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Outside of Germany during WWII, people around the globe were aghast at the profound deceitfulness of Nazi Party propaganda, the ridiculous exaggerations, the outright falsehoods, the astonishing acceptance of the German people. How on earth could intelligent, rational people have been convinced by all that rubbish?

The deportation and slaughter of European Jews in the Holocaust did not begin with actions, it began years earlier with Words. So let’s run through 10 of the most devious and effective Fascist tricks that Adolf Hitler and his shrewd Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels employed in Germany the decade before World War II even began, each one increasing in its level of evil.

1. Appeal to the fears and hatreds of a constituency that feels they are being wronged or marginalized by the governmental powers that be. In Hitler’s case, he played upon the average Germans’ fear they were being ignored by their own failing government and industries. Remember, Germany too was in its own Great Depression following WWI.

2. Harken back to the days of historical pride. In his speeches, Hitler shouted that Germany was once a great and powerful nation. And was in fact winning World War I, until weak politicians and cowardly generals gave up and surrendered their country to the Allies of Britain, France and Russia. Only the Nazis could make Germany great once again.

3. Portray yourself as an Outsider, as the only one who can unite the troubled nation and fix the country’s many problems. Play upon a divided parties of government, with their combativeness and stagnation, leaving the door open for a tyrant like Hitler to step into the leadership vacuum with a radical Nationalist message of the Nazis, one the people feverishly embraced.

4. Use contemporary advertising techniques to convey your messages over and over again to the public. Hitler and Goebbels expertly used radio, movies, posters and pamphlets to flood Germany with their Facist message. Repetitive propaganda delivers a kind of feedback loop, each cycle reinforcing the one before. It tapped into the deep-seeded bigotry of the populace.

5. Repeat lies often enough and the people will believe they are true. Lie about people, parties, countries, even religions. Facts that do not support the narrative are deemed ‘Fake’ and even unpatriotic or subversive . Your opponents actions show they must hate their own country. The Nazis used book burnings with great success to demonize any ideas counter to that of the Third Reich.

6. Intellectuals and journalists were suspected of being Socialists or even worse, Communists! So discredit them as the “elites” Plant distrust with the populace in their own public universities, the Press, even the judiciary … until such time that YOU control them all behind the scenes, from within . Then they become your propaganda mouthpiece.

7. Extreme Nationalism resonates with those who see themselves as disenfranchised, even if they technically are middle class. So the demagoguery and totalitarianism of Hitler was ultimately seen as acceptable. The goal is not to gain 100% of minds, but 100% of Emotions – so convince their hearts of your twisted vision, and the mind surrenders its logic.

8. Ethics, legitimacy and even religious decency can be ‘Back-burnered’ for the greater cause, sometimes for a generation. So bigotry, racism, xenophobia and sexism were simply ‘an ends to a means’ for the Nazis. Put your Christian values aside. We all think bad thoughts in private, so why not mainstream them and shout it out loud? Or better yet, take to the streets and act upon them!

9. You need a Scapegoat to rally against. People who don’t look, think or pray like us. A particular race, religion, or faction who are the root cause of all the problems facing hard-working Germans. I n Hitler’s case, this was the Jews and migrant Gypsies. P ortray them as dangerous, criminal, and even sub-human. After all, who could trust such people? Why risk it? Better to round them all up and deport them!

10. Exploitation of PATRIOTISM was the ultimate ‘ace up the sleeve.’ Hitler spoke with fanatical pride in front of rows of Nazi flags and fanatical cheering crowds. He demanded deference to HIS leadership alone. Paint the opposition an unpatriotic or better yet, Traitors! When blind nationalism rules, it’s then acceptable to employ the last and final step – Violence.

So what lessons can we, as human beings, learn from all this real-life example? What does such a despicable time in history teach us a century later? Hitler was not the first, nor will he be the last despot this Earth will see. Perhaps that we should not try to explain away Fascism as an acceptable fringe movement when it gains traction. We accept the fact that seemingly good, rational and even religious people will sometimes blindly support evil, with a near cult-like belief that it is righteous. There is no need to call them names, for they have already named themselves with their words and actions. It is far more important to see this for what it is. Don’t be a sheep. Call it out now, and stop it in its tracks, lest we let History repeat itself … YET AGAIN.

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