"The Night of the Long Knives was ninety years ago, but its lessons remain painfully relevant. When authoritarian movements start devouring their own supporters, and when violence becomes the answer to internal dissent, that's when democracies die."
You're right. We're not there yet, but painfully close. Much of my day is in conversation with citizens who believe one of two things: wait this out because it will pass or stay on the side of what they feel is the majority lest they become the next target. I work to convince them otherwise. Resist.
In the meantime we check in on our friends in Gaza by asking, "Are you still alive?" They begin their day on messaging by saying, "I am still alive." These beautiful people have all but given up a tiny bit of hope left. Genocide.
We must take responsibility for our actions. We are as much to blame for what is happening right now as any of the "others" to which we point. Voting for those who favor "defense" spending over social services. Believing there needed to be a war on crime and a war on drugs when in fact we were encouraged to blame black men for everything as was our tradition. Now we're directing our attention to our Venezuelan asylum seekers. There should have been a war on the pharmaceutical industry. We made this mess. We have to fix it.
History is a stern teacher. It’s unyieldingly steadfast because it’s nonpartisan. It relies on actual facts that favor no one but truth. Though history is currently under siege in America by those who wish to deny it by destroying documents, banning books, removing physical evidence and denying education, history still lives. It always will. It cannot be destroyed. It will prevail and only the most stupid would try to deny or rewrite it.
This story is about history and how the worst monsters of the past have reinvented themselves today relying on old patterns, old history. New history, or what will become history, has new names and faces. But just as those authoritarians of the past, they will fade into the pages of a history to be reviled.
Presently America is near broken by monstrous acts that would have been unbelievable a few months ago. This story, as horrifying as it is, inspires hope and faith. If Germany and the world can rise about their history, so can we.
We can win. We will win.
“The lesson from June 30, 1934, isn't that America will inevitably follow Germany's path. It's that authoritarian movements inevitably consume everything in their path: first targeting "others," then turning on their own most loyal supporters. The fascists who celebrated others' misery in 1933 found themselves trapped in bunkers by 1945 as their thousand-year dream collapsed after just twelve years. Even the winners lose when democracy dies.” Keep the faith.
Authoritarian political structures go back thousands of years. The top of the invariably hierarchical structure is composed of people plotting to kill their way to the top and once succeeding, to eliminate all the enemies they made on the way up. Warlords everywhere. What makes the present unlike anything in the past is that the nature of how the economy functions. Before the industrial revolution the economy was agriculture so that possession of land equated to wealth and power. This economic structure was not complicated so who rose to power and stayed there depended to a large extent on their social skills. The bottleneck was landownership. The industrial revolution brought in factory ownership which had resource chain supply complexities which made the need for intelligence to manage those complexities but that was managed somewhat by hired help in the form of accountants. Now we have AI and LLMs and the nerds are now at the top of the food chain. They are total fucking numbskulls when it comes to social intelligence. When freaks like that start turning on each other it could very easily turn into a circus from hell. I have not heard anyone talking about this. We all have had the experience in high school when nerds were social rejects that the girls would not touch with a ten foot pole. Look at the kind of wives they choose. They all look like cheesy hookers. It is all so damn weird.
AI, LLM…….and I am wondering if the masked men rounding up ‘illegals’ at gunpoint are the new SS. Thank you for this history renewal for my brain. We are in a serious situation. For sure. We need to use laser-like focus on the democrats in the house and senate….get them moving…..use the right to vote (while we still HAVE that right) to get them to hear our voices. November 2026 feels like a lifetime away. So much work to do…..so much work to help people that has been put in crisis here and worldwide. Mind boggling.
I agree that the masked ICE agents are little different than the gestapo. In Argentina and Chile many people who opposed what the dictators were doing were disappeared (there were major demonstrations in Argentina by the mothers of the disappeared
I believe that creative acts of nonviolence are most important now. Any violence will be used as an excuse to impose martial law where the ICE army will make any opposition disappear to death camps. Keeping a calm mind is paramount. Hopefully we can win without a full civil war. Naomi Klein wrote the book “The Shock Doctrine” where she showed that the Catholic Church figured prominently in facilitating the oligarchs. The structure of the Catholic Church infantilizes their parishioners. The Council of Nicea was all about making Christianity a religion for dictators. Most protestants outside of the fundamentalists encourage individual efforts to know God. Americans in general are not a subservient docile bunch. Those who oppose what is happening are a majority. I really believe there is a chance to stop all this with a minimum amount of bloodshed. But the will to fight back with creative nonviolence will make the difference. Forming coalitions that are not based on some egoistic impulses like “we are the best of the resistance” but instead supporting each other will make a big difference.
"The Night of the Long Knives was ninety years ago, but its lessons remain painfully relevant. When authoritarian movements start devouring their own supporters, and when violence becomes the answer to internal dissent, that's when democracies die."
You're right. We're not there yet, but painfully close. Much of my day is in conversation with citizens who believe one of two things: wait this out because it will pass or stay on the side of what they feel is the majority lest they become the next target. I work to convince them otherwise. Resist.
In the meantime we check in on our friends in Gaza by asking, "Are you still alive?" They begin their day on messaging by saying, "I am still alive." These beautiful people have all but given up a tiny bit of hope left. Genocide.
We must take responsibility for our actions. We are as much to blame for what is happening right now as any of the "others" to which we point. Voting for those who favor "defense" spending over social services. Believing there needed to be a war on crime and a war on drugs when in fact we were encouraged to blame black men for everything as was our tradition. Now we're directing our attention to our Venezuelan asylum seekers. There should have been a war on the pharmaceutical industry. We made this mess. We have to fix it.
Living in America now is a nightmare to which we wake to a new crisis every single day.
History is a stern teacher. It’s unyieldingly steadfast because it’s nonpartisan. It relies on actual facts that favor no one but truth. Though history is currently under siege in America by those who wish to deny it by destroying documents, banning books, removing physical evidence and denying education, history still lives. It always will. It cannot be destroyed. It will prevail and only the most stupid would try to deny or rewrite it.
This story is about history and how the worst monsters of the past have reinvented themselves today relying on old patterns, old history. New history, or what will become history, has new names and faces. But just as those authoritarians of the past, they will fade into the pages of a history to be reviled.
Presently America is near broken by monstrous acts that would have been unbelievable a few months ago. This story, as horrifying as it is, inspires hope and faith. If Germany and the world can rise about their history, so can we.
We can win. We will win.
“The lesson from June 30, 1934, isn't that America will inevitably follow Germany's path. It's that authoritarian movements inevitably consume everything in their path: first targeting "others," then turning on their own most loyal supporters. The fascists who celebrated others' misery in 1933 found themselves trapped in bunkers by 1945 as their thousand-year dream collapsed after just twelve years. Even the winners lose when democracy dies.” Keep the faith.
PS Cannibalism continues…
https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/30/media/elon-musk-bill-primary-threat?cid=ios_app
Thank you for posting this.
Thank you for reading it 🙏
Authoritarian political structures go back thousands of years. The top of the invariably hierarchical structure is composed of people plotting to kill their way to the top and once succeeding, to eliminate all the enemies they made on the way up. Warlords everywhere. What makes the present unlike anything in the past is that the nature of how the economy functions. Before the industrial revolution the economy was agriculture so that possession of land equated to wealth and power. This economic structure was not complicated so who rose to power and stayed there depended to a large extent on their social skills. The bottleneck was landownership. The industrial revolution brought in factory ownership which had resource chain supply complexities which made the need for intelligence to manage those complexities but that was managed somewhat by hired help in the form of accountants. Now we have AI and LLMs and the nerds are now at the top of the food chain. They are total fucking numbskulls when it comes to social intelligence. When freaks like that start turning on each other it could very easily turn into a circus from hell. I have not heard anyone talking about this. We all have had the experience in high school when nerds were social rejects that the girls would not touch with a ten foot pole. Look at the kind of wives they choose. They all look like cheesy hookers. It is all so damn weird.
AI, LLM…….and I am wondering if the masked men rounding up ‘illegals’ at gunpoint are the new SS. Thank you for this history renewal for my brain. We are in a serious situation. For sure. We need to use laser-like focus on the democrats in the house and senate….get them moving…..use the right to vote (while we still HAVE that right) to get them to hear our voices. November 2026 feels like a lifetime away. So much work to do…..so much work to help people that has been put in crisis here and worldwide. Mind boggling.
I agree that the masked ICE agents are little different than the gestapo. In Argentina and Chile many people who opposed what the dictators were doing were disappeared (there were major demonstrations in Argentina by the mothers of the disappeared
https://darstcenter.org/social-justice-activist-spotlight-madre-de-los-desaparecidos/
Madre de los Desaparecidos
I believe that creative acts of nonviolence are most important now. Any violence will be used as an excuse to impose martial law where the ICE army will make any opposition disappear to death camps. Keeping a calm mind is paramount. Hopefully we can win without a full civil war. Naomi Klein wrote the book “The Shock Doctrine” where she showed that the Catholic Church figured prominently in facilitating the oligarchs. The structure of the Catholic Church infantilizes their parishioners. The Council of Nicea was all about making Christianity a religion for dictators. Most protestants outside of the fundamentalists encourage individual efforts to know God. Americans in general are not a subservient docile bunch. Those who oppose what is happening are a majority. I really believe there is a chance to stop all this with a minimum amount of bloodshed. But the will to fight back with creative nonviolence will make the difference. Forming coalitions that are not based on some egoistic impulses like “we are the best of the resistance” but instead supporting each other will make a big difference.
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What an eloquent and perceptive analysis of our current predicament. Thank you for caring enough to share your perceptions!