This past year, official social media accounts from the Department of Homeland Security, the White House, and other government agencies have adopted a distinct voice online. The posts look like memes, utilizing dramatic AI-generated art, general patriotic slogans, and cinematic language about “defending the homeland” and shaping America’s future.
But if you look closer, a pattern emerges.
Many of these phrases, images, and attached media aren’t just regular social media content. They repurpose language, symbolism, and cultural references with direct connections to neo-Nazi and white supremacist movements. It’s content that experts say is instantly recognizable to those who are in the white supremacist know, but can be largely invisible to everyone else.
There has been not one, but two posts from our government institutions that reuse a phrase ripped straight from William Gayley Simpson’s book Which Way Western Man?. It was published and promoted by the National Alliance—considered one of the “best organized” neo-Nazi groups in the United States. The book is antisemitic, racist, and explicitly states that Adolf Hitler was right.
Part of the issue is that for all it’s evil, the nazi government was a functional government. Look at all it got done. So any functional government will have parallels. So we need to focus more on the paralells in intentions that are not common to most functional governments.
Edit: For the slow people in the back… The nazi government managed to invade and conquer all (or nearly all) of mainland europe. If you have ever worked at a large company and seen how poorly company initiatives are organized, you know the nazis were well organized. The methods they used were effective, and have significant overlap with any government that can get things done. Which is why I am saying, focus on the evil intentions, instead of the methods.
That’s not even true though, “the trains were always on time in nazi germany” is a false statement. It’s simply an emanation of nazi propaganda that bled into mainstream culture after operation paperclip.
Actual nazi germany was run by corrupt sycophants incapable of getting anything done besides massacres, abductions, and genocide.
Your last line was my point. Accomplishing the evils it accomplished is not a trivial thing to do. Those things took a lot coordination. So it was good at getting things done.
You said
Yeah no, functioning governments that don’t coordinate every mechanism of the state towards oppressing, ethnic cleansing, and aggressive imperialism, don’t have parallels worth mentioning.
That sounds dangerously close to “the ends justify the means.” Are you saying that if a state has “good” intentions, then they’d be justified in borrowing the nazi’s methods? Because that sounds an awful lot like what you’re saying.
You seem to be assuming a lot about my intentions.
That said. Let’s take the indocturnation of the populace as an example. Just about all functioning governments do it. Some do it with the aim of making thier citizens happy, healthy, and productive. So do it to further exploit the people. The nazis did it to build a war machine. But the tool is the manipulation of the education system.
So if you say to me… the government is manipulating the education system, and so did the nazis. It’s not that much of an insult. If you say the government is manipulating the education system to build up a population they can call on to follow orders no matter how evil those orders are… now you are saying something very significant.
This administration is not only using the same tools the nazis did, but their intentions are very similar. The second half is a much more meaningful statement. And I am saying we should focus on their evil intentions instead of just dogwhistling. A lot of people don’t see the intended goals of this administrations actions, and they need help to see it, and hopefully join the fight. Many who are already in the fight, will fight harder when they understand more of the goals.
The general strike in Minneapolis was a possible turning point. It could have spread and snowballed. But it didn’t. Too many people just don’t see the goals of this administration. Too many people have become desensitized to the word Nazi. We need to counter the administrations propoganda with things more than just name calling.
The trains line was about fascist Italy. And was also bullshit.
Like what? What was accomplished under Nazi Germany that couldn’t have been done under other governments?
Well, it controlled all of mainland Europe for one thing. That’s no small thing.
Napoleon already did it
So did a number of other European empires.
Yes, and they were obviously functional too. So sounds like you at least agree on that point now. Probably the least relevant thing I said of course.