Would You Have Been a Nazi?

[@ThenNow]

You'll have a deeper understanding of the issues discussed here if you've seen my two videos on Jim Crow racism and How We Become Genocidal: How We Become Genocidal: The Holocaust: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iIGmfK2dfrl2iKs The Psychology of Racism in Jim Crow America: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jJ2zhJSNm8ZmgNU

[@OjoRojo40]

"Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past." Some dude with a beard.

[@leavonfletcher4197]

You are fast becoming one of my favorite KZbinrs because you force us to examine really tough issues.

[@numbersix8919]

You used the term "beg the question" incorrectly. You may have been aware of it. I wish you would not. Public discourse is nearly limited to logical fallacies, and begging the question is prominent among them.

[@numbersix8919]

@Steve Gooden Thanks, poet. I copied your poem to keep, to inspire me. But the truth is that very few people can be held to the standard of their potential. And it's no fault of their own. Yes, most people would either be Nazis, or try to not be involved directly in the unthinkable atrocities committed by their government. The Germans were a nation of poets and humanists. Soon the human race, or a great part of it, will be killed off. By us! It will be much worse than WW II. So I suggest you summon some of those strengths and virtues, and take action to prevent it.

[@numbersix8919]

@Steve Gooden Nonviolent civil disobedience.

[@mummytrolls]

Before studying Nazi Germany, my teacher had the class vote. There was candidate A and candidate B. Their ideas for each topic (like economy, immigration, government involvement in foreign affairs, etc.) were put against each other and we were to check off if we agreed with candidate A or B. There were 10 questions and I voted 5 for A 5 for B. After talking with my friends, they seemed to like B so I decided to vote for B. We all put our heads down and the teacher had everyone in class raise their hands and vote for A or B. Almost every single person voted for B. After we put our hands down and opened our eyes, our teacher informed us that with the exception of 3 people, the entire class voted for candidate B. Candidate B was Hitler.

[@mummytrolls]

We used that exercise cuz a common question in school is “why would people vote for Hitler? Clearly a blood thirsty Jew hating genocidal maniac is somebody I wouldn’t vote for!” He used that exercise to show that people didn’t vote for Hitler knowing he’d kill 6 million Jews. Yes, antisemitism was (and still is to a lesser extent) popular in Europe. They’re the scapegoats, have been for centuries so when he first implemented laws like Jews can’t be doctors, people didn’t really care. It never starts with genocide, it starts with oppression, discrimination, and fear mongering. The people of Germany mostly voted for Hitler because he promised to make Germany great and pull them out of their economic depression, which was so bad people would burn money for warmth and kids used stacks of money as building blocks or arts and crafts cuz it was so useless. In 1922, a loaf of bread cost 163 marks. In November 1923, a loaf of bread cost 200 billion marks. It was that insane and Hitler promised to fix it. Starving and desperate, the German people elected Hitler. After that class I no longer wonder how he rose to power (although I’ll be very clear that I am anti Hitler). The exercise was a scary realization and my teacher, a Jew, said most classes voted for Hitler. That’s why he taught that class, to show us how easy it is to fall for politicians who promise big things and warning signs of fascists.

[@deeznuts8659]

damn

[@punishedgloyperstormtroope8098]

Based class

[@punishedgloyperstormtroope8098]

Shows you the negative perception about him is created by media and propaganda

[@sheldonquamina9634]

This is a beautiful lesson to show my children as someone from the Caribbean we take so much for granted

[@ryanehnat7458]

Brilliant video! I must say though- a class dimension would have been useful, seeing as the ruling class has historically been positioned to be accountable for a whole lot more “ethical willpower” than the working class. It’s tougher to resist oppression when your very livelihood is based on carrying it out.

[@LadyCoyKoi]

Very valid point!

[@mochilover7053]

One of fascism's tenets is class collaboration. E.g. in the Antebellum south poor whites would often catch and return, or lynch runaway slaves. While the slave owner would get paid in insurance for a dead slave, returning a slave would mean compensation for poor whites. The system functions so that each organ somewhat protects the other.

[@musamusashi]

@@mochilover7053 that is not "class collaboration", that was a system, used to these very day, to buffer potential poor whites' rebellion, by making it sure that they always had someone under them to oppress so they could never fully realise how oppressed by that same system themselves were and are.

[@mochilover7053]

@@musamusashi Yeah, I never said class collaboration actually helped the lower classes in the long term. When Hitler gave speeches to workers after he had their labor organizers assassinated he wasn’t forcing them to do anything against their will. Despite the result of their collaboration, or the intentions of the ruling class the lower class still contributed to the holocaust. They contributed to slavery for a measly penance for slave capture and torture.

[@mochilover7053]

@@musamusashi Also, I’m inclined to agree that poor whites work against themselves, so that they can be slightly above blacks and latinos.

[@reddmist]

Your videos are great, thoughtful and well researched, very thought provoking! I would like your thoughts on a video idea sometime, if you are interested at all.

[@lsobrien]

This is one of your best videos. By the way, there's a very fun article called Who Goes Nazi? by Dorothy Thompson in the Harpers archive. It was written when the Third Reich was very much alive, and Thompson assesses how different sorts of psychological profiles would respond to Nazi occupation.

[@andresdubon2608]

Thank you, that was intresting.

[@RaunienTheFirst]

I like to think not, but let's see where this goes

[@njm2699]

A curious endeavor to say the least

[@1911dawg]

It really depends on what the media tells you… if you don’t see it with your own eyes then your seeing it through a political lense.

[@south1328]

Always choose the path of kindness. That’ never leads to innocent humans suffering.”❤️”

[@tethergobrrr]

Yeah, I’m nervous… tendency to not comply with immoral directions on one hand… a sucker for certain kinds of economic arguments on the other… maybe nazi, nice

[@robsands6656]

@@1911dawg false

[@christopherbettridge]

"Morality is only interesting when it's difficult"; a great way to encapsulate a difficult but undeniably true idea

[@Michelle_Wellbeck]

I love how your content shows blatant disregard to the sensibilities of the algorithm

[@iTammy]

Agree!

[@chana7276]

as a jew the answer is no, but I believe there are universal lessons to be learned by using the examples of the Nazis so I'm very interested in this video.

[@antoniorich8054]

But surely you are aware there were Jewish Nazis in Hitlers administration,sad but true.Your being a Jew certainly does not preclude you being a fascist.

[@jcspoon573]

Then look at it this way, would you subjugate a people based on the circumstance of their birth, denoting their race, heavily skewing their religion. To be blunt, would you justify the modern treatment of Palestinians by Israel? Taking of land, denying of equal status, confining into a limited area, out of scale responses to violence by an oppressed population. This question does not ask you to be exactly you, it asks you to empathize with a person LIKE you in those circumstances. You may be a Jew, but Jew is not who you are.

[@Reynolds128]

@@jcspoon573 Muslim people don't need to apologise for terrorists.... And Jewish people don't need to apologise for Israel....

[@jcspoon573]

@@Reynolds128 You have failed at reading comprehension and likewise missed the entire point of the video.

[@phurian_6560]

It's very easy to say you wouldn't have been a Nazi outside of the circumstances that drove the people back then towards that ideology

[@ayior]

As a German, this video and the others on the holocaust bring me back to school times, god these talking points were our subjects for *years* My schools (I switched at some point) saw understanding the origins and pitfalls of radicalization that lead to the rise of the Nazis as a cultural duty of modern Germans: That these things must be understood so history can not repeat itself. In general, after consuming so many "breadtube" channels on american politics this one feels really refreshing in the way it reminds me of what I learned in school - Philosophy was one of my favorite school subjects and one that I really missed being exposed to after graduating.

[@ScrumpleScrant]

Why I love KZbin!

[@shadesmarerik4112]

Never forget, that Germans were the victims of Nazism

[@MannIchFindKeinName]

before even watching the video, as a german i gotta say yes, i likely would have been one of the bystanders. While i am weird enough to be singled out as a possible victim, i am very good at masking and i was raised in a rather right-wingish environment. Only massive socialization with far left people made me think about the systems that made me experience what i went through, but also made me understand what my neighbours (lots of refugees from irak, kosovo, albania, all the wars that went on around 1990-2000) went through. Without that talk i would have easily turned into a Nazi. So if i was born too late to get into the whole solidarity/communism-stuff from the workers, i see no way i wouldn't have become a collaborator. Btw, its terrifying what happens in the US rn, or what happened in Russia or Poland/Hungary. I really hope all those asshats die from stress induced heartfailure while raging infront of RT/Tucker Carlson/etc and spare us a lot of problems down the road.

[@MannIchFindKeinName]

@Shawn 🏴‍☠️ Stafford Oh, i got that part watching the video :D I just think it's important to understand how it happened back then and be aware that it can happen all the time everywhere again. It was nothing special back then, except economy sucked a bit more than normal and there was some dude screaming more and louder than anyone else. I feel your sentiment, wtf is going on?

[@paigetomkinson1137]

@Sören This is an incredible, amazing statement! That you've been able to look that far into yourself, and conclude you would have been a Nazi, I don't think many could admit that, even if they knew deep down that it was true. Kudos to you! I think, though, that the realization makes a person become aware, and change. I'm an American, and what's happening here is terrifying. I sort of saw it coming, in 2016, but lots of us listened to the talking heads making excuses. It didn't pacify, exactly, but maybe gave a lot of us reason to not panic. We should have panicked. Since then, I've read and watched everything I could on Fascism and Germany's history, and I know this country is in a heap of trouble. Anyway, I was quite impressed with your comment.

[@KarlMarxFanClub]

Unfortunately, fascism is growing like cancer in America right now and they don’t even realize it. It’s called manufacturing consent.

[@paigetomkinson1137]

@@KarlMarxFanClub This is the dangerous truth. Way too many people haven't realized what's happening. Either they aren't paying attention, they don't understand the signs and signals, or they're part of it. I'm very concerned, because it doesn't seem like even the elected Democrats truly understand the threat. Oh, there are a couple here and there, but overall the party is still trying to do things as if the other half of each chamber weren't big bad wolves in sheeps clothing, so to speak. I saw Ruth Ben-Giaht on a political show last week, and she had the clear-sightedness and courage to use the "F" word, three times when talking about the GOP. "Fascism," she said, and she shouldn't be the only one saying it. I was glad she did, because the word must get out, to every possible democratic voter, to everyone who doesn't want to live under a totalitarian regime of White Christian Nationalists, and that is precisely where we're headed. Normal, run of the mill, go to church on Sunday Christians, like my grandmother was, aren't the problem, but they all need to open their eyes, too. A person who believes the way my grandmother did, which was an every day Presbyterian religious outlook, will become a target of these worse than radical White Christian Nationalists, aligned with the Republican Party, forming the new Fascism. If a person doesn't believe exactly what they do, act exactly as they do, look exactly like they do, they will become another target of this poisonous ideology. We've already seen what can happen to their targets, as it happened in Buffalo, New York last week. All of us who see what's going on have a responsibility to get the message out into the majority of the public; democracy is under tremendous threat, not from the outside, but from Fascist White Christian Nationalists, their accomplices on the Supreme Court and in the halls of Congress, and at every other level of political life, governors, state legislatures, and every single local office, everywhere in this country.

[@masterson0713]

What's wrong with Tucker? He's the one advocating against getting involved with Russia and Ukraine. I think you'd definitely be a Nazi you sound brainwashed with leftish thinking as it is.

[@stefanschnabel2769]

"A force as we know from physics is an impulse, a pressure, an energy." Love your vids, but this broke my little physics heart.

[@Stretesky]

Weapons of war include the use of physics that are not known to the mainstream or taught openly as military tactics.

[@myxomatoad2]

Wonderful! As always you come across as both curious and dispassionate, as well as grounded and concerned. Thank you so much for your work!

[@bobsonny]

Weird that you paint dispassion as a good thing in this context. I'd think that these are subjects that SHOULD incite passion at the breadth of the injustice and mistreatment.

[@SeasideDetective2]

I have heard that some have argued that Nazism in Germany was inevitable at some point, due to the German cultural preference for authoritarianism. I reject this theory, since I'm aware that there have existed many egalitarian-minded Germans down through the centuries, from the ancient Germanic tribes who minimized social stratification to the German-speaking immigrants to the U.S. who became abolitionists against slavery.

[@sometimesicryinthebasement5121]

Nazism was inevitable but not for those reasons. Nazism was made inevitable by the treaty of Versailles. Germans hated the treaty as Germany was (wrongfully) blamed for the Great War. Essentially, Nazism was made inevitable by the west.

[@saturationstation1446]

i dont see nazism as an isolated thing that happened one time. you can see the base attitude for it in almost every well off european walking the earth today. eugenicist views have always been a major part of eurocentric culture. subjugating "inferior" races and believing you are of a superior evolved part of the species so you have the right and duty to take the worlds resources for yourself and slaughter everything unlike yourselves. this behavior has been displayed in europe for many many centuries. and its still in almost every european person alive today. despite how much they might deny it, they all live in the least diverse countries on the planet and all complain about being racially/culturally "replaced"

[@lizzie7138]

I think about this a lot. My family had to flee war and genocide because our tribe was seen as a threat to government. Many people died including my uncle. My mum and her family had to walk on foot to a different country. My dad was part of the guerrilla group fighting the government. There are some nationalists that still claim the President (dictator) was a good man. Subconsciously I always hated nationalism.

[@TheJayman213]

"The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it." This is one historical force. "Resistance" to the ruling class's morality, whether motivated by individual or collective material interests, is just another historical force, rather than an overruling of historical forces. Empathy allows for the formation of collective interests. What you call acting morally I call acting in accordance with rising collective interests against the interests and morality of the ruling class.

[@tim290280]

I agree with most of what you are saying throughout. But I think the bit about people being misinformed or misled is a bit too simple. As we're seeing now, there are people who are presented with the facts of an issue and refuse to believe it because it goes against their ideological reality. There will be strong arguments made for that ideology or the status quo, that will utilise misinformation knowingly (or unknowingly). This makes the question, is that immoral or is it just human? I'd argue that it makes it immoral as we have an epistemological moral responsibility to strive toward truth not ideology, but it is human to fail at doing so.

[@moritz3168]

But it literally is that simple. Look at the animal holocaust. I have argued enough times with carnists, in most cases they place taste over consciousness. Do you believe these people are well informed?

[@wordcel]

@@moritz3168 the animal holocaust?

[@wordcel]

Who gave me this epistemological moral responsibility and why? How will it help me get more bitches?

[@tim290280]

@@wordcel, WK Clifford. And the moral life is one that is incredibly attractive.

[@quantum1311]

@@wordcel so trve...

[@lsobrien]

Your emphasis on empathy being the basis of morality is important and well made. This is something the New Rationalists (read: New Charlatans), like Steven Pinker explicitly reject. It goes to show how too much time in the realm of thought experiments can severely lead someone astray. (So much so, that, in this case, the so-called classical liberals have completely lost their grounding in the tradition.)

[@moritz3168]

It goes both ways. Empathy doesnt need to be the base for morality. Egoism and respecting conscious life in fear of hypothetical aliens could be a source of morality too. Although empathy plays a huge part >.

[@thecolumbopause4961]

The fundamental problem with this is that empathy can be abused and used to trap an individual into taking actions or inaction. This is typically how an abusive partner will act by taking advantage of their partners empathy. It is how tyrannical get people to inform on their neighbours, friends and familly. Don't you care about "this demographic" well then you need to inform on anyone who is a part of or has sympathies towards "that demographic" or else you do not actually care about "this demographic." Or it could be as simple as holding others hostage, people will stand up for their beliefs when their life is threatened but when the lives of those they love and value are threatened they become much less willing to sacrifice. Empathy is not the basis of morality under any circumstance, it is nothing but another manifestation of mental emotions and can be corrupted, used and twisted just as much as anger, sadness, happyness or disgust. As an example: Hitler used the common german's empathy towards their fellow poor german's to bolster the propaganda that justified the attacks on jews. He then held them hostage through their empathy for their family, children and friends so they would inform on any "foreign bodies" pretending to be ethnic germans. Empathy is good but the basis for morality it is not.

[@lsobrien]

@@thecolumbopause4961 Noticing the well-documented differences between treatment of in-group members and out-groups doesn't somehow invalidate empathy as a grounding for morality. Moral instincts can be turned to horrifying ends, absolutely - as can every conceivable human phenomenon or technology. Do you think morality must be ideal perfection? That's very much the problem with figures like Pinker. They do not take account of history and contingency - morality as it's actually existed: they've imagined a totally objective, rationalist, utilitarian morality, and anything, now or previously, that doesn't align, can be categorically dismissed.

[@JM-us3fr]

I don’t think it is invalid to reject empathy as a foundation, but I do think it is unsound. For example, if Pinker does find himself as a utilitarian, I might wonder why utilitarianism and not egoism. The principle of treating everyone equally (when all else is equal) can only be justified (in my opinion) utilizing empathy; that way their pain becomes your pain.

[@tigerwolf2243]

The things he mentioned in this video about the expanding circle of empathy and books playing a role in making people empathetic to different people's experiences are two things I first read about in Steven Pinker's book "Better Angels of Our Nature." He lists it as one of the five reasons violence has declined. So no.

[@nectarshrub]

So many incredible questions raised. Thanks for the content🙏🏻

[@rbqanstxqu7959]

The timing of your video topics is impeccable.

[@Skoda130]

My main problem with this video is that is assumes that all you need for agency, is a conviction. But it needs willpower as well, and the ability to resist ones socialization. I often think we have a lot less agency than we would like to admit.

[@maryblaufuss7533]

I frequently watch the You Tube videos that are produced by Dr. Ramini Durvasula. She is a famous psychologist who specializes in the study of difficult personalities such as Machiavellian, narcissistic and psychopathic. She asserts that empathy is the most important quality we humans can have,

[@juliemelville65]

Thank you very much for this summary, you have brought together all the elements I have been trying to understand in a very clear way🙏

[@arsenelupin123]

One of the most terrifying thoughts I had while watching this video was: "what if these social forces socialize you to convince you that you are resisting" A lot of effort has to go in maintaining our moral center. I'm not yet sure I'm up to the task.

[@robynsun_love]

Every fascist movement operates this way. It’s why they’re so preoccupied with their own ostensible victimhood. They treat their enemies as existential threats and as pathetic invalids simultaneously. Putin invaded Ukraine under the pretext that _Russia_ was truly the one that was at risk. Fascism is what you get when unresolved collective trauma metastasizes into a social force of white-hot retribution; like a child screaming into the void at everything that ever hurt or scared them.

[@arsenelupin123]

@@robynsun_love Yes, that's definitely a big part of it. A lot of resentment dressed up in a mythical image of the national will.

[@tigerwolf2243]

Exactly. People lynching black people are resisting social forces by the definition of being regressive. Nazis thought they were resisting social forces that were supposedly created by the Jews, whom Hitler basically blamed both corporate greed AND the rise of communism on.

[@ellem8990]

I think that you can definitely see that with the conservatives in america that think that the left is taking over, faking a pandemic to inject citizens and that they do trafficing.

[@truthbtold2910]

Ask yourself what it is, that u are gounded in. What is it, that bolsters your internal self. What are ur principles? Those things which you will fight to keep, resist giving up? When u find these principles, work backward, asking yourself where U first heard it, or experienced it? Once this is clear, ask yourself if it's something U wish to keep as part of U? If not, set it aside. And begin the process again. Be patient with yourself, it takes time and repeated effort to even remotely understand who we are. Hope this helps. If u take yourself seriously in this activity, early on your head will hurt. 🤓 Blessings Upon U in the Holy name of Jesus the Christ, Amen

[@Grace.allovertheplace]

( *22:11* I just saw that the video beneath this, is yours too and it’s specifically about personal responsibility) *20:18* I appreciate that misinformation, propaganda etc can lead to a certain behaviour between *in groups/out groups* - maybe you’ll touch on this later in the video but each person has a individual responsibility to “fact-check”, or at least try the thoughts that are brought upon them against one’s own moral (I don’t write understanding, because that often requires an active search for an alternative truth for example, and when the Nazis ruled they effectively banned •free press, •certain literature etc) but as you mentioned in another video - most people does not wake up as an evil bastard from one day to another. For example, I believe it’s impossible to judge someone based on “looks/religion/identity, what we can judge is someone’s actions, and no we can’t judge because we “think” we can only judge the acts that have happened and our judgment have to be consistent for everyone. (English isn’t my first language and I hope what I’ve written makes sense 😇) 🙏

[@revalesq]

I feel like empathy, without compassion, isn't much in and of itself.

[@bman7673]

Yes. If someone blamed my country for the war and then suppressed my ability to do well and get ahead, and then I was offered a solution...

[@madwiesel3466]

The quality of his videos is constantly improving

[@chainsawninjalcemist]

Do a video on Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestine (which continues to this day)

[@annascott3542]

Yes, please please!!

[@annascott3542]

And the complicity of Western nations.

[@cv4809]

Ah yes, the Israeli ethnic cleansing of a population that has actually increased in numbers

[@chainsawninjalcemist]

@@cv4809 Over what timeframe? Certaintly not on net over the past few decades.

[@khetamalawad4246]

@@cv4809 typical NPC rhetoric, "if X happened then explain Y" ever heard of high fertility rate? Bosnia having more population now than in the 90s doesn't mean the Bosnian genocide didn't happen. Same with Jews in the 40s compared to now. Your argument actually is really disgusting, dehumanising and outright genocide denial. Gtfo!

[@lines1nwax]

It's disappointing that the video doesn't mention the Milgram experiment. This one psychological experiment explains so much about how genocides throughout history have been carried out successfully. While the aspects you mentioned do matter and do play into the broader sociocultural factors that facilitate genocides like the Holocaust, the psychological/individual level cannot be ignored. The Milgram experiment is imperative to understanding this topic.

[@QT5656]

But hasn't the Milgram experiment also been criticized for how it advertised for and selected it's participants in a way that biased the sort of people taking part?

[@paigetomkinson1137]

Or Jane Elliot and the "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" exercise. I'm in awe of her.

[@Orangeyougladx3]

He did in other videos, so I guess he didn’t want to reuse the same experiments over and over again

[@helgahaa]

Debunked and unethical study

[@kahlilbt]

Commenting my initial reaction to the question with: depends on the context. There are definitely periods of my life where I held exactly the kinds of views that fascism stokes. But physically, I could never because of my background. If I presuppose being a white Christian German at the time, I'd have to think about if I have my opinions from now, or my opinions from ten years ago. Fundamentally, my answer is that in the right hypothetical context, yes, and in our real world, no, and I hope that I am building a self now that is better than all that.

[@julyrosales]

What ever the circumstances push you to be , you might become. We do a lot of things out of survival that are not justified but hey it’s only temporary. I couldn’t answer that question because the situation never presented itself. Ask that to a Nazi ex soldier if you can still find one alive. Most are the answers were “ I was just doing my job”.

[@jordanwhisson5407]

The question is, would you join the bullies or oppose the bullies?

[@QT5656]

I tend to agree. In school I found myself more than once standing between bullies and their victims. Other bystanders rarely back you up. Sometimes they emphasize afterwards but other times they sneer at your lunacy at arrogance for getting involved in the "correct order of things". Apparently for many people punching down (for little more than fun or to signal status) is fair game. 🙄

[@ilsevanderbij7179]

I was raised in a very left-wing family (my great grandpa was actually part of a Dutch communist resistance movement along with Hannie Schaft! He was incarcerated by the Germans at camp Westerbork for the last couple of years of the war... but he survived, met my great-grandma shortly after the war, and my grandma was born as a result of that), I'm autistic and chronically fatigued due to TBI, yes I do have the blonde hair/blue eye phenotype but I don't think I could ever believe in what the Nazis believe in. Especially not based on my personality and the values I was taught while growing up. I'm not sure how I would've fared during the war, I think I would've at least be part of some passive resistance that matched my ability, or I would've been placed in the Lebensborn program by the Nazis due to my eye and hair colour. Forced to breed Nazi babies until I would no longer be useful. That or, my leftist beliefs would've landed me in the same place as my great-grandpa did at some point. I'd make him proud, though.

[@jjdelft3216]

Just because you have blonde hair and blue eyes doesnt mean youd be seen as a good Aryan. Next to your leftists ideas, you also wouldnt fit in due to your autism and TBI, which would be seen as signs of weakness and not desirable. Being made a part of the Lebensborn program is also less likely due to that. For boys for example youd not only need the blue eyes and blond hair, but also be physically fit and mentally well to be seen as a true Aryan.

[@numbersix8919]

I'm not saying all the Nederlanders were heroes, but that's my general impression. You can be proud of your heritage. Including the little wisp of a ballet dancer Audrey Hepburn who was a messenger in the Resistance.

[@J.D.Shelnutt]

I feel like we on on the road to repeating the same mistakes today. I see a lot of the same motivations

[@tigerwolf2243]

Empathy's an interesting emotion. It changes based on how you relate to a person. If you feel like someone is too powerful, if they've hurt you or if their fear and pain seems ridiculous, then their screams and their pain or fear suddenly feel like things are being set right. Suffering brings pleasure. Schadenfreude in all its forms. If you felt someone had the jump on you and now someone gets the jump on them (or even better, they hurt themselves), it's a feeling of triumph and justice. If you feel their feelings are invalid or silly, such as a silly phobia, their fear is amusing. I don't usually laugh or smile at suicide, but Hitler killing himself? Couldn't have happened to a more deserving man. An old man suffering on the floor from a heart attack with nobody around to find him 'til he's been dead for a day? Their last words being about how fearful and paranoid they feel? Good. I'm glad that's how Joseph Stalin died. It's not just seeing the person as bad. Seeing a sports team get crushed in a game hits differently depending on who you're rooting for. Sports basically involves rooting for someone's failure for no real reason. Other examples are many. The song "schadenfreude" by Avenue Q is full of them. But you get the point.

[@PaidGangstalker]

Stalin wasn’t alone when he died. His daughter was there, so were all of his closest advisors. They watched him die, with glee.

[@kingstarscream320]

Cry baby

[@lingrajbpattur7777]

Thanks

[@camipco]

I strongly suspect I would have complained about the Nazis at home among people who I thought were safe, avoided actively participating whereever possible, but not been willing to actually do anything meaningful to stop them.

[@martinsuo8712]

Thanks!

[@WanderingVedantist]

Half of the reasons why I watch these videos is because of how soothing his voice is

[@blck6941]

A very interesting and compelling video. However, I think you should take into consideration that people weren't necessarily ill informed, but also simply cynical and nihilistic*. They strove to identify with something - a Group or other. They didn't care if the information put in front of them was false. All politicians were perceived to be liars at that time in Germany anyway. As Arendt suggests, they simply couldn't (or didn't care to) distinguish opinion from fact*.

[@el_equidistante]

Really good, I was afraid this was going to be a cliche answer to the question from the contemporary americanized left, reducing the question to a simplistic negative answer, but yeah, I don't know why I thought so, your videos are always much more thoughtful than that.

[@Talleyhoooo]

Well the contemporary Americanized left have a point. Nazis and their ideology are on the rise, and their primary means of gaining influence is leaning on the fact that you’d rather roll your eyes at resistance from the left than push back against the resurgence.

[@el_equidistante]

@@Talleyhoooo The question about if we would have been a nazi and my comment, have nothing to do with with the current rise of that ideology, what are you even saying? On the other hand you can very well roll your eyes if that resistance if grained in a bad understanding of the causes or an ineffective strategy to get to the goal of pushing back.

[@Talleyhoooo]

@@el_equidistante So basically you’re totally fine with a Nazi resurgence if it’s being resisted on by people you think are cringe… Great, you’re more worried about woke scolding and SJW’s than a fascist takeover. And to my point, you’re exactly the kind of person Nazis need, the apathetic bystander who’s more concerned about their subjective feelings than principles.

[@el_equidistante]

@@Talleyhoooo there is no Nazi resurgence, such a thing is impossible, people like you act as if a century of cultural shift never happened. Second, you are absolutely insane, you are jumping to conclusions about myself based on absolutely nothing, you make connections where there are none. Where did I mention SJWs or wokeism? What does that have to do with anything? The point is that maybe you should ask yourself if your self righteous egotistic "resistance" is not actually worsening the problem rather than help solving it. In any case, people like you who so gone, so engrossed in your own poorly thought out ideology that you cannot avoid framing every interaction within those terms, just look at you right now, you are taking a comment and a question that does not have anything to do with what you are babbling about because you are convinced that I have to be attacking your political action which should not be questioned, just accepted as the only possible fact of life and way to proceed, as if what you think and do is the only alternative to be an apathetic bystander, what a colossal egocentristic point of view, very much on par with American people indeed.

[@paigetomkinson1137]

Interesting. Usually the people who have negative things to say about the American left complain about them using words that are too big, and of being elitist. This is quite a different take on it.

[@christinemareeyoung]

very clear presentation, thanks

[@countessmargoth469]

I have been a life long communist, I assume I would be the same in Nazi Germany... and sent to a CC. I am transgender as well, so I maybe would not have even made it to the camp. Would I have the courage to stand up to them? Easier said than done if you would meet certain death for a principle.

[@RageTyrannosaurus]

I'm mixed race, neurodivergent, and a leftist so I'd be in a similar position. Just trying to share some solidarity. My pronouns are he/him, what are yours?

[@countessmargoth469]

@@RageTyrannosaurus I'm a woman with lady pronouns :) Thank you for your solidarity. If fascism is ever to rear it's ugly head again we need to stamp it out together before we get a repeat of history.

[@paigetomkinson1137]

@@countessmargoth469 I think, Countess, that it's already happening. I hope all of us who aren't part of their crowd have the strength we're going to need, because it looks like rough sailing ahead to me.

[@are_you_f_serious]

@@countessmargoth469 wait, you said that you are a Transgender but a comment later, that you are a woman. - I'm confused, are you now a women or a Transgender? 🤔

[@countessmargoth469]

@@are_you_f_serious These are not exclusive. I am a woman who happens to be transgender. I also happen to have blonde hair, and two eye colours. Transgender is an umbrella term to describe people whose gender differs from that which was assumed at birth. It's not a category of gender identity.

[@robertafierro5592]

We never know how we'll react until the time actually comes, but social.pressure? That's a very different thing. "Fitting In" means EVERYTHING to most people. I really can't answer this question honestly. It's a really thought provoking question. When make a decision like joining a Party sometimes it's not a matter of choice..

[@KINGREXBABI]

This invoked an emotional response. For so long we have demonized rather then attempted to understand the motivations. In the divisive culture we inhabit today rational breakdowns like this are more important then ever to hear. People can only make decisions off of good information as you so eloquently described at the end.

[@pasisovi]

If you ignore the history, this one you know that was written by the winners, and see the real one, you definitely would change your attitude.

[@dabidibup]

I’m increasingly convinced nations deciding their own socialized policies is a good idea. I’m worried that makes me racist

[@Orangeyougladx3]

Honestly yes. While I wouldnt have been able to actually kill someone or be an nazi officer, I would def be someone supporting it from home. It’s so easy to be swept away by politics. Even during this pandemic, I was laughing at people who could have so easily prevented their death but didn’t. It’s sad.

[@didles123]

I could only hope I would have sided with the National Socialists, but in a place like Weimar Germany there's always the possibility I would have gotten caught up with the communists and other evil movements of the time.

[@ktmggg]

I was raised to question everything. It wasn't just because I was born in the 1960s. My parents were the WW2 generation and were horrified by the wholesale loss of human life due to twisted ideologies. It caused them to question everything; political leaders and philosophies, religion, the local PTA, service organizations, etc. Even things they agreed with were still subject to scrutiny to see if it passed their morality test. Their basic philosophy was, are you allowed to be free in thought and action, and does it serve the greater good? Those are the principles that have guided my life. So I think I would have been trundled off to the camps had I been raised in Nazi Germany.

[@ruperterskin2117]

Right on. Thanks for sharing.

[@oggeeboggee]

I would love to hear the narration made by Georg Rockall-Schmidt...

[@saffronic3026]

I would have been a Mischling of the second degree which would have made me viable for military and even SS service, and so I'm not entirely sure how I would've acted in the Nazi Order

[@jjdelft3216]

Youd only be allowed into the SS if you didnt have any Jewish ancestry since 1750 though, so I doubt youd be let in as a Mischling of the 2nd degree, which would mean that youd have 1 jewish grandparent. There was no employment difference between Mischlings of the 1st and 2nd degree, the difference was that 2nd degree could marry non Jewish and non Mischlings, and they wouldnt be imprisoned.

[@paigetomkinson1137]

"There are only people who haven't realized it yet." Indeed.

[@michaelslowmin]

I think this is a big reason why moral arguments for things are a slippery slope. There are those that believe abortion is immoral, gay people are immoral etc. I could explain that women should have bodily autonomy and that someone's sexuality is not their business til I'm blue in the face and not change their minds. They think they're right and I'm wrong, just as I know science tells us otherwise. It comes down to education and a whole list of environmental factors that shape our views of the world. I suppose truly teaching people how to critically think would be a good starting point to help with this. Of course that would ultimately pose a threat to global capitalism, so for now we're forced to seek truth on our own it seems.

[@Johnconno]

Yes! Hugo Boss uniforms, black leather boots and a Walther pistol. I wouldn't have hurt anyone though...😂

[@jeremyhorne5252]

Morality (actual behavior) stems from ethics (principles/rules of what should and should not be), which stems from ethos (core values). Ethos develops within a person according to the integrity of personal identity, which comes from that person's interrelationship to the whole, i.e., society. The integrity of society depends upon that of the individuals, and vice versa. Stemming from this dialectical relationship is the social philosophy with its attendant socio-economic system. Capitalism is an inherently predatory system and collapsed in the early 1920s, and this environment also shaped the dialectics. This is to say, when discussing ultimate human behavior (morality), we must account for all factors in an interrelated and integrated fashion. It is a lot more complex than presented here, although such is a good start

[@AMansWorldPodcast]

Just the title alone is enough to contemplate on.

[@endTHEhegemony_Today]

Wow! 🖤💜💙💚💙💜🖤 Great vid. Could have been even more improved by a class dimension too! Much love!

[@AkiraIsMissing]

Well I'm black, so.

[@itsjustanapple5452]

95% of you would been.

[@aaron2709]

I'd like to hear you talk about something closer to your home... the English subjugation of India for financial plunder. You could also include Gambia, , Nigeria, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and lets not forget your crowning achievement... South Africa. Including China might be too much. How can a culture be so greedy without the slightest blush of morality?

[@ThenNow]

Talked about this here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/inzLm2xrnJqaq68

[@aaron2709]

@@ThenNow Yes, that's about India only. You have the continent of Africa to go. Why not start with blood diamonds?

[@paigetomkinson1137]

@@aaron2709 There are atrocities in every culture, unfortunately. The ones we were not alive to see cannot possibly be ours to answer for. All we can do now is work towards the realization of what causes this kind of behavior, and trying to reroute it in our societies and in ourselves. The same goes for our video host, who is trying to do so.

[@aaron2709]

@@paigetomkinson1137 I'd like him to try more with his own culture.

[@paigetomkinson1137]

@@aaron2709 These principles aren't just for one culture or another. Seeing the damage done in one place makes it more recognizable in another. We continue to address the Nazis and the Holocaust because it was the worst example of a particular kind of atrocity, one based solely on who a person's parents and grandparents and great grandparents were, systematically designed to eliminate those people from the face of the earth. The morality, or ethics, that the German people were willing to abandon can be applied to any other situation where a community turns upon another group to do harm.

[@raphlvlogs271]

popularity and being appealing often become more important than being correct

[@Noms_Chompsky]

Great viddie!

[@truthbtold2910]

The Germans, to some extent the Southerners, used the law to justify these continued sins.

[@rijkersmith3241]

Material conditions and class struggle drive history

[@Meow_Tse-Tung]

Your videos make me think about a lot of subjects in ways I don't think I ever would have without watching them. This type of deep thinking isn't taught enough in school, and it would make a lot of people's lives better if they learned it at a young age.

[@fretnesbutke3233]

The maturity gained from life experience makes all the difference in the world.

[@williammaxwell2239]

Thank You, thought provoking. Cultures and Individuals have different stages of growth-being in the felt and conceptualized expierience of I- We-It. The Good, True and Beautiful are different at each stage. The earlier stages cannot perceive later stages. Comninly known as archaic, magic, mythic, rational, post modern and intregal. Healthy growth is the latter transcending and including the previous of these growth stages. They are linear, earlier can have glimpses of later stages, but cannot integrate. Again thankyou for these thought inspiring productions.

[@yellowantonio-nado7761]

Morality beyond reason - sentiment 😭 passion. Well said

[@benwilkonski8635]

Being half Jewish and Polish I wouldn't think so

[@madelinevlogs5898]

I’m also jewish and polish

[@reeseseater12]

I’ve always wondered things like this now. How much of me is nature (who I truly am) and how much is nurture (impacted by my surroundings). I mean I find these actions appalling but if I grew up in those times with their experiences would I still? Some did even with the similar experiences but a lot didn’t. I also look to mass shooters today too, am I actually that different from them? Is there a set of circumstances that could set me down that path or do I not have that in me at all? (thankfully in reality the answer is no) Is this something we can truly ever know?

[@willshealy5963]

This comment aged horribly

[@reeseseater12]

@@willshealy5963 did it? You don't wonder what impact of your surrounds have on you or if you're naturally inclined to act the way you do. If anything I believe this makes the thought experiment more real. Buffalo shooter was definitely influenced by the internet but no motivation yet for Texas school shooting (that I know of). This just shows that this isn't the past, this is the present and we all need to be aware of the capacity for harm we can commit

[@remc0s]

I would have chose that which would have benfited me most, as would anyone else. The difference is that people like me don't blind themselves with the illusion that we are "good" people, whatever that even means. I know i am not a good person, and the best thing is; i renounce the social pressure of accepting their idea of what a good person is. Now THAT is freedom. Show me a good person, and i'll show you a hypocrite.

[@hayleyversailles6946]

I really do understand the psychological aspects that lead to genocide and the propagandized mentalities that need to be present first for that to occur, but in the end, each individual who participated still chose to do it. As an American, I see the same propaganda machine that existed in the Nazi regime playing out daily here on the right. But the bloodlust is still there already. People believe outrageous things because they want to. The psychology is that of "permission giving." If these people are given the same social circumstances here in the USA 2022, they will choose to do the same thing the Nazis did. Propaganda works best on those "looking for a reason"

[@SebAnders]

Probably, I wouldn't have been able to resist those black Hugo Boss SS suits.

[@OjoRojo40]

"Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past." Some dude with a beard.

[@MrZauberelefant]

Ah, he was a postmodernist SJW, surely.

[@phber]

Great video! Although I would argue the question in the title of the video is futile, since if we would imagine ourselves in the conditions of Nazi Germany (e.g. in terms of equality, education and proximity), it wouldn't be the same me and "you" anymore, since we define ourselves from our current conditions.

[@mri8517]

Please see it as an Invitation for self Interrogation and feel free to apply some Hermeneutics here, we obviously can ask if we could stand up to Tyranny even if it means Torment and Death for yourself and your loved ones.

[@phber]

@@mri8517 Even so, the problem remains - if my "self" was a subject to a hypothetical tyranny it wouldn't be the same "self". Thus reflecting on the question wouldn't learn us anything about ourselves other than what we already know in our present.

[@fabiodeoliveiraribeiro1602]

The world is a mill It doesn't grind the wheat Who makes our bread Human dreams and ambitions Nightmares and pain too Are inevitably crushed By this world mill, that rotates Forced by gravity While crushing beauty and ugliness Tears and smiles Selfishness and empathy All emotional and human fuel When making its historic breads Nothing escapes the cosmic mill And one day the generous cosmos Will grind it too

[@man-yp1gb]

What if extraterrestrials invaded earth and imposed laws and conformity. Would we be like the natives siding with the Spaniards or resisting them?

[@nightoftheworld]

14:32 sounds like embodied cognition thesis

[@gabrielhu6596]

I am quite sure I would, actually. I have no delusions about myself, not anymore. I have strong emotions for matters related to nationality and welfare of my own people, strengthened by a study of history in which we were subjected with colonialism and oppression, in some sense i could relate and sympathise with the Germans after the humiliation of versailles, a common narrative of the self empowerment of our respective people etc. Their model of a state that emphasis discipline and cohesion is very useful for any nations that were formerly being oppressed and are now on the road of self strengthening. In fact in our own revolution against the old feudal empire Germany was the most supportive, and our early modernisation were also very much supported by them, even in WW2 before the Japanese declared war and invaded our nation Germany remain somewhat of an ally to us. The greatest mistake of Germany in WW1 is that they veered off course from a narrative of national self strengthening to a xenophobic fault blaming against a minority that was pathological and self destructive. If they had incorporated the Jewish people in their nation building project, considering the Jewish influence in the realm of finance and academia, and how many jews were there in America, Germany would’ve surely won the war and united Europe.

[@lizzie7138]

But can a nation improve itself without having an underdog that it constantly compares itself to and how far it has come as a nation? Can people feel cohesion without a scapegoat?

[@paigetomkinson1137]

In spite of the feelings of antisemitism in ethnic Germans around the time of World War I, Jewish people were very well assimilated into the culture and society, at all levels, despite being less than 1% of the population. This was true after about the year 1900, due to legislation passed with the creation of the German Empire, which was finally becoming reality across the country. Some people didn't really like it, but mostly they didn't make trouble, which had been the case earlier on. During the war, there was a proportional representation of Jews in the army, and on the front lines in the war. This is known specifically because the government heard complaints about Jews not taking part, or taking positions that weren't as dangerous, so they did a study and found there was no truth to it. However, they never published the results, which they should have done, so a conspiracy grew around Jewish non-participation in the war. The person who nominated Hitler for one of his Iron Crosses, one of his commanders, was Jewish. The Nazis used the financial insecurity and instability of the inter-war years as a way to heighten the latent antisemitism in the German population. The stab-in-the-back myth had come alive right after Germany surrendered, very much bolstered by a venerated general named Ludendorff, and then broadened by nationalists, and then the Nazi party. Hitler tied that myth very firmly to the people who were in the government, and Germany's Jewish population. Perhaps, as the video states, someone else would have done the things he did if he hadn't been born, but it is hard to imagine another person with the precise mental programming being born in that same time and space. The assimilation of Germany's Jewish community into the larger society before the Great War couldn't have happened without the participation of ethnic Germans. There was antisemitism present, but it was not violent at that time, nor was it a leading force in the country. Nationalists, like Hitler, harangued their fellow citizens with constant streams of hatred towards the Jewish community, causing the latent feelings of the anti-semites come boiling to the surface. The biggest failing was in the Germans who didn't feel that way about their Jewish friends, neighbors, and family members, who remained silent and passive. The biggest factor in changing the national sentiment was most likely that the Nazis made being openly antisemitic acceptable. Once that was accomplished, they had half of their work taken care of. Programming the children, through school and the youth organizations made easy work of the younger generations for the Nazis, too. We can see the same phenomenon in the U.S. today, with White Supremacy and other forms of racism having been made "acceptable" by the former president. The incidents of hate crimes is still extremely high compared to what it was before he was inaugurated. It is very much like a bottle of soda that has been shaken up. It's safely contained until someone takes the cap off.

[@CoolBreezeAnthony]

This video was excellent. KUDOS to the creator.

[@hunnybadger442]

To all you people that insist on telling me not to worry and things will get better and stay positive... Why don't you take the time for a little history lesson and then come back and talk to me about being upset... The concept of a white, blond-haired, blue-eyed master Nordic race didn't originate with Hitler. The idea was created in the United States, and cultivated in California, decades before Hitler came to power. California eugenicists played an important, although little known, role in the American eugenics movement's campaign for ethnic cleansing. From the regime’s medical bureaucracy came the continuing message that mental patients were `useless eaters,’ burdens on the state and its war effort, `life unworthy of life.’

[@grmpEqweer]

Dehumanization is how a neurotypical, empathizing human learns to disengage that empathy from the target categories of people.

[@Atmost11]

The question we should ask is, would we have been part of the weak corrupt so-called opposition which enabled fascism to take over. What social pressures drove the supposedly educated and competent ruling class to block any credible alternative to fascism?

[@b3any925]

You can’t really ask that question knowing what we know now.

[@dlon4539]

I'm a black male, but identify as a blonde and blue eyed Aryan female . Not far right tendencies though

[@Ermanariks_til_Aujm]

Even if I fundamentally oppose most of the mainstream aspect of today's society, from its moralities to its desires, I would still end up as a National-Socialist, but probably a theoretician rather than a mob-member.

[@kausamsalam8543]

“Stand up for Justice, even if you are standing alone, or against your own kin.” (Paraphrased from Holy Quran Sura The Inner Apartments, Hujurat, 49:6, “O ye who believe! If a wicked person comes to you with any news, ascertain the truth, lest ye harm people unwittingly, and afterwards become full of repentance for what ye have done.” (The God/Allah in the Quran expects all His people, regardless of race, class, gender, status, or social hierarchy, to practice reading human nature, (more important than following a crowd blindly or reading blindly). I love the point you make consistently, through the historical examples, to “do the right thing,” even if people may punish you for it. Sura Balad 90:8-13, Allah reminds thinkers, “Thinketh he that none beholdeth him? Have we not made for him a pair of eyes-and a tongue, and a pair of lips?-and shown him the two highways? (Between right and wrong conduct), but man hath made no haste on the path that is steep,//and what will explain the path that is steep?-It is FREEiNG the bondman (or, slave, as Hazrat Bilal was freed for being a skilled, good human being -freed by Prophet of Equality)…then will he (man) be of those who enjoin patience, constancy, and SElF-RESTRAINT, enjoining deeds of kindness and compassion.” May we humans learn from our studies of histories. As you note, no one should be dehumanized so that the wicked can fight racial wars as Brother Muhammad Ali un-popularly said once.

[@mawhinney2.196]

You didn’t tell me. Would I have been a nazi?

[@antediluvianatheist5262]

You are supposed to figure it out yourself. Short answer: almost certainly.

[@mawhinney2.196]

@@antediluvianatheist5262 agreed. I hate anyone that isn’t me

[@zachariahpoltergeist4516]

Probably. I only say that because half the stuff we do today without thinking twice will be seen as reprehensible some time in the future.

[@Jinx-iw6zb]

I don't think they'd let me be one even if I wanted to.

[@Ermanariks_til_Aujm]

In both cases, the perpetrators had rationales, justifications, reasons for what they were doing, even if, with historical hindsight, we can see these to be incorrect. Ha! That's for sure not a rationale to see their claimed deeds to be for incorrect purposes. Oh and by the way, killing was never part of the 25 articles nor the further speeches found during this era, so of course, if asked to do so, they would have issues - it was not a part of it - especially if you consider the various speeches about tolerance and freedom which were spread to Germans (such as Walter Gross of the racial hygienic center for example).

[@fromeveryting29]

Two words: Animal expoitation. The most violent, prolific, normalized and destructive institution/ideology ever to have existed. For thousands of years people have critiqued it and resisted it, especially those we holding the title of "genious", like Darwin, Einstein, da Vinci, Martin Luther King jr. Still people are defending animal exploitation with indignation, while condemning the other violent ideologies we already surpassed.

[@sethhovis6444]

There is a time to heal, and there is a time to kill. To see a soul oppressed and to act violently against the oppressor out of felt anger is more legitimate than giving aid afterwards to the victim. Ending the source harm is better than repeatedly treating its results. It is time to kill.

[@uptown_rider8078]

How you felt saying that: 🤓

[@sahilhossain8204]

@Seth Hovis but what about giving aid to the victim during the oppressor's oppression

[@GrenvilleP710]

Probably not as my Grandfather was Jewish However I think if I had been German adfer the Firs World War I would certainly have been enthusiastic about someone offering change and putting the country first.

[@nnnn20430]

Empathy on it's own is not capable of resisting anything, it is a basic function of the brain needed for any human interpersonal interaction, it's just the ability to consider the needs, emotions and plight of others. Even psychopaths have empathy (despite the common misconception). It is influenced and informed by the very social forces you talk about the most, and the same nazis and fasicsts would have believed they were doing things out of empathy as well, it doesn't resist socialization, it is an integral part of human socialization. And as you said you need to be educated and socialized to consider everyone as equal to be able to meaningfully empathize as it depends on the values you internalize, also I'm pretty sure being infected by anothers feelings is sympathy not empathy anyway. I think it's an illusion to look at the past and think there is some kind of moral quality in humans that some use more of that is able to resist evil of their time. I believe the resistance we do see in history is united by necessity, necessity born out of people who don't fit in whatever dominant ideology is, and this necessity unites them in common resistance. If there is a quality of humans that is able to resist the social forces of their time, I think it needs to be more involved, it requires higher awareness of everything that is human and taking responsibility. And speaking of responsibility, social forces are still made and perpetuated by individuals, everyone participating in them is responsible whether they knew it or not.

[@dcbsmt]

The emphasis in Hannah Arendt's surname is on the A and not the rendt. It sounds really weird the way you say it.