> Reading Mein Kampf and shaking my head the whole time so the people on the bus know I disagree with it
 — Kafka, esq. 🔻 @metalgearobama 6:04 PM · Dec 29, 2020 https://twitter.com/metalgearobama/status/1344102150259974150

> Reading “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” on the subway, shaking my head during the first half and nodding during the second half so people can tell I disagree with the rise of the Third Reich but agree with the fall of it
— ❥ 𝑪𝒐𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒆 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑭𝒂𝒏𝒔 ❥ @tonyhawktruther 11:30 AM · May 29, 2022 https://twitter.com/tonyhawktruther/status/1530980017269874688

> Okay listen: me listening to the audiobook of Norman Cantor's [sic] The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: during the rise, shaking my head, to let everybody around me know I don't agree with what's happening; during the fall, nodding, solemnly, to say, "give 'em one for me, Dwight Eisenhower! give 'em one for me, Bernard Montgomery! Come on!"
— Ryan “Northernlion” Letourneau, "The Best of Northernlion - September 2023" by The Library of Letourneau 4:26:58-4:27:24 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFujuertTlQ&t=16020s

HUGE CAVEAT: this blogpost is basically a review of a small portion of the book review "Your Book Review: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/your-book-review-the-rise-and-fall , which itself is a review of William L. Shirer's book _The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich_ (see, for more information, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rise_and_Fall_of_the_Third_Reich ). If either that book review, or the original book it is reviewing, is wrong, my conclusions here might be completely wrong.

This is an interesting book review. Although if you already know about Hitler's rise to power, it's whatever. I didn't, so I found it interesting.

Despite growing up in the United States (noted glorious hero victor nation of WWII), and thus being inundated by materials and educational curricula that purport to explain how Adolf Hitler seized power in Germany, I eventually realized I didn't really know how it happened. So I enjoyed learning about this.

However, one consideration that I feel like this reviewer doesn't mention, even though he mentions details that imply it, is that in 1920-1930 Germany democracy was this wacky new idea they were trying out for the first time (?), so many people didn't have a strong opinion about whether or not democracy should continue or they should just have an autocrat again.

As evidenced by the part where the nationalist party thinks thusly:

> > In the former Austrian vagabond the conservative classes thought they had found a man who, while remaining their prisoner, would help them attain their goals. The destruction of the Republic was only the first step. What they wanted was an authoritarian Germany which at home would put an end to democratic “nonsense” and the power of the trade unions and in foreign affairs undo the verdict of 1918, tear off the shackles of Versailles, rebuild a great Army and with its military power restore the country to its place in the sun. These were Hitler’s aims too. And though he brought what the conservatives had lacked, a mass following, the Right was sure he would remain in their pocket—was he not outnumbered eight to three in the Reich cabinet? Such a commanding position also would allow the conservatives, or so they thought, to achieve their ends without the barbarism of unadulterated Nazism.

Whereas, in America, if the libertarian party had a groundswell of support, and achieved plurality in Congress, and then the Speaker Of The House approached the President and said, "give me absolute dictatorial power", the President wouldn't say "ho hum, I guess somebody needs to become the dictator, might as well be this guy because I can play him like a fiddle".

(The literal analogy is a little bit strained because the Weimar Republic had a different political structure, but you know.)

So, in conclusion, in America, with its long tradition of liberal democracy, and norms and habits, a Hitler-type figure couldn't gain power in quite the same way. People would meet his proposals with "what are you talking about? this is a democracy" and not "boy I sure would like to have a king again, like we did 15 years ago".