PrestonSturges wrote:This was controversial because Hitler had been pretty popular in US and England throughout the 1930s because Hitler was seen as having pulled Germany out of its economic depression. He was greatly admired for crushing the trade unions. The Republicans and Conservatives were the "appeasers." That's why the GOP loves to accuse others of being "appeasers" today. "Appeaser" Loyd George was the leader of the Conservative party. It was the working classes and the union members who knew that Hitler would kill them or literally reduce them to slaves. The industrialists were huge fans of Hitler. Henry Ford and Hitler were personal friends and Ford published insanely antisemitic propaganda in the US. Admiration of Hitler and wild antisemitism were common in the US right up until pearl Harbor day. FDR saw that America was eventually going to end up at war with Germany, but he was hated by the GOP pretty much just like Obama is now.
Maybe our resident Holocaust denier (you know you who you are) would like to bicker about this.
Part of the anti-semitism problem stemmed form the active role played by Jews in the progressive movements across the world. The Jews had an especially tragic history in feudal and then capitalist Europe and also produced some of the finest scholars who were able to apply themselves to the issues. In fact Lincoln routinely communicated with Marx over the issue of the contours of the new republic and the place of the citizenry in that republic, including the tragedy of its enslaved citizenry:
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/i ... letter.htmWith the rise of global labour organisation at the start of the 20th century, Hitler was a godsend to the ruling elite who were repulsed not only by the challenges to their rule, but the widespread experimentation in communal living that was ongoing across Europe. Many of the more informed leaders of the popular struggles saw the communitarian alternative as a real option in the face of rising capitalism. Opportunists such as Hitler (and later Mao) of course saw some aspects of socialism as a means for galvanising a parochial capitalist backlash and of course the rest is history as we saw with the rise of a sumilar vein in the McCarthyism of the US, the incorporation of China in global manufacturing and a shift to the current elitism we find ourselves confronting today.
With all its problems of excess and despoilation of our planetary home.