Michael Moore, you can go to hell

Defeatism will never take hold in America

In his substack piece today — Michal Moore argues that Chris Hedges is correct, and that we are on a path to destruction by Trump and his foul minions. Moore quotes Hedges quoting Eric Voegelin: “In ‘Hitler and the Germans,’ the political philosopher Eric Voegelin dismisses the idea that Hitler — gifted in oratory and political opportunism, but poorly educated and vulgar — mesmerized and seduced the German people. The Germans, he writes, supported Hitler and the ‘grotesque, marginal figures,’ surrounding him because he embodied the pathologies of a diseased society, one beset by economic collapse and hopelessness. Voegelin defines stupidity as a ‘loss of reality.’”

But Hedges and Moore miss the point, or more particularly, misunderstand the moment: in Nazi Germany, many joyously embraced Der Fuhrer — indeed, most did so — some out of fear of the past, some out of anxiety about the future. Others joined in because of their base, foul antisemitism and other racial hatred. Yet others saw an opportunity to profit from the demise and deaths of hundreds of thousands of business and homeowners. The reasons for participation were many.

But unlike here, most importantly, VERY FEW objected.

Yes, Germans who protested were never many. There was never a mass demonstration opposing Hitler and Nazism, as there was in The Woman’s March during Trump 1.0 (and there have been many large — though not as large — as that march of late; here in LA marches to combat ICE and the National Guard are being organized). And the marchers’ numbers will grow as Trump seizes on the military to do his disgusting, illegal, unconstitutional, immoral dirty work. The presence of the National Guard and the threat by the drunkard Hegseth to send in the USMC has outraged the Los Angeles people I know and love.

There has been and will be no capitulation. In my age bracket — 60-mid 70s — I have spoken with people who have evinced a willingness to die for our Republic. No shit. DIE. These are educated, intelligent, moderate Dems, and some ultra-progressive Dems, and even some Reagan conservatives, who are not going to go gentle into the dark night of Fascism under a fat, bald, stupid, ignorant, evil, egomaniacal rapist.

But both Hedges and Moore and Voegelin misconstrue the moment, as I indicated, above: the conditions in the Weimar Republic in, say, 1923 et seq. are emphatically NOT the condition Americans face now. Inflation is or was higher than many were comfortable with, but anything like the staggering days of inflation the Germans faced, where the Govt had to print new bills in the MILLION mark range so people could have cash marked sufficiently to buy bread. Similarly we do not labor under the crushing burden of the Treaty of Versailles, which bled the German nation and left the people with no hope of recovery. We have not experienced a major military loss and the commensurate damage to the collective, national psyche.

The history of the Weimar is measured in decades, not centuries. The ink on the fabric of that nascent democracy was barely dry; the ink on the parchment of the United States Constitution has, like the notion of independence, permeated the document of our democracy, and it will not succumb to the vile ministrations of Trump and Miller and Vance and Hegseth and the other creatures of cruelty and stupidity.

If I understand Hedges and Voegelin correctly, they seem to believe that our democracy is ready to go, to lie down and die.

Bullshit.

I reject that defeatism.

I reject the notion that we will either willingly walk or stupidly stumble from our democracy to fascism, like sheep.

The conditions, the people, the moment is vastly different from Germany, or Rome, or Athens.

Michael Moore, you can go to hell.

American Idiot(s)