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Notes -
The thing with Hitler as the new Satan is that the narrative has been a dominant narrative because it’s a very good origin story for the Rules Based International Order (RBIO).
That story goes something like this:
Once upon a time, there was an Evil German guy named Hitler. He was mean to everyone, invaded several countries in Europe, killed a bunch of political enemies, and genocided Jews and Gypsies. This is all of course very bad. He was winning for a long time, and hope was fading, until all of the Allies banded together to fight this very evil man and his very scary regime full of soldiers wearing Hugo Bass. And the allies won! The world was saved from German Nazis (and Japan, who was actually equally bad if not worse, and never apologized, but just ignore that) rebuilt by the RBIO into a peaceful prosperous place.
This does a few things.
First, it’s a post-Christian system of morals and ethics. It’s secular and makes no reference to any religious beliefs. This is critical because religion tends to get in the way of things people really want to do. You can’t quote scripture to justify doing one thing without bringing along everything else in that text. The Bible forbids being gay, excessive interest, exploiting the poor, among other things. And people don’t like some of those rules. But it’s a lot easier to make a case if you can just point to New Satan and say “you know who else didn’t like gay people? Hitler.”
Second, it provides an easy justification for war. Basically, if you can point to something the Nazis were doing being done by modern states, you get to bomb the crap out of that country, you get to invade, you can impose sanctions on them, anything you want. It’s insane to me how often such stories are told about countries we wanted to invade. Iraq, Russia, Serbia, Iran, Israel and Palestine (depending on whose side you’re on in that conflict) and so on. If you hear comparisons to Nazi germany, chances are that Theres going to at least be sanctions, if not an invasion.
Third, it’s a message to unaligned countries that you want to be on our side. After all, we defeated the Nazis, and therefore we can protect you from anyone who’d invade your country. We have the manpower and the will to protect shipping lanes, and we can solve disputes with the UN.
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