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  • Rarely does history dwell on the individual, especially when you cover hundreds of years in a class. I will say that I was taught about the leading factors of WW2 far more than WW1. A lot of it dwelt on a people suffering from the weight of reparations stacked upon the general weight of losing a war. I don’t say this to justify either timeframes decline to fascism, but to draw a parallel.

    In my opinion and personal experience the general population of the US has so much less power (purchasing and otherwise) and they’re mad. They want to be mad at something tangible and fascist direct it toward minorities.

  • When I was in high school I read a play called "Rhinoceros" about a small town where people kept turning into rhinos except the main character, who was kind of a John Nada worker type. He just watched friend after friend transformed into these wild destructive beasts, while the rest of the townspeople told the main character he was over reacting, paranoid, over thinking things. Then that townsperson or friend would turn into a rhino and go on a rampage.

    I didn't understand it in 1996. But in the last 5 years or so I was thinking about it, looked it up to see what it was about and reread it. Apparently, its about people turning into fascists, and I was like ooooohhhhhh yeah that's dead on.

    I also read lots of history but there is something about cultural work, maybe especially fictional, that let's us explore social and cultural themes within our own hearts and minds in a way that actually affords a better understanding of history. I used to get a little irritated by people quoting Margaret Atwood and George Orwell in political discussion, like engage with actual political history and theory, but now I realize you can read like 3-4 absolute doorstop books about the history of Russia from like 1850-1935, or you can read Animal Farm in a day and get the gist. The gist isn't good enough for some organizing and political work, but its a good enough principled foundation for the vast majority of people, esp young people. I just wish Orwell got to the part where Napoleon slaughters all the pigs who helped him take control of the farm in the first place.

  • The kinds of things I was into always had a dude who was constantly hungry. That kinda makes it easy to relate to. No matter what crazy world ending shit was going on in the fiction, my dude still has to eat.

  • People lived fulfilling lives during the fall of Rome

    People fell in love during the Holocaust

    People are working office jobs and go to concerts during the Gaza genocide less than 100miles from the battlefield.

  • Hypernormalization is the phenomena of people continuing to behave as if society is still functional even though it's clearly not. It was first observed in the Soviet Union during its deterioration and collapse, but is also seen in the US, such as when people expect they can call local law enforcement to deescalate a local dispute, even though police are now notorious for escalating to violence more quickly than ordinary civilians.

    Anyway, it's a thing.

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