They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45 (1955)

Parallels with Nazi Germany and current US politics

• Many see the book’s description of “being governed by surprise” and secret decision-making as directly paralleling recent US events: unilateral agency shutdowns, opaque power shifts, and appeals to “complexity” or “national security.”
• Some argue both major US parties have normalized authoritarian tools (e.g., COVID-era mandates, executive overreach, opaque candidate swaps), even if not to the same degree. Others strongly reject this “both-sides” framing, saying one party is actively attacking rule of law and democratic norms, while the other operates largely within them.

Musk, Trump, and institutional breakdown

• Strong concern about a tech oligarch’s youth team marching into federal agencies, taking over IT systems, and gaining access to sensitive data, seen as a “hostile takeover” and a test of whether any constitutional guardrails remain.
• Debate over whether shutting down agencies is “shrinking government” or a power grab that demonstrates the president can ignore laws that created those agencies.
• Some explicitly describe Musk and allies as Nazis or Nazi-adjacent; others focus less on labels and more on the pattern of lists, purges, and loyalty enforcement.

Kamala Harris, “governed by surprise,” and democratic legitimacy

• A subset sees the last-minute de facto coronation of Harris as fitting the book’s pattern of “decisions deliberated in secret,” even if legal.
• Others argue this was foreseeable, widely predicted, and constrained by timing and health realities; they see it as one-off crisis management, not habituation to rule by surprise.

Global illiberalism and comparisons beyond Hitler

• Several argue Hitler analogies are overused and obscure closer modern parallels (Putin’s Russia, Orban’s Hungary, apartheid regimes).
• Others emphasize that mechanisms are similar: demonizing powerless groups, cultivating a cult of personality, and exploiting economic anxiety.
• Commenters note parallel right‑wing surges in the UK (Brexit and post‑Brexit parties), EU, Israel, and elsewhere, though driven by different mixes of xenophobia, nationalism, religion, and economic strain.

Public complicity, “stupidity,” and propaganda

• A major theme is how ordinary, educated people “amble along”: busy, fearful, confused, or convinced “both sides are corrupt” and nothing can be done.
• Some blame a structurally propagandized, attention-driven media ecosystem; others speak more harshly of a persistent minority attracted to cruelty and authoritarianism, or of religious and anti-intellectual cultures that stunt critical thinking.
• There’s disagreement over whether this is “baked into our DNA” or manufactured by capital, media, and political elites.

Protest, resistance, and hopelessness

• Commenters debate whether protests now can achieve anything when courts, Congress, and security forces appear aligned with the executive.
• Arguments for protest: building solidarity, signaling to wavering officials, lowering the perceived cost of dissent, and avoiding silent normalization.
• Others insist protests alone are performative and must be paired with organizing, alternative movements (e.g., Indivisible), and a renewed moderate, prodemocracy coalition.

On the book and the use of “Nazi”

• Many praise They Thought They Were Free as essential reading that shatters the illusion that “good people will naturally resist.” It highlights banality, incrementalism, and how comfort, career, and family override abstract fears.
• Some argue overuse of “Nazi” and “fascist” has dulled their impact, making it easier for openly fascistic behaviors and symbols (like Nazi-style salutes) to be dismissed. Others counter that early alarm about genuine fascist tendencies was justified and often vindicated.