When Fascism Rises, Media Complacency is Key.
My thoughts on the publishing of Tom Cotton’s deeply authoritarian essay in The New York Times.
While historians might spend their entire careers studying the rise of Adolph Hitler, Nazi Germany, and the various factors that allowed fascism’s successful takeover in the years leading up to World War Two, I’m sure virtually all would agree that the media plays no small role. As the Holocaust Encyclopedia points out:
“Once they succeeded in ending democracy and turning Germany into a one-party dictatorship, the Nazis orchestrated a massive propaganda campaign to win the loyalty and cooperation of Germans. The Nazi Propaganda Ministry, directed by Dr. Joseph Goebbels, took control of all forms of communication in Germany: newspapers, magazines, books, public meetings, and rallies, art, music, movies, and radio.”
Here in the United States, for far too long a naive, deeply engrained assumption has existed that such a rise could never happen here. The very notion that our democracy and constitution could succumb to such brutal horrors and fall in to the clutches of such devastating authoritarianism has been far beyond what I would argue the majority of people honestly deemed possible. But fast forward to the year 2016, and Donald Trump somehow managed to pull…
