and Holocaust deniers (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/letter-to-a-holocaust-denier) believe.
We have a gargantuan amount of uncontested primary sources, eyewitness testimonies of not only victims but also perpetrators, and historical evidence demonstrating that the Third Reich was a totalitarian dictatorship (I don’t think Hitler apologists even deny this as the trail of discrimination and oppression is baked into the legislation itself) and guilty of crimes against humanity. Whether it was six million or two million Jews who were exterminated (among other victims such as the disabled, infants, gypsies, homosexuals, and political dissidents) scarcely matters—the fact that people were incarcerated against their will (even if they weren’t murdered, which the evidence overwhelmingly supports) is enough to merit condemnation of the regime.
For those who question the nefarious actions of the Third Reich, I recommend the following books as they share eyewitness testimonies from the perspectives of ordinary Germans, Nazi Party members, and the executioners themselves:
• “Defying Hitler” memoir by Sebastian Haffner
• “They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933–45” by Milton Mayer (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/i/40357231/they-thought-they-were-free-the-germans-paperback-kindle-audiobook)
• “Ordinary Men: Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland” by Christopher Browning
I agree with your daughter - that those of us who consider ourselves awake to the current propaganda - we just haven't found the cult that might suck us in yet. I wonder what am I not yet awake to? I also wonder about how to move forward, with many of my friends and family hurt by vaccine rules in the last two years. I have my own feelings about it, but only lost a few friendships and had some hard conversations. A friend of mine leads Authentic Communication groups, and he says the most powerful motivator for change is through relationship. We apologize, we change because we care about our impact on those we love. It is a freedom for relationship change, not a forcing or blaming or shaming into change. I wonder if there is a way forward here. Or do we do our own work to heal ourselves, knowing that we probably are hurting others in ways we don't see yet? We're no different than anyone else. We all are perpetrators in some way.
Hi Tereza,
Just now listening to the first video and responding there in YouTube. Will get back to you soon.
Cheers from Japan!
steve