A question about history repeating itself

[uncle money bags]

Im just curious and hope those of you who know can answer a question for me. Although I would not make the direct analogy between the rise of Nazism and Islamic radicalism, I cant help but wonder if the population of the United States in general were as ignorant/indifferent about the rise of Hitler and Nazism as they seem to be today about the rise of Islamic fundamentalism with regards to their threat to human rights. What say the masses?

 

[11b1776]

You will hear its just a few fundamentalists, move on nothing to see here, quit blaming a whole religion for a few extremists, Christians kill people all the time in the name of Jesus Christ...

 

[MoBoost]

Nobody gave a damn about genocides (US was "in war" with "Indians" well into 1920s) till the civil rights movement of the 50-60s. I really hope that we did learn from the history. But generally, most homogeneous cultures - still don't give a damn.

 

[mightymouse]

"History does not repeat itself; Historians repeat themselves" (unknown).

 

[uncle money bags]

Lets stick to the question I posed please. We could spend an eternity debating who did what to whom, that is why I asked a very specific question so the thread wouldnt derail into ...Never mind, I should know better than to think that.

 

[MDT]

You will hear its just a few fundamentalists, move on nothing to see here, quit blaming a whole religion for a few extremists, Christians kill people all the time in the name of Jesus Christ...

Just to be clear, just because one claims to be Christian while committing atrocities does not make one a Christian. That would be the antithesis of Christian.

 

[donner]

Are you asking if people were ignorant of the rise of hitler or are you asking why people aren't more concerned with the rise of islamic fundamentalist and comparing that to what happened while hitler was coming to power?

 

[uncle money bags]

Are you asking if people were ignorant of the rise of hitler or are you asking why people aren't more concerned with the rise of islamic fundamentalist and comparing that to what happened while hitler was coming to power?

This is pretty close, There seems to me a similarity between the two events.

 

[68mustang]

Didn't a lot of people appease Hitler thinking he would just go away? I thought that was one of his claims to power. I also think there was a lot of antisemitism at the time that helped fuel his fire.

Also, Hitler was a very charismatic man. If he wasn't, he wouldn't of got to the position he did.

 

[donner]

I think the differences you're asking about are very similar to the difficulties in dealing with terrorists vs states. People likely didn't view hitler as a threat, felt bad for germany after the treaty of versailles, didn't want to get involved in internal german politics, etc. Standard reasons why we stay out of what is going on in other countries (to a degree, obviously). Plus we now view hitler's rise with 20/20 hindsight. We know what he did and we ask why more wasn't done to stop him, but given the communication limitations at the time, i think few people had heard the rumors of what was going on and those that had couldn't imagine the atrocities. It was too far beyond comprehension.

Terrorists aren't states and dealing with them is far more complicated. Who would we target? Who is the 'hitler' of our enemies right now? I don't think it's fair to say that people aren't concerned with the rise of islamic fundamentalists, i think there are just real limits on 1) what can be done and 2) who to do them to.