Trump's STRATEGY of Obedience EXPOSED

Joseph Goebbels, as Minister of Propaganda and Gauleiter of Berlin, actively sought to make life feel 'normal' for non-Jews. He ensured cinemas were full, theaters thrived, and music was abundant, stating in his diaries that people should 'never be bored.' This strategy made it easier for the public to ignore unpleasant realities and carry on as if life was unaffected, a tactic for maintaining public docility.

Goebbels says in his diaries that he took propaganda very seriously... he said people should never be bored and so you know the cinemas were full, the theaters were thriving... he made it as easy as possible for people to look away for any kind of unpleasantness and to carry on as though life was normal.

Individuals in countries shifting towards authoritarianism face a profound moral choice: to stay and potentially conform or be tainted, or to leave and face resentment from those who remained. This dilemma was exemplified by figures like Thomas Mann (who left) and Wilhelm Furtwängler (who stayed), both believing they carried German culture but choosing different paths. The guest's father faced a similar choice, risking his parents' lives by not signing a loyalty oath.

Those who leave end up hating those who stayed and those who stayed hate up those hate those who leave. And Thomas man was very very typical example. He he was very moralistic about the people who stayed. And the people who stayed resented him lecturing them from California... Furtwängler... felt that because he carried German culture that he should stay... My father was called back... surrounded by the German police... announced that men who didn't sign up for labor in Germany that their parents would be arrested. My father did not dare take that risk and so ended in Berlin in a factory.

Even before a full dictatorship is established, institutions and individuals begin to self-censor and move towards 'safer positions' to avoid annoying the ruling administration. This is observed in Hollywood, universities, and law firms in the US, driven by fear of job loss or professional repercussions. This preemptive conformity accelerates the erosion of free expression.

What is disturbing... in the United States today is we're not yet living in a dictatorship. And yet you already see institutions, including probably Hollywood, beginning to sort of slightly move towards safer positions that won't annoy the Trump administration... It's rampant. I mean you see it in the universities, you see in the law in the big law firms.

A common delusion in societies facing authoritarian threats is the belief that 'it can't happen here' due to perceived national exceptionalism (e.g., 'Americans love our freedom too much' or 'Germany is a civilized country'). This belief, particularly prevalent in countries without prior experience of dictatorship, makes them ill-equipped to recognize and resist the gradual erosion of democratic norms.

In Germany it was often assumed... that Germany after all is a very civilized country... Hitler and his people are Bulgarians and this surely can't last... I sent him a polite email back and said, 'Well, maybe not, but you can't be that unequivocal about it.' No, no, no. He said in in the next email, 'We Americans love our freedom too much.'... Americans do not have the experience of living under a dictatorship. So they're in some ways ill equipped to deal with it.

Authoritarian propaganda often frames political conflicts as 'existential' struggles ('either them or us'), which eliminates moral restraints and justifies the total destruction of the perceived enemy. This rhetoric is coupled with the dehumanization of target groups (e.g., immigrants as 'vermin' or Jews as 'rats'), making violence and oppression seem acceptable or necessary.

This notion that we're not only fighting in a conflict but we're in an existential conflict in other words it's either them or us... once you start to think of conflict in in those kind of existential terms, then there are there are no more rules... total destruction of the enemy is the only acceptable solution... Trump does this even more than Mueller does. You're describing immigrants as vermin... In your book, Ian, you describe Nazi propaganda, including very popular films in which Jews are depicted as rats carrying plague.