When the physicists need burner phones, that's when you know America's changed

> The looming crisis in the US is beginning to remind people in Europe of the 1930s, when the UK and the US began to realise that Jewish scientists needed to be rescued from the Nazis.

I feel like I’m living on a different planet. I am not saying things are OK in the US at the moment, but … are you kidding me? This is one of the most asinine statements I’ve ever read.

The comparison is apt. Things didn't start that bad in Germany either. But day by day, reform after reform... Look back on the past, imagine hearing about a visiting french scientist getting detained at the border for having criticized the president under Obama, and realize how insane that would have been, how normal it seems today, how far this country has gotten and where it is currently headed.

I agree that it is insane what’s happening. I do not think this country is on a good trajectory.

But I think the analogy in TFA is also insane.

It is because the west has had a golden age that is over so they are overreacting to the end of it.

I have lived in a country far worse than the US is now or is likely to be - things like journalists being disappeared. Even there the Nazi comparison was excessive. People pushed back and things are much better now.

Why do you feel this way – as in, why is this "asinine"?

Anecdotally, I work with many people who frequently travel to the US, as well as a fair few academics over there. There is a clear general consensus that people are significantly altering their plans to reconsider travel to the US, and that others are actively looking to relocate.

There is a very real—not imagined—possibility that some of those people will be subject to being rounded up and detained. The situation isn't obviously as severe as Nazi-era Germany, but it is absolutely true that people are being reminded of this. So why is the comparison anything other than apt?

You need to look around you. People are being disappeared off the streets and sent to hard labor concentration camps in El Salvador. American scholars of fascism are literally fleeing the US saying "this is it!". The federal gov't is being dismantled wholesale. America has destroyed its relationships with Canada and Europe, crippled NATO, and is openly planning to annex foreign territories and countries.

This is it, friend. You're in it. The visible damage hasn't accumulated too much yet, but all the things that fascist regimes do, are being done now. You might argue that Americans are fighting back, that lawfirms targetted by EO are refusing to comply, that the ACLU is fighting in court, that protestors are in the streets. This was all happening in Germany in the mid 30s too. It didn't stop what happened, and the passivity of the "it's not that bad" crowd was a big part of that.

Time will tell I guess, let's hope it really is unwarranted.

So; you believe it’s ok to deport people for exercising a core tenant of the US constitution?

I don’t.

It was an overreaction during the first term, now it's apt. The destruction of America should be stopped immediately. But I fear we are at Thor: Ragnarok timeline now.

i think the comparison to nazi germany only muddies the waters. america is not nazi germany, it did not just get thrashed in ww1 and blamed for everyone's problems. it does not have the option to massively industrialize. everything is different. that doesn't mean america cannot turn into a fascist state if it feels like doing so. it means that the nuances as to what are going on in america right now is not the same nuances as what happened in germany 100 years ago and those nuances are important to understanding what is happening.

>This political event is just like when the good guys fought the bad guys in the heckin' marvel movies !!

>Edit, thanks for the updoots kind strangers!!

This feels like such a bad faith question, but I’ll assume you’re not asking with mal-intent.

No, I don’t think it’s ok, and I don’t understand how you would make this assumption about my opinion unless you’re just speaking emotionally or intentionally rage baiting.

It’s like you didn’t read my comment.

> But I think the analogy in TFA is also insane.

Why? This change has happened over the course of a couple of months. The trajectory is there.

Catastrophizing may be a cognitive distortion, but it's also a behavior encouraged by certain political affiliations.

TFA is equating the beginnings of the ethnic cleansings of a highly and historically persecuted peoples to the authoritative actions against politically active citizens and non-citizens. I’m sure there are many cases with classified rationale, and many that are also blatantly illegal.

I’ll keep reiterating: I don’t think what’s happening in the US is ok. But I also don’t think the analogy is ok.

Someone can think something is bad, while simultaneously thinking it’s an exaggeration to liken it to Nazi persecution of Jews.

> But I think the analogy in TFA is also insane.

That's what people in Russia were thinking in 2012. And now people there are literally arrested just for saying a wrong thing.

Those politically active citizens and non-citizens have a fairly distinguishable ethnic slant. Your logic-chopping the analogy looks like rationalization.

Strong "This War Will Destabilize The Entire Mideast Region And Set Off A Global Shockwave Of Anti-Americanism vs. No It Won’t" vibes with this comment https://theonion.com/this-war-will-destabilize-the-entire-mi...

Nah.

Just evolutionary biology and psychology.

You see an ‘other’.. Assume the worst.

That’s worked for hundreds of thousands of years. Millions actually.

Everyone does it. Because no one can help doing it. No one who is human anyway.

You stop A from happening so B doesn't happen. You Stop B from happening so C doesn't happen, and so on. Sure, it may not lead to ethnic cleansing, and likely will not, but it only can when people are complacent. Picking people up off the street for doing nothing illegal and depriving them of due process is a huge fucking deal, I can't help that a majority of people in this country are ignorant as to why. Re: "I'm sure there are many cases with classified rationale", this is your tell. You are perfectly fine with this happening here and there, which is dangerous to the rest of us.

And here now too.