Why Should I Wake Up? | Cabaret. Isherwood. Fascism.

[@DavidJBradley]

This video is discussing some extremely distressing subjects and if anyone comes away from it feeling like they can't go on, please consider calling one of the below numbers. There are people you can talk to. 1-800-273-8255 - U.S. 1-833-456-4566 - Canada 116 123 - U.K.

[@BigMamaDaveX]

🔎 Just discovered your channel. 👍🏻 I came, I saw, I liked, and SUBBED!

[@onbearfeet]

Almost every day now, I think about my grandfather, a WW2 vet. One day when I was about 9 or 10, he showed me pictures from a concentration camp and told me that one day he would be gone and people would try to convince me that these terrible things hadn't happened. He said it was my job -- my duty -- to remember for him. I took the responsibility seriously, but I assumed that I'd never need to know much more than "this happened once." I was wrong. When I was 14, a teacher explaining the Holocaust to a class full of non-Jewish children asked me to stand up, to serve as an example of what Jewish people looked like, since most of the students had never seen one. She had no idea that I actually had Jewish heritage, enough to be put in a camp back in the day. At a school trip to a Holocaust museum later, I was the only one who lit a memorial candle. When I got on the bus later, I was peppered with questions, then mockery. Suddenly my hair, my nose, and the set of my eyes weren't just an academic question. In college, I learned that some people could reliably pick my heritage out of a crowd. I was repeatedly invited to Chabad, and occasionally met with slurs or stereotypes. Then I figured out that my "broken" sexuality was actually demisexuality, and that I was therefore queer as well as ... whatever people are who have light skin but aren't "really white" by the most racist definitions. Between that and my prior interest in Captain America comics, I got interested in WW2 history and the rise of fascism, in a "know your enemy" sort of way. I got serious about my promise to Granddad. I've been screaming for years as I watched the people around me -- including my own family members, who should know better -- start repeating fascist talking points. They've bought red hats, started hissing about "the elites", and casually talked about how queer people are out to hurt their children. The man who lives across the street from my childhood home built a shrine to the former guy and plastered his truck with slogans. Literal fascists, one with a swastika tattoo, tried to beat me with sticks during a protest in a park. And still people tell me I'm "overreacting". Thank you for making me feel less insane, at least.

[@onbearfeet]

Bonus story: not long after that initial conversation with Granddad, I was at school and the gym teacher came to pick up my class for PE. As we lined up, he announced that he'd created a fun new game for us to play, called "concentration camp". (Yes, really. He was that kind of idiot.) I was the only kid in the class who knew what those words meant, so I grabbed the nearest non-white student, whispered an explanation, and told her we had to run RIGHT NOW. (I didn't want to save myself without at least trying to save someone else, too, which probably says something about my psychology as a child.) Unfortunately, she panicked and started screaming, the word got out, and that's how I started a riot in the hallway of my elementary school. I would have gotten suspended for it if my third-grade teacher, who happened to be of an age with Granddad, hadn't come out of her classroom to see what the noise was about and heard the phrase "concentration camp". She tore the PE teacher a new orifice for giving that name to what turned out to be a modified form of dodgeball. I'm not sorry for my reaction, but I do wonder often about what must have been going through that PE teacher's head to think that name was acceptable, even if he assumed children wouldn't know what it meant.

[@bob3ironfist]

Hey, for what it's worth, you're very much not insane. We've all got to have each other's backs and remind each other that what we're seeing is real.

[@axlr1029]

You're definitely not too crazy. I'm somewhat of an amateur historian when it comes to fascism and how it erodes democracy, and at this point I don't really need to say that much about it since a lot of people who would be watching a video like this have more than noticed how bad things are getting. It still remains strange though when watching a documentary like the "Battle of Chile" and seeing Allende supporters unaware of what's coming make light of the serious issues at the time like the food crisis and not really realizing what's coming, and then suddenly turning around and then just accepting that it's falling apart and expecting the coup without resisting. In an instant it goes from denial to hypernormalization, and I fear we might be heading in that direction where something that isn't normal and that is dangerous suddenly just becomes expected and we just accept that things are going to get way worse.

[@sophiatalksmusic3588]

Thank you for sharing your story. You’re not insane; it’s horrifying to see how both the adults and children in your life treated you. Please continue honouring your grandfather’s request.

[@peggy7744]

​@@onbearfeetoh my god! That PE teacher story 😬😬😬😬

[@Unsure_Auklet]

This video made me think of my grandfather. A man who became an adult during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, a life long socialist and frequent participant in raids on Nazi food stock piles during the war to distribute amongst people in hiding. He was clear on that everyone who survived the war, including himself, did so because they were sometimes complicit and hated it whenever someone would claim to have been part of "the resistance". Because, yes you did what you could to fight the nazis and help those who were targeted by them. That was just part of being a decent human being, so he didn't believe that should be praised, but instead expected. Don't mistake me for saying my grandfather was a great man or the bad things he did should be excused. When we act like fighting fascism is special, we seed the middle ground to the fascist.

[@iemand2612]

I agree so much!!! My great-grandparents were NSB'ers (aka dutch nazis) and my granddad (who was two when the war enden), my mum and me have always carried around great shame. Now my other great grandparents did all sorts of anti-nazi stuff in the war and I never praised them for that. To me, being an anti-fascist is a normal thing. Indeed we act like fighting fascism is special, but it shouldn't be. It should be the norm. It's being a decent human being

[@sophiejones3554]

*cede. And yes, yes, yes. Merely fighting fascism isn’t heroic. Of course, plenty of people did very heroic and courageous things in the fight: and those things should be celebrated. But no, it isn’t special. It is what any rational human being should do.

[@JH-kw8zy]

My maternal grandmother survived the Shoa. She (10) and her baby brother (6) left early in 1939 on the kindertrain, being adopted by an elder Scottish couple. She later moved to the US and married a Jewish American. She would not allow us to hate Germans or Germany. She said the only ones to hate were Nazis. She told me about the German friends she and her family had growing up. She talked about the depressing goodbye party they threw her and her younger brother and how much they wept when she and a few other kids left. She said the reason so many of us were captured and taken was because they ignored the signs. Germans ignored the signs and so did the Jewish people.

[@wingcastlereads5657]

Something I see a lot in my country is the idea that "oh, racism is an american problem, we don't have it here" Which honestly scares me so much. Thanks for a brilliant video!!!

[@Alien_Goblin]

If you’re from the UK yeah, the constant excuse of ‘but it’s worse in the US, it’s sickening, even with the police response to marches. ‘Sure, the police were violent, but they didn’t use guns.’ Or ‘ok, the police where, bad, but that’s the Met, they’re the only bad ones’ until further marches proved that wasn’t the case.

[@claudiag.9307]

@wingcastlereads Here in Germany many say that too

[@jackriver8385]

I'm in the Netherlands and I hear a lot of the same here. Meanwhile many white people say the most racist and xenophobic bs all the time, while expecting me to just agree with them because I'm also white. And the political party that is very obviously fascist (obvious to me anyway) keeps gaining support and power. I'm scared of where things are headed, and appalled at the amount of apathy many people seem to have towards something that should be very concerning..

[@haileybalmer9722]

I live in the US, and it scares me, too. Why are we the bar you have to meet to be racist? We codified slavery into our constitution. The 13th amendment ended chattel slavery, but it did not end forced labor in prisons. We then went out of our way to incarcerate all of the non-white people we could. As long as you're not doing that, it's fine, I guess? Because let me tell you, I've been to London, Paris, and numerous parts of Canada, and I saw and read things that shocked me. The N slur is absolutely everywhere in Paris, and I saw people yell it at kids handing out fliers. It shouldn't surprise anyone to know that Canada has no respect at all for the First Nations people who live there. But i guess it's okay, because Gone With the Wind didn't take place in any of those countries.

[@lazydroidproductions1087]

@@Alien_Goblin yeah, I’ve got a joke about brits saying that they’re not racist, the punchline is basically that yeah, they’ve got all the races, nice and sorted into their own areas with “us (not me, but the character)” over “here”

[@KyleRayner12]

The most terrifying thing about becoming an adult is that you learn the serious, dangerous problems with your society at the same time as you become personally dependent on navigating it to survive. It's arguably a minor issue in the greater scheme of things, but I'm autistic and in medical school. That means that I've attended lectures that compare my existence to cancer. I have professors who rhapsodize about a future where genetic screening obliterates people like me alongside those with Down Sx, Williams Sx, and every other condition whose genetic profile we know. I have colleagues who are all for the right to choose until the topic of forced sterilization comes up. When I take Step 1 in a month, test writers will expect me to interpret disability as an indication of lower quality of life - that is, if I'm not simply asked to diagnose it from the prenatal quad panel or a karyotype. Most of these people consider themselves educated, enlightened members of the moderate left. Even those who will say the right things about every other issue can't be bothered to explore the Deaf perspective on cochlear implants, and accessibility concerns (which you would think would matter to healthcare providers) never come up. I look at the way they paint disability as tragedy and see the values they share with anti-vaxxers, because as much as they condemn Wakefield's "findings," they never argue with his premise that disability is worse than death. My study materials use the r-word, and multiple slurs are still in the names of clinical syndromes. A preceptor casually told me a few weeks ago that hospitals offer parents the opportunity to stunt disabled children's growth through hormone supplementation to make them more manageable. The weird part isn't that this is happening, or that it's the easiest form of discrimination to normalize in this setting. It's that it has to be politely tolerated and parroted back by anyone looking for the authority to change it.

[@DavidJBradley]

The casualness with which cruelty is made the norm is just deeply upsetting

[@jamesrawlings46]

I feel that. I finished my business management degree this semester and many of my classes will point out the gender and racial inequalities in forms of statistics, but racism and sexism were not mentioned even once (and I've been at two different colleges too). One class had us debate on whether or not Canada (my country) should offer health care to fat people. I still think about that some times, how quick everyone was to agree that fat people should have to pay for their own health care, as if health care isn't a human right. Its when dehumanization becomes normal that scares me. When a person becomes their BMI, gender, skin color... etc. We're all just human, with complex thoughts and interior worlds no matter our appearance or mental/physical ability. I hope I can create a lot of good in a career that is known for seeing people as "capital".

[@Johnny_T779]

I'm autistic too, and as far as I know it doesn't bother me until I clash with general society's expectations of what "normal" is. I knew disabled people and never found them weird, just different. It's disheartening to hear what doctors hopes are sometimes... I had a friend with Down Sx when I was growing up, and now numerous women terminate pregnancy when they know their child has it. My friend could have not existed... And with transhumanism this way of thinking is getting normalized.

[@dreamingwolf7521]

I'm also autistic and just completed a psychology degree. I've also heard the ways people talk about people like me, it is disheartening and makes me remember that I will avoid disclosing the fact that I'm autistic to employers whenever I can, so as to at least be given some consideration. I want to make things better and I know others are try too, but it's so hard when you have to smile politely as others wish for a world without you.

[@Crowley9]

I am confused about one point here: What does the right to choose have to do with forced sterilization?

[@MadameTamma]

The overall message I took away from Cabaret when I saw it for the first time was the dangers of living in an echo chamber. The main characters are just trying to live their best lives. They don't judge others and the people they hang out with don't judge them. Sally in particular does nothing to hold back her most authentic self. She's also the one who sees the growing dangers around her the least. It was easy for her not to notice, she doesn't bother with those kinds of people. She only surrounds herself with fun loving, open people who don't make her feel judged. These days I've heard a couple of people say things like 'No one cares if you're gay anymore. No one sees it as a big deal now." And I can see how you might think that if you only ever speak to or seek out the company of non-homophobic people and places but it's that lack of vigilance that allows homophobia to take hold. Hate groups can take hold when you're not paying attention.

[@brittahasnofilter]

this comment really helped me understand cabaret (which I just watched today) better. As a gay person, I had been wondering why the cabaret still felt so wrong and creepy, even as such an open and accepting atmosphere (besides the obvious drug use and objectification) and it was this-that they were absolutely refusing to acknowledge that a world outside it existed.

[@jgriffey]

Literally the day before you posted this, I closed a production of Cabaret here in Middle TN in the US that attempted to do exactly what you point out here. In my production, I used video of the modern fascist movements you highlight (even using some of the same video you use) in the finale of the musical, ending the show with the Emcee watching the modern video with the audience, underlining the complacency of the public with the rise of modern fascist groups.

[@rubyslipper980]

Man, wish I could’ve experienced that show!

[@gorillaguerillaDK]

So, are you going on tour with the production? To Scandinavia? 😜

[@MadameChristie]

This reminds if the current Broadway revival of Assassins that ends in a very similar manner.

[@whinfpproductions94]

Hey Jason great comment. But I’ve never heard of a town called Middle, Tennessee. Is that a town? Or is that the middle division of Tennessee? I’m confused please reply.

[@metallsnubben]

@@whinfpproductions94 I'm swedish but googling implies that it's just the middle of Tenessee which makes sense. Apparently that division into three sections (east middle west) has some extra meaning historically and stuff

[@thomasdevine867]

Lindsey Ellis pointed out that "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" is continually being appropriated. Meanwhile, Mel Brooks' "Springtime for Hitler" can never be appropriated. It's a lovely cow pie tossed into the collective faces of the Nazis.

[@animeotaku307]

Because fascists/Nazis rely on an image of power. Even portraying them as a villain plays into that. Being the butt of a joke is the last thing they want.

[@jjescorpiso21]

May I ask which video of Lindsey's?

[@animeotaku307]

@@jjescorpiso21 Her video on The Producers

[@thomasdevine867]

@@animeotaku307 Thank you LegalAssassin. I'd forgotten which one and was a little panicked about it. Your rescue is welcomed. Thank you.

[@lazydroidproductions1087]

I like to say that the first half of the movie Cabaret is about a group of people in 1930s Berlin living their lives, but then at the beer garden, for the second half, it’s a movie about a bunch of people living their lives in *1930s Berlin*

[@user-jn1mc5jx1q]

Very shallow interpretation of the film

[@wriggleby]

Thank you so much for acknowledging how prevalent anti-roma racism still is in the UK. I recently moved to an area with a much higher romani population than I was used to and some of the things I've overheard people (including my own family) saying so casually about them is absolutely horrifying, and I never see anyone talking about it.

[@brxzbze]

I'm not roma so obviously I can't speak for them, but personally I feel anti- roma ideas are embedded in a lot of culture now so it's more... normalised? From what I've seen people don't seem to be as sensitive regarding anti- roma discrimination in comparison to a lot of other things (not trying to pick an 'oppression fight', just saying it seems that discrimination in that vein is more often brushed aside).

[@justmeeagainn]

Gypsies, you mean?

[@wriggleby]

@@justmeeagainn yeah but that word is really outdated and has a lot of negative stigma

[@katwernery6505]

The green nail polish is a nice nod to Cabaret and Sally. Very well done video.

[@honeyfreud8352]

As a queer person with jewish-ukranian heritage living in Russia and who is in opposition to the government this video was incredibly hard to watch. I've been a fan of Isherwood's works, the musical and its adaptation, and it's so painful to revisit them at this time.

[@theactualbajmahal833]

How are you watching this video? I thought the internet had been "switched off" over there since thee invasion.

[@honeyfreud8352]

@@theactualbajmahal833 not yet. A lot of websites are banned but we still have VPN

[@amandamarinovich6164]

Stay safe!

[@lazydroidproductions1087]

Good luck, and shalom

[@woobiefuntime]

​​@@honeyfreud8352 stay safe..

[@abit359]

About a month ago, I got cast as Sally for my high school’s production of Cabaret. Our theater director picked it because he found it very important at the moment, and I’m pretty sure there isn’t a single member of the cast who disagrees (though I’ll admit I didn’t care too much about the message at first, but was just in love with the music). I intended to take the role seriously, so I’ve been doing a lot of studying. Trying to speak in Received Prononciation has been a struggle, as someone from Michigan. But I’m figuring it out, and I’m to the point where I’m doing studying outside of memorizing and accent tweaking- I’m watching recordings of other versions. Then, I came upon this, and I’m really happy I did. I don’t really care if it helps my acting or whatever, this video was just a joy to watch (despite its depressing topics). Thank you.

[@THATGuy5654]

Jesus. I didn't realize that they imprisoned the homosexual prisoners of the concentration camps. When you said that, I physically stumbled. That horrified me to my core.

[@lazydroidproductions1087]

Anything that could be considered subversive to the social norms or un-German (which unfortunately basically had always included Jews much as they wished otherwise, Mahler converted from Judaism around WWI era because he wasn’t allowed to conduct the Vienna orchestra as a Jew (might have gotten details slightly wrong, it’s been while and it’s very late for me)) was grounds to be sent to camps. Additionally, gay people typically don’t produce babies, and therefore are not “useful” in increasing the ranks of the Nazis

[@danielcrafter9349]

You didn't know that homosexuality goes against the Nazi ideal of a white, blonde, blue eye, straight family that has children? You need to look into Nazism more It's terrible so many people are so ignorant of the basics to do with Facism in general and Nazism in particular

[@DavidJBradley]

I think they meant that they imprisoned them after liberating the concentration camps, which is a whole different horrible thing

[@lazydroidproductions1087]

@@DavidJBradley that makes more sense...

[@THATGuy5654]

@@DavidJBradley Wait, so did you mean they were released, and then at later points some would individually get arrested for "crimes" "commited" after release, or that they were arrested based on how they were classified in the camps?

[@borealmarinda4337]

Though the subject matter is devastatingly grave, I would like to comment on something with more levity: It's nice to hear DBJ sing and show more of their love for musicals. DBJ is a wonderful singer and it's great to see them pushing their art further. Great video.

[@DavidJBradley]

I'm not a very good singer, tbh. But I enjoy doing it anyway

[@GeorgeTSLC]

​@@DavidJBradley Both halves of that are self-evidently true. Don't stop, bro!

[@furtado704]

“How did [it] go [fascist]?” Bill asked. “Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually, then suddenly.” HEMINGWAY, E. The sun also rises.

[@zeldafreak000]

As much as it is unsettling I am happy you discussed fascism in the modern day. A common trend you see with it is how it incorporates contradicting ideas of "freedom" and "individualism" while more or less advocating for the exact opposite on top of overtly pushing to eliminate freedoms for people. Virtually every hate group tries to appeal to an idealized, contradictory as all hell version of freedom that somehow says "people are most free when they have zero choice but to fulfill a single role based on things they cannot control." At best I can only believe this comes from ignorance and the assumption that the most average (cishet, white, Christian) is somehow what everyone is happy with.

[@tama3162]

Oh, you've hit the nail on the head, because it comes down to the basic belief that people having different ways of life - ones that these people cannot comprehend or ever experience - are _content_ with said different way of life when they shouldn't be. Especially because society kind of teaches people that they _need_ to live life a certain way to truly be happy? Alt-righters just take it to the worst possible extreme, that's been repeatedly used countless times: make the "other" submit to the "right way" by any means necessary and if they don't want to comply to living the "right way," kill them off. They don't want to admit to wanting anybody who isn't white, cis, straight and Christian dead but they pretty much act that way.

[@nctpti2073]

It invariably revolves around freedoms for the fascist at the cost of freedoms for everyone else.

[@OttoVonBonesmarck]

Exactly i hate that they claim freedom and individualism like that but then dont actually want that. Fascism is the complete opposite of ideas like that which are anarchist ideas

[@liz257]

you are so right what a perfect summary

[@nctpti2073]

@@OttoVonBonesmarck The problem with Anarchism is that it is actually very similar. The Anarchist wants to be able to do as they please regardless of the cost to others too. They just do not necessarily believe in organizing to do so.

[@MarcoKrieger]

Sorry for being late to the party. This video is something special for me, because I'm German. I'm 56 by tomorrow and so far, I lived a life without existential fear...until fascism raised his ugly head once again, this time from the east. Your description of how fascism work's and how a sociaty reacts to this growing cancer is absolutely accurate and it's the exact pattern Russia is following along. We, as a species didn't seem to learn the bitter lessons history is trying to teach us, instead we just went to try to make the next Desaster an even bigger one. And at the end of every one of this nightmarish experience's, we shrug our shoulders and ask: "How could that happen?" Like I said, I'm German and I have studied our history quite a bit. I was always apposed to bullying, injustice and violence, was beaten and abandoned for my views. I can honestly say, I know exactly how dirt taste's, but I have no means to wish anybody else to know it as well. After all, I'm optimistic about us as a whole and people like you are the reason for it. Thank you for being just you and sharing your perspective on this topics.

[@jonathanstern5537]

I'm later to the party than you lol. So, no need to feel bad.

[@scoutaaron2695]

I’m a neurodivergent nonbinary person and I don’t think we hear enough of these stories so I want to thank you for making this video.

[@Daedelean]

Incredible video. Thank you for making it. My dad took me to see Cabaret at the theater when I was a kid, and I didn't understand it at all and its message flew completely over my head. And now it seems like the whole world is as oblivious as nine-year-old me was back then. It's terrifying.

[@wordforger]

The more I've learned about the history, the more I've understood the play. And the more I've come to understand how the Nazis came to power, and the more disturbing I find modern life. People ignore this because they think "oh, it could never happen here! We're not creating death camps! Stop being dramatic!" Yet I have to remind them that it didn't start with Death Camps. It didn't start with the ghettos. It started with the idea that the "REAL [insert nationality here]" have been victimized by [insert minority group(s) here] and should fight back against the "moral decay of the nation." And then it spread out from there in many, MANY insidious ways. People thought they were useful idiots. People thought they were fringe groups who could never rise to power. People ignored them. People thought the more ridiculous ideas were 'just jokes' but liked the strength projected by these groups. It was the frog boiling method. Slowly the heat turned up. By degrees the people accepted more and more overt displays of the hate. They accepted whatever the fascists did as long as they took down [insert minority/political group here] or made the trains run on time. And those ideas spread up the chain into the government, and from there to a wider audience. And more people grew afraid to speak out against these groups because they got louder and more violent and it became dangerous to do so. It's true we aren't currently mass murdering people. But so much in the last few years has echoed 1930s Germany pre-war that it's disturbing. Even if the fascists are not currently on top in our government, they have been maneuvering to regain power by any means necessary behind the scenes, just as the Nazis did all those years ago. I pray we've learned from history... but with the last of our WWII veterans dying off and the anti-intellectualism being passed off as education today, I doubt it.

[@blueThumbnail]

FYI: Anti-Roma sentiment is called antiziganism

[@DavidJBradley]

Yes, and I do refer to it as that at one point in the video, but it's sadly not a widely known term

[@KyleRayner12]

Forgive my ignorance, but where's the root from?

[@Etsba_]

@@KyleRayner12 "Zigan" and similar words (gitan, tsigan, cigan etc) mean Roma in a bunch of European languages. However some Roma activists/academics prefer Roma-phobia as the aforementioned words are closer to a slur or out dated derogatory term (such as the term for Roma beginning with G in English).

[@anarchomando7707]

@@Etsba_ g*psies Personally as an amarican it's weird to consider it a slur a were I grew up it was considered a term analingus to homeless people

[@cam4636]

@@anarchomando7707 Yeah, but I'd assume a lot of people considered it "weird to think of it as a slur" when every N-word became unacceptable to refer to Black people. Also, the word is "analogous." The word you used is...uh...eating ass.

[@squashfei8907]

This is a truly amazing video that needs to be seen. People always say "never again" and yet so many are asleep to the dangers of fascism. Cabaret is an amazing musical. It affected me a lot when I watched it, especially the scene where everyone starts singing "tomorrow belongs to me." That truly terrified me. Thank you so much again for this video essay. I learned a lot and it was really engaging and well-put together. I love how you put the singing bits and the Twilight zone thing in between the parts, it really added to the sense of ominousness and the structure.

[@danielschaeffer1294]

The star in the “Twilight Zone” bit was Dennis Hopper.

[@THATGuy5654]

The seemingly inextricable link between fascism and anti-Semitism- You never need to worry about running out of bad ideas if you just keep recycling the old one!

[@lazydroidproductions1087]

Anti-semitism had worked time and time again on both sides of the social and political spectrum. I long for a day when it ends but I know it almost undoubtedly will never come, at least not within my lifespan and I say that as a very young man. I love history, and I know we can look back and find it in almost every era, and I hope that we will finally look back on it as a collective people and see that it is wrong and horrible. I suppose that is one reason I’m trying to write a science-fiction book with some fantasy elements as opposed to a fantasy with some sci-fi, as a fan of both (more so sci-fi) and especially when they come together, it lets me dream of a world where sure, there’s tons of problems, many drawn straight from today, but I can say what social issues are no longer issues, I can free myself from them. I like being an optimist, but sometimes it is so damn hard

[@voiceofraisin3778]

Not particularly. Italian fascism wasnt anti-jewish and had a number of prominent Jewish members, at least until they were taken over by the Nazis. Nationalist Spain also had Fascist factions but was also relatively unconcerned or at least no more than base level Catholic bias. Nazism was virulently anti-semitic but that was as much to do with scientific racism, Catholic fear of Bolsheviks and some very weird occultism mixing with social collapse to make an insanely toxic society. Italian Fascism is very odd in that while most autocratic and despotic regimes needed an internal enemy (Nazis hate jews, Commmunists hate the bourgoise, kulaks etc) the Fascists really didnt have an internal enemy that needed repressing they were more about rebuilding the Roman empire and expansion, there wasnt even any particular 'traditional' enemy propaganda just the rational that they needed to expand and recover old glories and the other guys just happened to be in the way.

[@romeoslover817]

Many folks just don’t get it. Many Adults carry on views of their elders. without questioning. Younger people who did not experience WWII may not truly understand the horrors behind the holocaust. In order for. “never again”. people must become educated.

[@mikedemike5393]

This implies his ideas have risen from professors of the faculty and they push that ideal that these professors who are not semites are being attacked...and the silly believe they are pushing replacement theory

[@mikedemike5393]

@@voiceofraisin3778 Italian fascism was corporate statism...what the world is enduring today...where stakeholders control the govt and the labor force.

[@ezekielmcgee825]

I saw the 2014 Broadway revival of Cabaret, and you’re right that the tension between queerness and facism isn’t there. However, there was a scene at the end that nodded towards it. In the final scene, the Emcee (Alan Cumming reprised the role) starts to do a striptease, peeling off his trench coat, only to reveal striped pajamas with a pink triangle. [Edit: which I saw you addressed at the end of the video, oops.] Thank you for doing this. I always seem to connect so much to your videos, and I really like how this one shows the intersections between the political and the personal.

[@DavidJBradley]

I am jealous that you got to see it live. I watched a bootleg of it (and used a couple of clips of it in the video) and it's so good

[@Blaize24]

I also got to see that revival. I felt the tension popped up here and there, but you are right that it wasn't up front much of the time. Was still brilliant, though.

[@claudiag.9307]

Expertly researched and thought provoking video! Greetings from Germany. I wish people over here would wake up instead of playing the victim or denying the scope of the problem. The insistence that we take our history so seriously, because we teach it in schools and so forth, rings rather hollow and can be used as a shield for criticism - after all, if we're already so self aware and apologetic, is it really necessary to do anything else, could it be unfair even to continue to talk about it? (Hint: It's not)

[@existentialcrisis10]

Omg thank you for saying that! I'm from Germany too and I'm so tired of this. Just a few weeks ago a girl in my class claimed that racism isn't an issue in Germany anymore and I just wanted to scream. It's insane how oblivious the people here are. They can say the most offensive thing ever and then call themselves left and expect praise for it. But the worst part is how high and might they act in front of people from other countries (especially America) because we talk about our awful history in school. Meanwhile you have my history teacher laughing at ww2 jokes.

[@marissawhite8140]

This piece is good for people who are not yet awake. For those of us who are it can be overwhelming and disheartening. We must push fascism back. Im going to google as well, but how can we fight back? I was hoping the end of the video would give some suggestions but that might be tok much to ask. People will close their eyes, others will just try to survive, others still will sink into dispare, too overwhelmed to move. We need to overcome the dispare and do something. I just wish i knew what that thing to do is.

[@Amazatastic]

Organise with your friends and coworkers! Join your union! Join a socialist organisation! Deface nazi propaganda where you see it! Throw milkshakes at far right politicians!

[@od3910]

Yup I have the same question. My partner is disabled. I'm mentally ill. This just makes me feel worse. No one is giving any kind of instructions. So I guess we're all doomed

[@marissawhite8140]

@@od3910 I feel you. Its hard not to just become apathetic in dispare. I think we all just have to do what we have the strength and ability to do. I am trying to so this by spreading love can care to the people in my life and giving to charities I believe in. No one person can carry all this on their own but I guess we all can do what we can and hopefully others will join and it will be enough. I do wish these videos would touch on how to help instead of just ending on hopelessness. I wish you well

[@ace_of_cakes]

I know. It's a great video, and an important exploration of how fascism spreads, but I struggle with the point of being "awake" if there's nothing you can do. It's so overwhelming, and I can barely function in day-to-day life as it is. I wish there was something I could do.

[@hughcaldwell1034]

Sophie From Mars has a series called Organising Interviews, plus a whole bunch of other videos. Lots of practical advice on where to go and what to do in an attempt to resist this sh*t and build a better community.

[@jdprettynails]

I remember the first time I watched the film Cabaret, I thoroughly enjoyed the songs and the characters. There were 2 major gut punches for me. One of them is during the song "If You Could See Her". At first it's another wacky number featuring the lovable emcee. I laughed along at the ridiculousness of him singing a love song about a gorilla, then comes the twist "If only you could see her through my eyes......she doesn't look Jewish at all." Then during "Tomorrow Belongs to Me". At first it's just a nice scene. The sun is shining, people are relaxing as they listen to this young lad singing and at first I quite liked the song, then the camera pans down to show the armband and...oh god, everyone's joining in!! Suddenly I felt like a terrible person for initially liking the song! They're just small moments in the overall story, but they left quite an impression on me. Also, yes....Michael York is adorable. Wait.....David Cameron?? As in former Prime Minister, David Cameron?? Edit (2 weeks later): What Frauline Shroder goes through makes me think of all the queer kids who have to stay closeted. My fiancé and I are both closeted in a straight-passing relationship and I've had some aggressively angry comments from some people online demanding that we come out to our parents because it's "not fair" to others who are out. But I think choosing whether or not to come out should be a personal choice, especially for queer people who rely on the homophobic/transphobic people in their lives. Or vulnerable minimum wage workers who are pressured to unionise and are scared to. Unionising is important, but it isn't safe for absolutely everyone.

[@jamesrawlings46]

It's always great to see another he/they ace doing good in the world. Amazing video, I'll surely be recommending to everyone I know because it's amazing.

[@cmmosher8035]

Your description of Fascism as a virus reminds me of something i read once about fascism being more of a political process that often uses democracy to bolster the power of a specific group.

[@merri-golden8826]

This was a very good video, terrifying but it should be, moving and very well produced. I can only hope that more people 'wake up' and whether through the internet and videos like this , general life or education things and people change for the better so we don't repeat the past. They might not, but honestly, similar to some of the people in the play/book/movie I'd rather not think of that future. And either way we can and will fight against it. The point about how so many people choose to do nothing really hit home, it's something I've done and seen alot in my life. it's really easy to ignore something slowly creeping or that we don't want to think about, to choose safety over such a threat and hope without action while we can act. I hope things become better and that more people fight for them. This video definitely moved and was quite emotional for me. Thanks for making this, great work.

[@lexiewall2073]

God this video reminds me of the scary reality. My Dad is point blank a fascist he just will never openly take the label. That’s the thing about fascism-it’s insidious and really makes people believe that they aren’t being a homophobic, racist, sexist, fascist but that they are “telling the truth”. Since my siblings and I got a university education my Dad has been even keener to point out that “we have been brainwashed” and that “we need to open our eyes” and he gets really defensive trying to prove our uni education doesn’t make us better than him (which we’ve never ever said and is an idea he came up with). The fear fascists have of education is just mind boggling-uni didn’t teach me how to be a socialist, it taught me how to research , critically think and come to my own conclusions. You’d think he’d value that. Instead he went off the deep end and believes 100% in conspiracies. When you were outlining fascist ideals I just had chills because there you go, exactly detailing my dads entire character and ethos. I really think fascism has ties to the disenfranchised middle class-taxed more than the poorest of the poor and voices left unheard by the rich, the middle class white dudes cling to the idea that if society would just stop being woke then they’d be able to move up in class like in the imaginary olden days. It’s always gotta be someone else to blame-the poor, POC, women, LGBTQIA+. The whole thing is just scary and mind boggling

[@onbearfeet]

If it makes you feel less alone, it sounds like you could have been describing my dad. He's college-educated, but lately he's been spouting the same talking points you mention, saying Black people shouldn't be allowed to vote, even finding nice things to say about Hitler. He used to idolize his dad's service in WW2, but now he's convinced himself that his ideas aren't functionally identical to those Granddad fought against. My pet theory, at least for him, is that the Baby Boom warped a lot of minds. Growing up in a world that was literally being reengineered around them -- new schools built to educate them, their favorite music and movies held up as the most important "classics" of the century, their childhood years portrayed as a utopian idyll -- made a lot of Boomers believe they deserved all that acclaim. They were making the world better, and things would only keep improving as long as everyone listened to them. But now my dad sees his children and grandchildren struggling in a society that refuses to make room for them to exist, and he's decided that the problem can't be with society -- not the society that's elevated him to such heights -- so it must be with us. In his eyes, we ruined the perfection he gave us. And the only way to restore it is to do everything he says, starting with throwing out all this nonsense about caring for the vulnerable. One of these days I'm going to write a horror novel about all this. If I live long enough.

[@TwixtheFox]

Eyyy, you described basically my whole family, besides my two sisters and one cousin. It's sad and scary, and they often have way too much influence in your life to just break away totally. But once I'm able to be self sufficient I'm breaking all contact besides my two sisters. I'm gonna hopefully be moving in with my boyfriend in a year. They hate us because we're in a gay interracial relationship.

[@roswaldwalton1147]

And a professor of ancient languages I knew as a teenager told me that heterosexual and homosexual are actually the opposite way around in meaning. For a long time I wondered why he specifically said this to me, it wasn't a conversation I'd ever been part of, nor was it pertinent, or so I believed at the time, now I'm an adult, a transgender man who is physically disabled and has aspergers, it's something I will never forget. Thank you for this, it's made me realise why I've always had a love/hate relationship with Cabaret.

[@wigglybacon2250]

This video popped up in my suggestions after watching the 1993 Cabaret. I’m a transmasc enby in the US, Pride month has just started and it’s by far the most bittersweet one I’ve had since I came out 10 years ago. I’m terrified by all the anti trans legislation that’s been passing around the country though my state remains safe, at least for now, though one bad election could change that. I feel like very few others in my life take the rising threat seriously. My sister is planning to take my trans nephew to Disney in Florida and thinks I’m overreacting when I express my concern. Watching Cabaret and then your video was darkly cathartic, I don’t know whether to be reassured or horrified that I’m not crazy in the connections I’m making.

[@mk-aka-morgan8386]

It’s hard trying to explain how terrified I am to my cis friends and family because they just refuse to see how bad it’s getting, I’ve been out for at least 5 or 6 years, and I’m starting to feel like I need to back into the closet to stay safe. I hope that you and anyone else reading this is able to stay safe 💖💖💖

[@arraine]

I only watched the first half of this video yesterday, since it's long, and I was telling my wife about it. As I did, she assumed it was drawing parallels to what has been happening recently, and I told her that no, it didn't have to, because the parallels are so clear. But then I finished it, and you're right, we do need to explicitly name it. Without explicitly naming it, we don't share it with anyone who doesn't already see the problem. Thank you.

[@wolfonthesteps]

This is something I was trying to tell someone I know the other day. They were saying we don't have a problem with the far right in this country and that the Tories aren't far right, that it was dangerous to call them that and dismisses what they thought of as the real far right. I was trying to tell her that just because they don't seem to act the same doesn't mean they aren't far right and that if far right people were happy to vote for them that would make them far right. If there's a nazi at your table and there are five of you sitting but no one gets up to walk away then there are in fact five nazis at the table. She didn't like that. She's not a Tory more of a Liberal, but she doesn't see the bigger problem because it doesn't affect her and I'm hyperbolic.

[@jdprettynails]

I'm having this problem with my best friends at the moment. They voted for the Tories. When I try to push back against their lies I just get told "You're buying into the leftist fear mongering." They've been getting more and more right wing since 2014. I've stayed friends with them in the hopes of convincing them but each year they believe more extreme conspiracy theories. Now they're full-on anti-vax. I just don't know what to do at this point.

[@BigHenFor]

Read the essay "On Folly" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his 'Letters and Papers from Prison'. Then look to how they treat the people at the bottom, because when they've run out of those, they will come up the chain looking for the next scapegoats.

[@wolfonthesteps]

@@BigHenFor Thanks, i'll give it a look.

[@wolfonthesteps]

@@jdprettynails I'm sorry you have this experience as well. It's upsetting and distressing.

[@TheGerkuman]

I think it's partly due to how parties move and shift. All Tories are on the right of the political spectrum when it comes to economics but there's been a fight for a long time between the more liberterian leaning ones and the more statist ones. (Though none have gone truly liberterian. David Cameron was the closest but even he was still mostly statist) And then you have Boris. His 'get x done' mantra at the expense of our system's checks and balances (though it's more like a honour code and thus already weak) is scary.

[@sickonshimmer]

Coming back to this now really does prove the point that fascism never dies.

[@AlatheD]

"An Enby Emcee" is a fabulous title. I'm American. Around point 6 I blurred out, all I could think was "You're describing American Conservatives to a T." (Yes, I know we're not the only ones with such extreme conservatives.) "It takes a willful ignorance, and a complacency, to allow genocide to happen." I am planning to move, to a less "red" state. Because I cannot be me where I am now. I almost wish that, like an artist I know, I could have moved out of this country before a previous election. But all places have their issues, no? OMG, I had to go look up "Kekistan". I'm not ok. Nothing wrong with worshipping Egyptian deities, but that ain't right. I live in the reddest state in the US. I have family who are (still) police (actually trusted by real folks I know as in "If I fell back into that lifestyle, I'd want ___ to arrest me, I know she'd be fair.) and military (I would've been if not for my medical history), and I was unknowingly added to a local group of 3%ers. Took me a long time to figure out wtf that was. And I was still told it wasn't fascism, wasn't anything like that. I've stood up (in the past) for those flashing the "OK" symbol. "We're just patriots, trying to protect our country." At this point, I don't think it's the gin I've drunk during this video that's making my stomach roll. Never heard the term "antizigonist" before. I despise (love) you for making me learn things. Having never before heard of Jimmy Carr, I now want to slap the ever-loving- ****** out of him. Anyway, I took me 3 drinks and like 3.5 hours to watch this. Curse you (thank you) for making me *think*.

[@sophiejones3554]

Hello and welcome, friend.

[@unpaintedcanvas]

Yeah I'm not as lucky. I don't have the means to even move to a blue state right now. I'm right in the middle of Texas. The best place I can move to is Austin. It's progressive enough, and I'm afforded a few more marginal rights within the county as an enby trans women than any other place in the state. But Austin is becoming Texas' silicon valley: it's where all the tech jobs are at.

[@goosiesmoosies]

God, I have had so many feelings as I watch this. I do everything I feel is in my power to learn and push back against rhetoric that helps to normalize fascism, but ultimately, I am not in a position to be on the front lines of activist groups. I have a number of health conditions, and I don't think I could survive the potential consequences of being active- jail, violence, threats to my loved ones. It terrifies me to watch fascism rise here in the province of Canada I live in, and I feel a huge amount of shame for not being out there. I know there is a line where I would throw caution to the wind and do everything, but I don't know where it is. I don't want to have to find out. Yet I know despite my personal struggles, I'm lucky to get to choose. It's a horrible dissonance. I haven't figured out how to resolve it. I'm too broke to donate, too sick to give my time, and too weak to fight. All I can do is learn and try to share what I learn with others. I know it isn't enough.

[@marie-andreec5164]

There are a million ways to fight fascism and not all of them happen in the street, many of them happen in our homes and circle or friends, as we see people enabling fascists because they believed the lies or because "politics is boring" and we try to explain. So what you're doing is incredibly important. Let's hope we never have to find out where that line is, Ottawa felt way too close for comfort. Hugs fellow Canadian.

[@marie-andreec5164]

@@chasethdevil If it's harmful to you, then you don't need to do it and anyone who says you need to put yourself in danger is toxic, please don't listen to them, even if it is sometimes a little voice coming from the inside. We think of revolution as this heroic thing that happens in the street with blood and violence and a bolling soundtrack but just hanging on in a world that does everything to push you down is heroic enough. You're already fighting and winning every day.

[@brushdogart]

I understand how you feel but there are ways to fight the good fight even if you can't physically be on the front lines, like being openly and publicly kind to others. It's not as flashy or news grabbing as mass protests but taking every opportunity to prove that you are a kind person and not an "other" can slowly wear away the strength of fascism.

[@sophieknowles4876]

Hi, speaking from June 2024: this video and Cabaret is still relevant. Free Palestine, Free Sudan and Free The Congo.

[@Kirobsi]

It's been about 40 minutes since I finished this and I don't really know what to say? But I want to leave a comment regardless. Thank you for making this

[@8lec_R]

That's what scares me the most, people who don't really have an opinion either way and just go with the flow, even if it hurts others

[@TheSheebeen]

Fantastic work, I'm so proud of you for using your platform to call out so much evil in this world.

[@nehmann674]

It is almost sad that James Somerton didn't plagiarize this Video, otherwise it would get a lot more attention right now.

[@GoblinModeVR]

Not Too Late: Here's How James Somerton Can Still Plagiarise Your Work

[@lyrablack8621]

1:26:34 "If we don't take a stand against hate when we see it, then we are part of that hate. We can't let things get to the stage where you have to adapt like Fräulein Schroeder or sacrifice your happiness to survive like Fräulein Schneider. If we are to prevent it, then we have to be active before it has a chance to begin."

[@qiae]

Consistently i am impressed by the work here, and this might be the best yet that i have seen. I am consistently saddened by how many people actually believe fascism fell with the end of the war, and the number of people who know nothing of what fascism is, and it is slightly hope inducing to see figures with a following addressing these topics.

[@bylet7123]

This was truly great, and it's one of those video essays that truly deserves and needs to be as long as it is... the main ideas, maybe, could have been easily developed within a shorter video, but it is the care that you have for connecting the dots between the various adaptations of Isherwood's story AND present day fascism AND Berlin's 1930s queer community AND the nomalization of fascism etc. ... that really makes the video. No second felt wasted and the scrpt was really tight. Also, as sidenotes: the updated "Wilkommen" was amazing, the green nail polish was, well, divinely decadent, and the visuals/sound effects/editing work were all over the top!

[@connorscorner443]

This is both fascinating and terrifying

[@QuikVidGuy]

i feel like the bit about wi spa was a bit poorly handled 3 trans women were charged, and they can't all be the same person. not to mention the one who gets the most attention has spent a good portion of her life as a homeless sex worker, and the "similar charges" were indecent exposure charges, taken in plea deals, which can boil down to "you were homeless, a sex worker, and visibly trans and we can charge you with being a deviant pervert for all of those things as long as we keep it vague enough and you're aware that you're in danger" like you seem to be conceding a bit just to skip to "it doesn't matter if it's true because of what happened after," but it DOES matter, especially, how much credence is given to the story of the original complainer who was not supported by any other clients or staff and has a history of trying to start transphobic hubbub. Who sought out a trans inclusive spa and started sexually harassing people herself

[@DavidJBradley]

That's valid and I apologise if I misrepresented the situation

[@pennycheshire5608]

Only 20mins in but want to feed the algorithm on what I can already tell is an absolute banger.

[@rook6972]

I think it's also important to discuss how racist portrayal of people as animals for purposes of propaganda was rampant in America even before the Nazis. In fact, the Nazis took huge "inspiration" from American segregation laws and propaganda.

[@cam4636]

And then there's the push-pull between "I can see this happening" and "but what can I do about it?" You can preach to people who don't care, you can help one or another individual people in one or another brief situations, you can petition and march, you can document the evidence, you can "survive" by whatever metric you hold as "survival"--up until someone else decides you don't get to survive at all. That's what people did in Germany, and Italy, and all over Eastern Europe too. It didn't stop fascism. I try not to be nihilistic and fatalistic because it doesn't do any good (no irony intended) but it's like seeing the train headed straight towards the edge of the cliff--you can warn people but no one's stopping it fast enough. And where do you run to in a world war? I didn't mean for this comment to be doom-and-gloom either. Excellent video. I'll probably re-watch it over and over again.

[@BB-ol8gc]

I am so glad you posted this, Cabaret and the revivals are so moving and shattering. I have never been more moved by a musical, and I absolutely love what it did to me. Ever since I watched it I have been obsessed with its relevance, and its depictions. It truly was a wake-up call for me.

[@ThereIsTooMuchButter]

This is such a well thought out video essay. I knew some of this from studying Cabaret the stage show at uni, but I never knew about all the context. Big love! ❤️

[@FriendlyKitten]

Thank you for this well thought out, and informative view.

[@katelynw2487]

I'm only 3/4 of the way through, just paused to say this is a true masterpiece!! Your storytelling and interweaving of the works is top tier.

[@harlottebronte]

Something painfully ironic (emphasis on "painfully") is that in Judaism, the number 18, or "chai" in Hebrew, symbolizes life. The word is literally the same. This is why we have the toast "l'chaim"- to life. When someone has a bat/bar mitzvah, it's common practise to gift them money in multiples of 18 because of its symbolic value. I literally have a "chai" tattoo on my ribcage because of this significance. The fact that Nazis have appropriated that number to be a symbol of hatred makes me physically ill. Thank you for making this video. It's always heartening to see gentiles speaking up for non-gentiles on their own platform. This is also a presumption, but based on every comment section of every video I've ever seen that vaguely mentions the idea of Jews, thank you for either A: putting in the time and effort to monitor this comment sectioon to keep it safe for everyone, or B: cultivating some a wonderful audience that that's not even neccesary. Either option is worthy of praise and is much appreciated by your viewers 💖

[@arp711]

Absolutely masterful, David.

[@clicliw]

Excellent video, thank you so much for your time and work! Your section about racism towards the Roma community was great, as an Irish person I recognise a lot of parallels between their treatment, and the treatment of the Irish Travelling Community and Mincéirí here in Ireland, it's genuinely heartbreaking stuff and shocking that it's allowed (and almost encouraged) by our current government

[@eiliscantsleep]

Reminds me of a story my father told me. When I was a little kid we where in a shop in East Clare and he heard the shopkeeper and another customer talking about some travllers who'd moved into a nearby field. The shopkeeper started laughing about how he'd go out with his shotgun to "get rid if them". Irish people love to talk about how we where the victims of rasism, and how we're NOTHING like the racist British and Americans (tell that to the Nigerian man shot in Dublin by the police last summer) but when it comes to Travellers- who are culturally a lot closer to the Irish peasants forced off their land before the 1900s then modern settled Irish are- we casually toss out slurs, and rant about how violent they are, how they're drunks and thieves, without a trace of irony.

[@clicliw]

@@eiliscantsleep sounds about right. I don't know if you'd remember or hear of it but there was a traveller family who purchased a house they could move into somewhere in Galway and the house was burned down by locals to prevent that from happening, I'm pretty sure. Disgusting stuff. From what I hear there's a lot of racism towards immigrants and asylum seekers too here. Like you implied, it's exceptionally ironic given the fact theres plenty of us emigrating to Canada, Australia, etc.

[@jeffbassin630]

This is a brilliant and frightening video.

[@Child_of_the_Void]

"No matter how explicit you are in your depiction of them as the evil that they are, there is always a danger that fascists will embrace it" Reminds me of far right fans of The Boys saying that the character who beat an innocent black man to death while chanting "supe(rheroe) lives matter", was actually the good guy in the situation

[@wsaull8568]

Absolutely amazing essay! As someone who had a "good" friend turn out to be a nationalist and who considers himself a amateur 20th century historian; I think that Cabaret is one of the best pieces of art about/tools against Fascism, National Socialism or whatever the far right are calling their racist filth this week.

[@gennabenna]

Your videos have helped me through really difficult times and I cannot express how grateful I am to have found your channel. It is honestly criminal how little views you get on each video, I always think you have much more than you do, just because your sincerity and your research and the overall quality of your videos are so amazing. Please never stop making videos like this, (unless you want to) because I know there will always be an audience for them, even if that audience is just me. Your videos are the highlight of my week, month or whenever I see them, even though I'm late to this video (thanks KZbin for not notifying me) this made my day when I saw it recommended and I'm sure I won't stop feeling great for a little while. I know this is an awfully chipper comment for a video with this subject matter, but I'm halfway through and just appreciating your fine work and skill. Love you David J Bradley!

[@Xeyal1001]

Today is the day of rememberance in the Netherlands. I got reminded of this video and discussed some of the topics in here with my family. Such a stellar video that I watched it again just now. Thank you once again. This will surely go into some playlist of mine.

[@lanaalba8392]

It is such an amazing video! I have rewatched it several times already. It's a shame that it has fewer than 50K views(( I personally appreciate your hard work and sincerely thank you for it!

[@mollyfitz361]

wowowow what a thoroughly researched and well written video. so incredibly engaging. i know this came out two years ago but i hope you're still extremely proud of how great this piece is

[@SamuraiMujuru]

The music of Cabaret has been a facet of my life almost as long as I can remember, but this is honestly the first time I've ever encountered what it was actually about beyond just catchy tunes. Been a long time, I think I'm overdue for a revisit

[@chloekravatz84]

I'm gunna have to watch this on a more spoon filled day but I bet it's great in an informative way 👍

[@robertmiller5777]

Exceptionally powerful video. Thank you for forcing people to wake up, literally and figuratively. I have one very small dissent from your perspective, from the Beer Garden scene in the 1972 film Cabaret. I never thought of the old man, uncomfortable and agitated with the patrons' rising to sing "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" as an "obviously Jewish man" who senses the rising turmoil. I always considered him an elderly man confused and upset with the thought of the Nazis usurping the German identity and subverting it for fascist aspirations. I always thought of him as a veteran of The Great War who cannot help but regret that he fought for the survival of a nation that was becoming exponentially more dangerous.

[@rashkavar]

Regarding the invocation of the Emergencies Act in Canada - it's the first time that *this version* of the legislation was used. Its previous iteration was the War Measures Act, which was used in World War I, World War II and in the October Crisis of 1970, when a terrorist separatist organization called the FLQ kidnapped a member of Cabinet and a British diplomat. The Emergencies Act is intended to be more restrictive than the War Measures Act, using more specific wording about what constitutes an emergency and so forth, thus intended to help maintain civil rights protections and minimize potential for abuse of power. How well that will work out remains to be seen - we've yet to elect a fascist, let alone have one find a way to stage an emergency that allows a sweeping takeover of the government...I'd dare say it's a lot harder to pin an arson attack on parliament on a perceived enemy today than it was for Hitler.

[@writing-ace-club]

Thank you for taking the time and research to make this video. On a slightly more positive note, Jojo Rabbit is a welcome addition of showing nazis as neither noble warriors nor underdogs which makes it harder to co-opt. Tho it might still happen.

[@DavidJBradley]

Jojo is great, and was briefly gonna be one of the movies about fascism I was gonna show as recommended before I switched it out for Korkoro

[@River_StGrey]

Ugh, I grew up singing Tomorrow Belongs to Me, not realizing what it meant or represented. It was even my audition song for choir in high school. It is really pretty, and I spent years and years learning to do an original rendition of it, and then one day I was singing it and was just like "Oh...! Fuck."

[@johndalton3180]

I saw the 1987 Hal Prince revival. It seems two things the movie took from Prince were Joel Grey, and the mirror concept. When you went in to sit down, there was a mirror, angled to reflect the first several rows of the audience. When the show starts, they angle the mirror to reflect the action on stage, but when it ended, you could once again see the audience in it. I was a kid at the time, so I didn't get it. But it's pretty brilliant.

[@evelynstarshine8561]

This is still the best video on Cabaret and current fascism, with the current interest in cabaret hopefully this gets more views.

[@bellamaz1972]

In the early 2000s a Cabaret touring production came to my city- when the MC, in the final moments of the show, takes off his clothes to reveal a striped concentration camp uniform with both a pink and yellow star affixed, the large audience went dead silent. It seemed to last forever, but in reality was probably about a minute or so. The theater was dead silent; I suspect everyone else was silent for the same reason I was- I was shocked and shook. I’d seen this show, but not that reveal, before. Finally I started clapping (no one seemed to want to be the first including me) and the rest joined, and the curtain call went as expected. But I’ll never forget that prolonged shocked silence. It was a brilliant interpretation, but I wish we hadn’t continued that long of a silence… Outstanding video essay, thanks so much.

[@AxelQC]

History repeats itself because human nature doesn't change.

[@seropia]

This just reinvigorates my love for Jojo Rabbit... It perfectly makes the Nazis so ridiculous that they cannot be co-opted by Nazis seriously. (Also it's hard to co opt a half Jewish half Maori Hitler lmao) The moment you take the Nazis seriously as anything other than idiotic hateful goons they will take it as a sign of how cool they are. Antifacism can use comedy and ridicule against the fascists who take themselves so seriously, it's what Charlie Chaplin did (as a communist that Hitler admired as a performer-literally the hitler stache is just him co-opting Charlie Chaplin's mustache-he purposefully made fun of the Nazis and made them seem weak). The main thing is to keep making fun of their ideology and pointing out its contradictions, don't let anyone fall for it as legitimate rhetoric that should be considered. This is why liberals fall for it, they think it can just be an idea in the "marketplace of ideas" when it is a death cult. Also when it comes down to it, the fascists will take up arms and we should not be afraid to take up arms in retaliation and protection of the most vulnerable.

[@emilyruthsoglin]

this video is incredible. i, unlike many people in the comments, do not have anything of much value to say, but i couldn’t not comment. i’m also very late to this. but i am glad i found this late rather than never.

[@BunnyAndNintendoLuvr]

Incredible video again, like always. Thank you for tackling this tough topic.

[@kooltom4]

Wow, what a brilliant video "essay", this was excellent and so challenging and provocative (essential). I feel so discomfited and see my own apathy reflected clearly.

[@rotteddwelling]

I don't usually comment on videos but this is genuinely incredible, thank you for putting the time into creating something of very high quality.

[@rusted_ursa]

I don't think I'll ever get through this video in one sitting. Too many parts of it make me cry.

[@MrsBifflechips]

I'm Canadian, and that trucker protest has made me distrust anyone displaying Canadian flags. And a group affiliated with said protest seem to be doing some shenanigans regarding lease/ownership of a deconsecrated church in Ottawa. **sigh** It's more than a little spooky. It's been a while since I've watched Cabaret. I think I have to revisit it. Thank you for the video!

[@ollebolle420]

you had me at "Hal 'it's about cats' Prince"

[@MoxieMcMurder]

"He bought a nutmeg grinder that one time" 😂 This video is excellent, really well researched and well thought out.

[@nanamiharuka3269]

hearing LKB was a welcome surprise, glad to know you all are acquainted!

[@madeofmeats]

Messages like Cabaret’s are why centrism and not caring or knowing about the political climate of your given nation is so dangerous and unacceptable.

[@DavidMGiles]

This was worth the wait. Thank you so much for the quality content!

[@Ninjacatmuffin]

In a weird way, I'm glad you made this video. I haven't seen any version of Cabaret / I Am A Camera, but I appreciated your analysis on the story in its many forms and how it shows the different attitudes towards fascism. It's (Fascism is) such a nasty thing that's taken root again and again; we should continue to be on the lookout for it in our spheres

[@barbaras2669]

The use of "The Tomorrow belongs to me" song made me recall a 1940 movie "The Mortal Storm". It featured a similar rendition of a song in a tavern. Jimmy Stewart and Maureen Sullivan and an older gentleman are the only people in the tavern who do not rise to give the Nazi salute and join in the song. They come to the realization of what has happened to their community. There is a clip of it on KZbin.

[@karolinakorytowska9445]

this is such a great video, one of not some many that made me genuinely cry and feel scared i dont have much to add but thank you for making this as a queer polish woman

[@Xeyal1001]

Thank you for making this video and putting so much effort in it. The message that you set up will surely stick with me and I appreciate you putting it out there

[@TheSuzberry]

When you mentioned songs commonly heard outside the musical, I thought you were going to name, “Money Makes the World Go Around.” This is a song I find terribly ominous.

[@thebrutusmars]

Also probably one of the more famous from the show. I feel like most Boomers & Gen X’ers would recognize that song over almost any other song in the show

[@SoularSlothesk]

Thank you. So very much. I'm keeping this for when I inevitably fall back into passivity. Much love 💕

[@cheerful_something_something]

Up past my bedtime watching this, sad I only saw the "live now" notification when you were on your last song+credits.

[@sofiapolo1]

There are so many opportunities for a cabaret remake to be fantastic and embrace all this political and historical context you mention. Hopefully if they make it they take all this stuff into consideration.

[@NA-AN]

I assume this was among the videos James Somerton Plagiarized?

[@DavidJBradley]

I honestly don't think it was. Beyond some aesthetic similarities that anyone could have reached from talking about Cabaret they're not really the same. I don't know who he stole from for that one, but it wasn't me

[@NA-AN]

@@DavidJBradley ah, okay, got it.

[@noellestradamus]

I thought I was the only one who called him Hal "its about cats" prince 😂😂😂

[@jf.sterlingson.6406]

12:40 Personally I'm really excited about seeing what's next in the Cabaret universe. Apparently the next season is even crazier! Something about Hans traveling in time and apparently, at some point Christopher FIGHTS A TRAIN! It's wild!

[@jaela.9909]

This was great the run time just flew by. Thank you for the work you put into this. Love from Kenya

[@codygoodnight1851]

This is such a wonderful video, Bradley. Bravo to you and everyone involved in making this masterpiece!