COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY FRED REED IN THE UNZ REVIEW
“On Rogues and Rogue States”
Well said.
William L Shirer is a favorite of mine in what I would call the journalism of history.
I read his Berlin Diary as well as other books.
Shirer famously said – I think in the days when he covered the Nazis for the Chicago Tribune, approximately these words:
“America could well be the first nation to go fascist voluntarily.”
He was a keen observer and saw the tone and trends inside the United States.
And he worked for “Colonel” Robert McCormick, publisher of the Tribune, a notoriously right-wing newspaper.
America’s laws for sterilizing “the unfit” came well before Hitler’s, and thousands of people were abused under them.
Henry Ford’s photo hung over Hitler’s desk at his chancellery. Hitler admired Ford’s ideas on race and race improvement, which were quite revolting.
The Rockefeller Foundation actually helped Germany to create its eugenics program.
The Nazi Bund became a big organization in the US, and it had a youth wing resembling Nazi boy and girl scouts.
Of course, there were the KKK and other equivalent organizations.
Lynching was still an ordinary event in Franklin Roosevelt’s early years. In parts of the South, families actually gathered for picnics at the site of a public lynching as though free public entertainment were being offered.
Once Eleanor pleaded with Franklin to speak out against lynching, but he felt he could not say a word without alienating the Southern wing of the Democratic Party and losing power.
Jews had strict quotas on admission to the traditional big Eastern universities. Many private clubs and organizations banned Jews from membership.
There were many Hitler admirers in the ranks of American corporate leaders and public celebrities, including one of America’s most famous and celebrated heroes, Charles Lindbergh.
There were many other aspects giving American society the character to which Shirer referred. Some of them – historical – are covered here:
https://chuckmanwordsincomments.wordpress.com/2018/08/02/john-chuckman-comment-reference-to-americas-current-inability-to-have-intelligent-political-discussion-in-fact-it-is-an-illusion-to-think-things-were-ever-much-different-highlights-of-an-extrem/
https://chuckmanwordsincomments.wordpress.com/2019/05/31/john-chuckman-comment-more-on-the-dangers-of-patriotism-a-growing-threat-in-the-west-im-not-referring-to-affection-for-your-country-im-referring-to-my-country-right-or-wrong-and-th/
https://chuckmanwordsincomments.wordpress.com/2009/05/30/americas-past-close-relations-with-germany/
