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#11 | Posted by madbomber at 2026-06-19 10:28 AM
... it's just baffling to me that modern-day Repubs rate Trump higher than Reagan. Or higher than anyone for that matter.
In Nuremberg (2025) (at 00:55:30), there is an interesting conversation between psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (www.history.com, www.forbes.com) and Herman Goering about what drew him to Hitler, which can shine some light on what drew/draws some to Trump:
[K] Let's talk about Hitler.
[G] It is interesting you have not asked me this directly before.
[K] I'm curious what the attraction was. He was a failed painter, right? Not a very good soldier, yet he's worshipped and revered.
[G] He made us feel German again.
[K] How?
[G] Well, the war had seen Germany crushed. And along comes a man who says... We can reclaim our former glory. Would you not follow a man like this?
[K] Depends what else he wanted to do.
[G] The first time I saw Hitler talk was... 1922. Upstairs of a coffee shop. For maybe 30 people. This was peacetime, but it was a peace without food, jobs, shoes. And he stood up. And he said "French bellies are being filled with German pain." And then... "If you make threats, you need bayonets. Rearm! Down with Versailles!" So that night... I became a National Socialist.
[K] Off of... One speech?
[G] Well, I could tell he would appeal to the old soldiers. If they have the old soldiers, they have the manpower. Even with his antisemitism, it served a practical purpose. It brought towards us men who needed something else to focus their emotions. Something else to blame.
[K] And the camps?
[G] They were to be work camps for our political opponents. Nothing more.
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I haven't used a credit card since the 90s. I dug myself a big (for the time) credit hole when I was in the Marine Corps right after high school and it took a while to get out. I'm fortunate enough that I haven't needed one and that I learned early what it means to actually live within my means. I had to say no to a few trips with friends etc when I was young and broke but also avoided debt and the ugly cycle that goes with it.
Having said that I'm not sure I could have done that if I was starting out in today's economy.