There are certainly parallels between America's current political climate and mid-1900's Europe (economic weakness, perceived cultural threats from minorities, which led to reactionary politicians with strongman rhetoric), but the difference is that the economic collapse in Germany and Italy during the Great Depression was far worse, not only in general, but even compared to the US at the time. The mark was so devalued that Germans couldn't even buy bread with it. The economic and political climate simply is not nearly as extreme now as it was then, and it's not looking to tank as hard in the future either.
Just as importantly was that those countries had almost no history as democracies, and had been ruled by monarchs for pretty much their entire history, so they were much more welcoming of another dictator, whereas America has never been directly ruled by a monarch, and has over two centuries of history as a democracy. Human beings in general are susceptible to being ruled like sheep by powerful leaders, but representative government is simply too ingrained in America's culture for anything less than a complete economic and political catastrophe to change that. And that is not the case.
Who knows what might happen in the future, but I don't see anything like fascism as a legitimate threat. I certainly can see charismatic demagogues like Trump gaining more prominence in American politics, due to the somewhat similar political climate to pre-fascist Europe, but the degree will be much less, and the consequences far less severe.
So yeah, I do see your concerns as at least partially alarmist.
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Originally Posted by J.R.R. Tolkien
There is only one bright spot and that is the growing habit of disgruntled men of dynamiting factories and power-stations; I hope that, encouraged now as ‘patriotism’, may remain a habit! But it won’t do any good, if it is not universal.
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Last edited by The Batlord; 03-21-2016 at 04:11 PM.
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