The Resurrection of Steve Jobs: Is He the Current Day Robert House?

[BigBawss]

Wait so America turned down, experimental weapons huh, well ain't that a kick in the head

Before World War II, the US was VERY isolationist when it came to war (and even trade. We heavily taxed international trade). In fact, the only reason we got involved in World War 2 was because Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. If we got involved of our own accord, people would have gotten pissed and started protesting the war (like WWI). Not to mention that at the time, some of America's elite (Walt Disney comes to mind) were supporters of the Nazi Party. Not members, but supporters. They were "fellow travelers", so the saying goes. I believe some even donated to them, which is kind of why Hitler took a peculiar interest in the United States before 1939. There are even documents that, like Britain, he looked at/wanted us to be an ally. When we joined the war on the side of the Allies, he blamed American and International Jewry.

If the US had got involved in a war outside North America (much like WWI), the citizens would have went bat-shit insane over it. The general (and correct, in my opinion) idea was that we had no fucking business whatsoever getting involved in other people's wars, especially if that war was completely outside out own hemisphere/continent.

 

[Crni Vuk]

Quite a lot of americans even supported the Nazis, with money for example. Antisemitism was relatively wide spread in the US as well. Ford was so known and respected by Hitler that he gave him a medal, I am sure Ford was very proud about that after WW2. A lot of US companies supported Germanies war industry even - freely based on the capitalistic idea that money has no nationality - well up to the point when Germany declared war on the US. Without the US industry Germany would never even had a CHANCE to start any war. This was even so much of an issue that Truman made a spech to adress it warning them about their business with Germany that it would bite them back at some point. Turns out it didnt. Not really. Since the same companies selling their stuff to the German military like Oil have been required to now make that stuff for the US military.

 

[BigBawss]

Quite a lot of americans even supported the Nazis, with money for example. Antisemitism was relatively wide spread in the US as well. Ford was so known and respected by Hitler that he gave him a medal, I am sure Ford was very proud about that after WW2. A lot of US companies supported Germanies war industry even - freely based on the capitalistic idea that money has no nationality - well up to the point when Germany declared war on the US. Without the US industry Germany would never even had a CHANCE to start any war. This was even so much of an issue that Truman made a spech to adress it warning them about their business with Germany that it would bite them back at some point. Turns out it didnt. Not really. Since the same companies selling their stuff to the German military like Oil have been required to now make that stuff for the US military.

There's some people who think that the Versallies Treaty is the reason Hitler ever came to power in the first place. Besides the "Stab In The Back" myth that he utilized in order to trick the German population into voting for him, promising to fix the economy and placing the blame on other European powers (not to mention the Beer Hall Putsch) gave him popularity. This isn't even to mention the fact that he was considered a hero of the first World War. I mean, there was a time in Germany when you had to take a bag full of reichsmarks with you just to buy a loaf of bread. Obviously someone is going to exploit the desperateness of the people. Not to mention that the Versallies Treaty was ridiculous to begin with. France was literally entering into Germany, packing up entire factories, and then taking them back to France. The European powers milked the shit out of the Weimar Republic. I look at it like this: after World War I, they strung Germany up as a pinata, and while all the major Western European Allied powers stood around beat the hell out of that pinata and collected the candy that fell to the ground. After there was no more candy to beat out of the pinata, they left it strung up to a tree, leaving the pinata that just got the shit beat out and lost all of it's candy of it left to die.

Who knows, maybe it wasn't the Versallies Treaty. Maybe if that art school accepted Hitler, he could have displayed his boundless bigotry through art-work instead of mass murder.

Hitler was also insane. I mean, he chose a chicken farmer to become the head of the SS.

 

[Crni Vuk]

All in all while the work of the Nazis was probably one of the worst things in the 20s century, if not in human history, their way to power is in my opinion really pathetic. The Nazis really had a very good sense of propaganda and they loved to celebrate their victory as a triumph and combined decision by the German population where they saw them self as the saviour of Germany. The truth however is far from it and their way to power was a real and constant struggle which they achieved only trough intimidation, corruption and the incompetence of the leaders of the Weimar Republic because certain forces already seeked to destroy and ovecome the democracy long before the Nazis and paving the way to a dictatorship for them.

Tl,dr

Spoiler

I don't see Hitler as insane. That makes it to easy. He sure was not a healthy man, most historians are pretty confident that he suffered from Parkinson's disease shown by tremors like in his last recorded footage during the battle of Berlin 1945. But he most probably was in full command of his mental faculties. As far as the growing of the Nazi party goes. They actually have not been even that popular in public, which is shown by the votes and how many seats they occupied in the Reichstag. They never achieved a majority here and without the help of a few other parties they might have never eventaken over the government. However they did achieve most of it with more or less democratic means.

What really played in the hands of the Nazis was the incopetence and outright naivity of the politicans of that time to react to the fascistic dangers and their militaristic structure. They would bully and threaten any opposition using the SA as goon squad, going as far as to kill individuals. They had a huge advantage in their organisation. The Nazis had a very clear leadership and structure, they simply have been more efficient compared to the SPD and the other parties, as they are naturally not really fond of using terror and fear. The NSDAP however managed it succesfully to build aliances with other fascistic parties like the DNVP and in 1933 the DNVP was simply assimilated by the NSDAP which helped them to reach the majority in the Reichstag.

Votings of the 5. March 1933
12,3 % Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD)
18,3 % Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD)
13,9 % Parteien der bürgerlichen Mitte, Zentrum und Bayerische Volkspartei (BVP),
Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), and the Deutschnationale Volkspartei (DNVP) with 43,9 Prozent respectively 8 %.

While the Nazis had quite a lot of the votes, they never had the clear majority and there have been signs that they would start to lose votes with the next voting. With 1933 the economy and political situation in Germany already started to settle down and become more stable which made it difficult for the Nazis to gain more influence. People simply didn't really wanted more goons on the street.

However the Nazis also understood it how to gain support in the monarchic and elite of Germany which had a huge aversion against the Republic. On the other side they had also the fear of a communistic revolution not unlike in Russia. Hitler never made a secret about his intention to fight the communists when ever possible which gave him a lot of sympathies and incredbly huge financial support by some of the richest industries in Germany. In the 1930s Hitler was most probably one of the richest man in the Reich with his own small private army of goons at his disposal. And he didn't even payed taxes. It was really more the support of the elites and industry in Germany that helped him to gain power instead of the population. Albeit he definitely was somewhat popular in the 1930s no doubt about that. But a huge support by the German population like the Nazis claimed? I would say no. If following only he votes, roughly 35%.

Another point was the fact that those individuals with some sort of power, like Franz von Papen and Kurt von Schleicher supported Hitler in to the position of Chancellor in the 1930s. Those individuals havn't been Nazis but their idea was to overcome the Republic. By 1930 already the Article 48 of the Weimar Republic "(...) allowed the President, under certain circumstances, to take emergency measures without the prior consent of the Reichstag. This power was understood to include the promulgation of emergency decrees (Notverordnungen)", which had wide ranging applications. In 1933 Hindenburg Nominated Hitler to the position of Chancellor which pretty much marked the end of the Weimar Republic, albeit the decline allready happend several years before the Nazis made their way into the Reichstag. One can not ignore the role that the elites and individuals like Papen, Schleicher and Hindenburg played in the takeover by the Nazis. The Weimar Republic actually was already on it's way of becoming a dictatorship with erroding it's democratic institutions and Hindenburg as President of the Reich was already close to a dictator before Hitler came in to power. Hitler, and I think even he said that at some point, just gave the Republic the killing blow.