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Rick Steves: "Think what can happen when a society doesn't take the threat of autocracy seriously"
"Hitler kept them alive, the leaders of the political opposition against him until it was pretty clear that he was gonna lose the war. And then in 1945, these courageous politicians in Germany who stood up against fascism. We're murdered by that guy. Think of, what can happen to a society that doesn't take the threat of autocracy seriously, and doesn't value how fragile and precious democracy is." - Rick Steves
3 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
He was appointed chancellor as leader of his party that won a plurality. But he was never directly actually elected to anything (until of course his party won a majority coalition in 1934). I think what they did would have been like when Republicans were considering appointing Trump as speaker in 2023 since you dont actually have to be elected to anything to be speaker (just like was the case with Germanys chancellor)
Its part of the reason people like to pretend the parallels between the US and Germany dont exist. Because "HiTLEr WASnt eLECted!11!"
Clearly he was. Just not directly. Kinda like our president. 
They rename the Department of Defense to the Department of War because his fragile ego said so. 