Why Ordinary People Enable Totalitarians

Intellectual Takeout

 "Cicero said history “casts light on reality and is a guide to life.” The wisdom gained by understanding the past helps prevent the same errors from being repeated.

"Sebastian Haffner pursued answers to the questions of how the Nazis rose to power in Germany and why the German people did not stop them. In 1939, he wrote but never finished his partially autobiographical book Defying Hitler: A Memoir.  Haffner’s probing analysis led him to conclude that the choices and mindset of ordinary Germans were responsible for Hitler’s coming to power. Germans were enablers and victims of Hitler.

"Haffner was the pseudonym of Raimund Pretzel. Haffner received training as a lawyer, but circumstances compelled him to pursue a career as a historian and journalist. He fled Nazi Germany for England in 1938.

"Why should we care about Haffner’s explanation of historical events in terms of the mindsets of ordinary people? After all, as Haffner observed, the great man theory of history is widely held:

"If you are looking for the great men, Haffner wrote, you will believe the history of the 1930s “is a kind of chess game among Hitler, Mussolini, Chiang Kai-shek, Roosevelt, Chamberlain, Daladier, and a number of other men whose names are on everybody’s lips.”

"When we accept the great man theory, ordinary people have little responsibility. They are seen in Haffner’s words as “anonymous others [who] seem at best to be the objects of history, pawns in the chess game, who may be pushed forward or left standing, sacrificed or captured.”

"Haffner rejected the great man principle and articulated “the simple truth” that “decisive historical events take place among us, the anonymous masses.” He explained,

The most powerful dictators, ministers, and generals are powerless against the simultaneous mass decisions taken individually and almost unconsciously by the population at large. It is characteristic of these decisions that they do not manifest themselves as mass movements or demonstrations. Mass assemblies are quite incapable of independent action. . . .

How Do You Kill Democracy? Vote Democrat -

  The American Spectator | USA News and Politics

Democracy Dies in Denver

"Four Biden campaign operatives on the seven-member Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday evening kicked Donald J. Trump off the Centennial State’s presidential ballot. They abused Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to disqualify Trump because, they claim, he incited an insurrection on January 6, 2021. Never mind that Trump has not been convicted of, tried for, nor even charged with insurrection. Indeed, the U.S. Senate acquitted Trump of all January 6-related accusations for which the House impeached him that January 13.

• Around October 2011, under President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Joe Biden, the Justice Department tapped the phones of then-Fox News correspondent James Rosen and his parents on Staten Island. DOJ was probing Rosen’s sources related to his coverage of U.S. policy on North Korea.

• Obama-Biden perpetrated political profiling by denying 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status to scores of conservative and Tea Party groups in 2010 to 2012. According to a sample of 111 such outfits, the House Ways & Means Committee found that the IRS granted tax exemption to 100 percent of left-wing organizations, but only 46 percent of conservative establishments. IRS foot-dragging and rejection of center-right applications crippled conservative groups that aimed to educate voters before the 2012 election.

• During Obama-Biden, the FBI launched Operation Crossfire Hurricane, to spy on the 2016 Trump campaign. Special Counsel John Durham concluded that the FBI relied on “raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence.” This FBI probe was worse than Watergate even without a break-in.

• Hillary Clinton paid Democrat election law firm Perkins Coie to commission Fusion GPS’s notorious “dirty dossier” that smeared Trump as a Russian agent. Fusion GPS, in turn, paid former British spy Christopher Steele for “evidence” of Kremlin ties. Steele’s “source” was Igor Danchenko — a Russian employee of the Brookings Institution. Danchenko’s wild accusation, that Trump in 2013 watched two prostitutes urinate on each other in his Moscow hotel room, fueled the left’s outlandish sex fantasy that Kremlin extortionists controlled Trump.
• After Trump upset Hillary Clinton in November 2016, Democrats rioted, committed arson, and relentlessly called Trump’s election illegitimate. Martin Sheen, Mike Farrell, and other Hollywood stars concocted their own fake electors scheme: They urged electors to support someone other than Trump in the Electoral College, never mind that voters selected them to back Trump.

• Democrats objected to Trump’s slates of electors during the January 6, 2017 certification ceremony for Electoral College ballots. House Democrats vocally opposed Trump’s electors from 10 different states. These included Michigan and Wisconsin, which Trump barely won, but also Alabama (where Trump trumped Clinton by 28.3 percent), West Virginia (42.2 percent), and Wyoming (47.6 percent).

How Do You Spell ‘College Antisemitism’? D.E.I.

  Issues & Insights (issuesinsights.com)

He went on to say that this problem “is not going to be changed by hiring or firing a single person. This is the task of educating a generation, and also a vast unlearning.”

"In a rare show of bipartisanship, 84 Democrats joined 219 Republicans on a resolution condemning antisemitism on college campuses and calling for the presidents of Harvard and MIT to resign after they refused to condemn student calls for genocide of Jews at a House hearing. The University of Pennsylvania’s president, who was also at that hearing, has already stepped down.

"But even if all three of them were gone, so what?

"The problem is far wider and much deeper than antisemitism at three elite schools. And if you want to stamp out intellectual and moral rot driving it, start by firing the army of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” staffers at colleges across the country.

"Two years ago, Jay Greene, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and former head of the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, did groundbreaking work on the DEI bloat at 65 universities that are members of the five “power” athletic conferences: the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big 10, the Big 12, the PAC 12, and the Southeastern Conference.

"What he found was that these schools averaged 45 DEI staffers, which was 1.4 times larger than the number of history professors. More recently, he looked at three public colleges in Virginia and found they had 6.5 DEI staffers for every 100 faculty members, which is higher than any single public university outside Virginia.

"Later, Greene studied their posts on Twitter (now called X), and found that the ranks of DEI staff were full of antisemites. He found that 96% of their tweets about Israel were critical of the Jewish state, while 62% of the tweets about communist China were favorable." . . .

Israel, Do Not Place Your Security in Joe Biden's Hands

 Matt Vespa (townhall.com)

. . ."Israel invaded Lebanon twice before, in 1982 and 2006. For over ten years following the 1982 incursion, they remained in southern Lebanon until their withdrawal in 2000. With the Hamas attacks, Israel has made it clear that unless the UN and the Lebanese government get their act together and retake control of the southern part of the country from Hezbollah, they will go in and do it. Most air operations are now being geared toward Lebanon. The Wall Street Journal reported that in October, Israel was prepared to launch a massive pre-emptive strike against the terror group. Still, Biden was able to talk Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu out of it (via WSJ): 

President Biden urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt a pre-emptive strike against Hezbollah forces in Lebanon days after Hamas militants’ Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel, warning that such an attack could spark a wider regional war. 

Israel had intelligence—which the U.S. deemed unreliable—that Hezbollah attackers were preparing to cross the border as part of a multipronged attack, pushing some of Israel’s more hawkish officials to the brink, officials said. 

Israeli warplanes were in the air awaiting orders when Biden spoke to Netanyahu on Oct. 11 and told the Israeli prime minister to stand down and think through the consequences of such an action, according to people familiar with the call. 

The Israeli attack didn’t go ahead. And the conversation between Biden and other U.S. officials and Netanyahu and his war cabinet—the details of which haven’t been previously reported—set a pattern of White House efforts to guard against any expansion of the conflict that could draw in the U.S. 

[…] 

The U.S. role in stopping Israel from carrying out a massive attack on Hezbollah in October shows the critical role diplomacy has played in preventing the conflict from metastasizing into a larger regional war. 

[…] 

There are signs of progress in the diplomatic efforts, however. Lebanon Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib has told French interlocutors that his country is ready to work on a deal, according to Lebanese officials. 

And after more than two months of strikes that have delivered a significant blow to Hezbollah forces in Lebanon, Israeli officials also expressed optimism that the militant group would agree to withdraw its forces from the Israel-Lebanon border. 

“The feeling is that this is doable now,” one of those officials said. 

New Attacks on Ships in Red Sea Reported As Biden's Operation Fails to Deter Houthis

 Spencer Brown (townhall.com)

"Barely one week after the Biden administration proudly announced the formation of an international coalition to protect freedom of navigation for ships transiting the Red Sea amid escalating attacks on vessels from Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, its failure to deter aggression is already apparent. 

"On Tuesday alone, there were two separate incidents reported from the ships on the Red Sea, one involving missiles and another involving unmanned aircraft.

"According to a bulletin from UK Maritime Trade Operations, one incident was reported by a vessel in the Red Sea "approximately 60 NM from Al Hudaydah" on Yemen's coast Tuesday. An explosion was heard, missiles were sighted within four miles of the reporting vessel, and another explosion was seen in the water within half a mile of the ship." . . .

How to get Hamas to release the hostages

 Joseph Puder - American Thinker  "Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas chief terrorist in Gaza, has no incentive to make a deal for the release of the estimated 129 Israeli hostages.  Thanks to the Biden administration, he believes he has the upper hand in his war with Israel.  After all, the U.S. and its allies are providing humanitarian aid to Gaza, as well as food, water, and fuel.

"Sinwar has all he needs to sustain his fight against Israel.  The Iranians provided him with enough ammunition, and cash to fire rockets into Israel, albeit at a reduced rate.  Additionally, Sinwar watches the Israeli TV stations and reads the Hebrew newspapers, and he has concluded that the families of the hostages and the Biden administration are pressing the Netanyahu government hard enough for him to ultimately relent and declare a ceasefire.  Under such circumstances, Hamas and terrorism worldwide will triumph." . . .

Here is the horrific video of Naama Levy being dragged by her hair by #Hamas.
Note how her pants are torn at the knees and her backside is bloodied.🤬https://t.co/xT82sjPBsj

— Dena Grayson, MD, PhD (@DrDenaGrayson) December 9, 2023

 'I Am Disappointed': Father of Hamas Hostage Slams Michelle Obama for Being Silent About His Daughter’s Kidnapping (atlantablackstar.com)

"If President Biden is serious about the release of the Israeli hostages, there are two essential steps the administration must take.  First, the U.S. must increase its pressure on Qatar, the primary paymaster of the Hamas terrorist organization.  Top Hamas leaders, including Ismail Haniyeh, the group’s political chief, and former head of the organization Khaled Meshaal, have been living in luxury in Doha, Qatar’s capital.  According to the New York Post, these top leaders are worth a total of $11 billion.  While Gaza Palestinians languish in poverty, Meshaal and Haniyeh live billionaire lifestyles.

"President Biden conferred to the Qatari regime the status of a key U.S. ally.  The U.S. Central Command headquarters is based in Doha, along with the largest U.S. military installation in the Middle East, the Al Udeid Air Base.  Yet the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, is ideologically allied with the Muslim Brotherhood, and the regime supported the jihadi-Islamist groups in Syria and is the major supporter of Hamas.  The U.S. has leverage over the Qataris by virtue of being Qatar’s chief defender from regional hostile forces, including Iran.  Biden’s cozy relations with the Qatari regime should lead to better results from the Qataris.

"The second step would be to condition future humanitarian aid pouring into Gaza on the release of the Israeli hostages.  Hamas must allow the Red Cross or other neutral doctors and nurses to visit the Israeli hostages and provide them with humanitarian aid that has, thus far, only been granted to the Palestinians in Gaza."

SO GOOD: Pro-Hamas Protester Finds Out After NYPD Officer Finally Has Enough –

RedState  As RedState reported, pro-Hamas protests in New York City escalated into violence on Christmas Day. A level-three mobilization was called after fights broke out and officers were injured. 

The scene was part of an ongoing array of protests happening across the globe that have sought to disrupt Christmas events and generally make life miserable for normal people. Amid the most recent chaos, one NYPD officer became all of us. 

It appears the protester was using a megaphone to shout in the faces of the officers who were observing the situation. Given the physical harm that can occur from doing that, it wasn't a surprise when one of the officers decided enough was enough. In the video, you see him take the protester to the ground as others in the crowd cried foul, claiming that he was committing "assault." 

New York City police officer arrests an anti-Israel protester.
Other protesters are in shock as they aren’t used to getting called out for their bad behavior.

Via @ShirionOrg pic.twitter.com/HGHTcuAJGb

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) December 25, 2023

The whining from the other protesters is the perfect analogy for the "Palestinian cause." We are talking about people who get loud, lash out at innocents, and pound their chests until someone dares to push them back. The moment that happens, they fold like the cowards they are and claim they are being oppressed. 

That's exactly how those in Gaza and the West Bank act on the world stage. They teach their children to commit terrorism, they carry out murderous attacks, they waste all their money on tunnel fetishes, and they refuse or break ceasefire after ceasefire. Then when Israel reacts in self-defense, they falsely claim they are victims of genocide and pretend they didn't incite the hostilities against them. That the international community plays along due to its own biases, essentially supporting terrorism, is shameful. 

Hamas Rejects Egyptian Proposal for Ceasefire, and Now It's Time to Finish Them

  RedState

"While Hamas and those it rules over continue to play the victim on the world stage, they are doing nothing to bring about a realistic end to the war. Following the October 7th attacks on Israel, which killed around 1,400 people and resulted in hundreds of hostages being taken, the terrorist government of Gaza has continued to ensure further death and destruction, including breaking a temporary ceasefire in late November.

"That theme continued on Christmas Day after it was revealed that Hamas had rejected a ceasefire proposal brokered not by Israel, but by Egypt, a nation that has offered support for Gaza in the past. 

"This plays into something I've mentioned before, which is that the "Palestinians" want to have it both ways. On the one hand, they pretend to be oppressed victims who just want a peaceful utopia, a claim that is often repeated by intellectuals within Western circles. On the other hand, they refuse to make the slightest concession, even in the face of utter defeat, that would ensure some level of peace. How many deals over the years have various Palestinian leaders rejected that would have produced a two-state solution? How many ceasefires have they broken for no other reason than to continue their delusional intifada? 

"Yet, most of the international community hand-waves all that away, pretending that it's Israel that is the biggest stumbling block to peace. It's not Israel that's running United Nations schools in Gaza teaching kids to be terrorists and to hate Jews. It's not Israel that's hijacking billions of dollars in aid to build useless terror tunnels while funneling the rest of that money to wealthy leaders in Qatar. Hamas is not a viable peace partner and never has been. If they don't step aside and allow new leadership, there can be no end to the hostilities. How quickly would this have all ended had the international community stood up and demanded Hamas surrender following the October 7th attacks, with a threat to cut off aid if it didn't do so? How many lives would have been saved? Instead, we got immediate denouncements of Israel and truckloads of aid driving into Gaza, almost all of which is being stolen by Hamas to keep the war going. It's one of the most asinine situations I've ever seen. 

"And all the while, the Palestinians are still infantilized as if they haven't brought most of this on themselves. With a rejection of peace should come a fresh resolve from Israel to finish Hamas. There is no other option at this point. The international community is going to kick and scream no matter what, so Israel might as well accomplish its goal while they do." 

(See: Hamas Shoots at Its Own Civilians, Killing Boy; Crowds Riot and Burn Police Station)

Secretary of State Blinken, a reliably leftist hack, goes off-script about Hamas

Andrea Widburg- American Thinker  "Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been a reliably left-leaning mouthpiece for the Biden administration on every issue, including the administration’s fatuous, anti-Israel demands for a two-state solution. I neither like nor respect him. However, in the “credit where credit is due” department, Blinken deserves props for saying something important: Namely, that a world that insistently demands that Israel surrender in this war does not make any such demands on Hamas.

"This video (transcription immediately below) shows Blinken tacitly acknowledging that, were Hamas to lay down its arms, Israel would stop fighting, and she most certainly would not go on a genocidal rampage through Gaza. Despite this, he says that all calls for a ceasefire are directed at Israel alone. No one in the world asks Hamas to stop fighting or to stop engaging in genocidal attacks against Israel:" . . .

US Secretary of State Blinken: "What is striking to me is that even as we hear many countries urging an end to this conflict, I hear virtually no one demanding of Hamas that it stop hiding behind civilians, that it lay down its arms, that it surrender. This is over tomorrow if… pic.twitter.com/UhxQrEbWUW

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) December 20, 2023

"To those who say that Hamas is merely fighting back and that Israel is the aggressor—meaning that Israel must stop in order for Hamas to stop—it’s worth noting what no American media is reporting: Hamas has an endless supply of rockets which it rains down non-stop on Israel’s civilian centers. Thus, while Israel goes out of its way to avoid Gazan civilian casualties and to engage only with the well-armed Hamas militia, Hamas, in turn, does everything it can to kill Israeli civilians.

"As for Blinken, perhaps this rare moment of good sense and compassion may be tied to his stepfather. Blinken has often explained that he cannot be anti-Israel because his father survived the Holocaust. This is obviously untrue, given Blinken’s support for the anti-Israel two-state solution.

"Still, maybe October 7 forced upon him an understanding of what his stepfather, Samuel Pisar, really experienced during WWII, beginning when Pisar was only 10 and ending with him escaping a death march when he was 16:

His parents and younger sister Frieda were murdered in the Holocaust. Pisar was sent to Majdanek, Bliżyn, Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen, Oranienburg, Dachau and ultimately to the Engelberg Tunnel near Leonberg. At the end of the war, he escaped during a death march; after making a break into the forest, he found refuge in a US tank. He is the only Holocaust survivor of the 900 children of his Polish school.

"It’s one thing, if you’re a child, to hear your mother’s second husband (who helped raise Blinken when the latter was still a child) talk about the Holocaust. It may be just background noise, especially if you don’t have much in the way of imagination or compassion beyond the narrow parameters of leftist demands. It’s another thing entirely to see a Holocaust unfold before your eyes. May Blinken’s eyes open much more in the coming weeks and months."

The Drumbeat for Joe Biden to Exit the Race Gets Louder

  PJ Media  

Such negative stories about Biden from the corporate press in an election year would be unprecedented under normal circumstances. However, an addled and failing 81-year-old man who may not make it four months, let alone four years, is an extraordinary circumstance. And when you add the mounting evidence of corruption among the Biden clan preparing to burst into public view, it is only a matter of time before someone will need to have a pointed conversation with whichever Biden is keeping Joe in the race.

 "If you are a Democrat and lose The Hill and NBC in a single day, it just might be time to take a hint. While President Joe Biden's inclination to cling to power does not seem to ebb, the drumbeat from the media for him to let go seems to be getting louder. Earlier today, PJ Media's Rick Moran asked when Democrats would dump Joe Biden as their nominee in 2024, noting some of the bad press. 

"But the chorus is just getting louder. Yesterday, The Hill took great pains to point out Biden's horrible approval rating. "President Biden’s year-end approval rating is worse than any other modern-day president seeking reelection’s has been at this point in the campaign cycle, a new survey found," began the report. 

"The outlet even pointedly conceded that President Trump garnered more approval at the same point. Trump's pre-COVID approval rating in late 2019 stood at 45%. That bested Barack Obama at the end of 2011. All other presidents since Jimmy Carter were above 50% approval at the end of the year before seeking reelection. Yes, even the man regarded by many as the most disastrous president in modern history, before Biden, scored 54% in late 1979.

"And while The Hill points out that voters' confidence in the economy is edging up slightly, concerns about foreign policy and national security remain. Then, as if on cue, NBC published a new report on how poorly the administration handled the appearance of a Chinese spy balloon in early 2023, reinforcing those concerns. 

"NBC reported that Biden knew about the Chinese spy balloon before it entered continental U.S. airspace. In fact, according to the report, current and former administration officials say that the White House hoped to conceal the balloon's presence. " . . .

Disgusting: Pro-Palestinians Activists Storm Stage During Christmas Fundraiser for Blind Children

 In yet another act of self-indulgent virtue signaling by the Hamas-loving crowd, a Christmas charity event for blind children in Australia was ambushed by pro-Palestinian activists.

"Carols by Candlelight is the largest annual fundraiser for Vision Australia’s children’s services, which provides support to families and children who are blind or have low vision.

"A crowd of 10,000 gathered to enjoy the live broadcast, celebrate the Christmas holiday, and provide support for children in need.

"The event was disrupted, however, when pro-Palestine protesters stormed across the stage while children were performing and began ranting about Gaza and raising Palestinian flags.

"“Well, it is the climate, isn’t it?” a female host said.

"' It’s okay, everybody, we are actually fine here… Everyone’s allowed to have their… moment… It’s a very hard time in this world… There’s a lot of pain out there that people are experiencing,” another host said." . . .

This was at a Christmas Eve community fundraiser Australia for blind children.
It boggles the mind how so many co-opt Palestinian liberation to centre themselves and take away from other people in need.
This behaviour will not “free Palestine”, it’s just shameful. pic.twitter.com/P7bdbjYXYa

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) December 24, 2023

Colorado’s Christmas Gift to Trump -

  The American Spectator | USA News and Politics

The state's Supreme Court ruling confirms Trump's claim that Democrats are coming after his voters.

This is, of course, what Biden and the Democrats are desperately trying to avoid with legal gimmicks like disqualifying Trump from appearing on state ballots. They know that, if they are forced to campaign on real issues rather than the ridiculous “Trump is Hitler” narrative, Biden will lose. 

"Colorado is generally regarded as a blue state, but it is home  to many Republicans. In the last presidential election, nearly 1.4 million voters cast ballots for then-President Trump. Yet the state Supreme Court has handed down a ruling that strips them of their right to do so again. Four of the court’s seven Democrat-appointed justices found that Trump’s role in the fabled Jan. 6 “insurrection” disqualifies him from appearing on Colorado’s ballot. This ruling earned them the wrath of the former President’s supporters and the derision of all but a few hyper-partisan constitutional scholars. Nor will it survive the inevitable appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the decision has added credibility to Trump’s claim that he is the target of a corrupt campaign by far left Democrats to destroy him politically and personally. It does indeed follow a pattern of persecution that began with the Russia collusion hoax, two meritless impeachments, and continues with several legally dubious prosecutions. Moreover, because the ruling disfranchises about 42 percent of Colorado’s voters, it also confirms another refrain to which Trump often returns when addressing his supporters: “They’re coming after you. I’m just in the way.” It seems that even the corporate media grasp that the ruling was ill-conceived. The editors of the Washington Post, for example, have misgivings:

"Not only has Mr. Trump not been convicted of insurrection either by a jury of his peers or from the bench by a judge; he hasn’t even been charged with it. Tellingly, Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith has brought an aggressive case against the former president for conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of an official proceeding and more — but not for violating the federal law against insurrection … Disqualifying a candidate based on an accusation, albeit one blessed by a state court judge as in the Colorado case — but not an actual conviction — is dangerous.

"And the editors of the Post are by no means alone in this assessment. Mark Barabak writes in the Los Angeles Times, “Assuming Trump is the GOP nominee, Democrats will have to beat him at the ballot box, as they should. A courtroom is no place to decide a presidential election.” Jonathan Chait echoes this point in New York Magazine: “To deny the voters the chance to elect the candidate of their choice is a Rubicon-crossing event for the judiciary. It would be seen forever by tens of millions of Americans as a negation of democracy.” Even the editors of the Guardian, not exactly a MAGA stronghold, understand that Trump’s fate must be decided by voters rather than state courts: “He must be beaten at the ballot box again.”

"Nonetheless, the Colorado court insisted on stuffing a new issue into Trump’s Christmas stocking. As former Obama advisor David Axelrod put it on X (née Twitter), “All the legal challenges that have been thrown at Trump have so far helped strengthen him … CO will be the same.” Moreover, the ruling destroys a key Biden talking point. He can hardly claim that Trump must be defeated to save democracy when his own party is actively disfranchising voters. A database maintained by Lawfare shows 16 more states in which Democrat surrogates are trying to remove Trump from the ballot. Thus, Yale law professor Samuel Moyn argues in the New York Times that the Supreme Court should reverse the Colorado ruling:" . . .