The Rise of Nazism in America
Since October 7th, anti-Semitism has been on a steady course of rise in America. Several factors enable the rise of Islamism, Nazism, and other anti-Semitic ideologies throughout social media and in politics. This article will delve into the core philosophical reason behind this.
Starting with some background, at the end of 2023, there was a substantial trend on TikTok, where American teenagers discovered Osama Bin Laden’s letter to America. These lost souls realised that their beliefs were actually not that far from the ideology of the biggest murderer of Americans since WWII. “if you have read it, let me know if you are also going through an existential crisis in this very moment, because in the last 20 minutes, my entire viewpoint on the entire life I have believed, and I have lived, has changed. [1] Said a young American teen on a now-deleted TikTok view.
That child was brought up with the notion that Bin Laden is the ultimate evil, yet when he read the letter, he saw that Bin Laden’s views were very much like his. Not only that, but Bin Laden’s views are the same views that his university taught him: anti-zionism, environmentalism, socialism, and anti-Capialism. These mainstream views are widely accepted by many of this poor kid’s Ivy League professors. We’ve seen that in their response, where many of them sided with the pro-Palestinian protests around these campuses.
The cognitive dissonance that this kid reported was genuine. How could it be that Bin Laden is evil if he has the same views as the very establishment that kept preaching how evil he is? Unfortunately, that kid wasn’t bright enough to dare question the premises that led him to resonate with Bin Laden. But rather, being exposed to Bin Laden’s letter reinforced his bad premises.
That Bin Laden admiration trend has since passed, but it would soon be replaced with a far more destructive one. In my podcast appearance on the Ayn Rand Centre UK about that topic, I humorously remarked, “If they like Bin Laden’s letter so much, wait until they discover Mein Kampf.”
Indeed, the October 7th massacre and the ensuing war have significantly emboldened the anti-Semites. We’ve seen more, and more calls for the gassing of the Jews in so many protests around the world, celebrating the murder and rape of Jews on October 7th. University professors openly declared their support for Hamas, one of them famously labelling the horrific attack as “exhilarating” [2]. On social media, particularly Elon Musk’s ‘X’, a massive surge in anti-semitic commentary is as strong as ever.
It’s not only anti-Semitism that’s going strong nowadays. On YouTube, various videos started popping up, describing how Nazi Germany was progressive in terms of it’s environmental policies, smoking bans, and how advanced they were in regard to animal rights. The comment sections of these videos were filled with eerie comments. One channel released an AI-dubbed Hitler speech, for “educational purposes." One comment said, “Oh.. so that's why they always show him yelling in German without subtitles.” It generated over 6,100 likes [3].
Pseudo-historians, who would have been completely shunned just a few years ago, are now given platforms by major channels, exposing millions of people to their Holocaust-denying and Nazi-apologist views. One notable example is the Tucker Carlson interview with the history-revisionist Darryl Cooper, during which Tucker called Cooper the “best and most honest popular historian in the United States.” In the interview, Cooper referred to Winston Churchill as the “chief villain of WWII”. He also engaged in Holocaust denial: “They [the Germans] threw these people into camps, and millions just ended up dead,” denying that the Germans were engaged in the systemic mass slaughter of Jews and other minorities throughout the war. According to Cooper, millions “ended up dead” because there was no food to feed them, and German soldiers decided it was “more humane to just finish them off quickly.” [4]
What we are seeing now is that when seemingly average people sit and listen to Hitler or read Bin Laden’s letter, they realise that there is in fact much alignment with the views they are currently holding. If Hitler is supposed to be the ultimate evil, how could it be that he sounds like our politicians? To quote another comment from the YouTube comment section: “I am 62 and this is the first time I've heard a Hitler speech in my language. I have long suspected that the reason his words were kept from an American audience was probably because it would be too similar to our own political speeches.”
Another one commented: “man.... is it me.... or does Hitler sound like a completely logical and reasonable person here? a lot of what he says here is relevant even today. we are dealing with a lot of the same problems he talks about. THIS is exactly why you rarely see translation of his speeches.” There are many more such comments.
There is indeed significant alignment between Nazism and many of today’s popular ideologies. The fundamental common denominator is that they all agree that it is moral for the state to demand the citizen to sacrifice his best interest in service of the collective, i.e., the doctrine of collectivism, the moral supremacy of the collective over the individual.
From an economic perspective, both Republicans and Democrats agree that it’s proper for the government to control the free market via regulations and anti-trust laws. From a cultural perspective, radical MAGA people (they seem to be a minority at the moment, but I suspect they will grow bigger) agree with the Nazis that the state should protect the citizens from “degeneracy.” As Darryl Cooper said in a deleted tweet (see the image), he prefers having Hitler take over Paris, over the opening ceremony of the Olympics.
In the issue of foreign policy, the conservatives agree with the Nazis that it’s right to negotiate with evil, as Trump’s MAGA movement supports “cutting a deal” a with Putin, to “end the war” and therefore sealing the fate of Ukraine, as much as the Nazis agreed to cut the Moltovo-Ribbentrop Deal that sealed the fate of Poland. Indeed, it does seem that the MAGA movement has more alignment with National Socialism, but the Democrats likewise share many ideas, one good example would be environmentalism, which the Nazis championed [5].
The West never really confronted the evil of Nazism from a philosophic perspective; if it had done that, it would have meant that all parties would have to change because they each hold the same premise that the Nazis held.
Growing up in Israel, the question of “Why the Holocaust happened?” kept coming up in my upbringing, but it was never rationally answered. It was always brushed off, as something inexplicable, but nothing is inexplicable. This resurgence in Nazism is the price we are now paying for the refusal by Western intellecutals to rationally confront this deep philosophical issue. The more time passes without explaining the cause of Nazism, the more popular it will get.
It’s a complex issue, but it can be explained. The science that can explain it is philosophy. ‘The Ominous Parallels: The End of Freedom in America’ by Dr. Leonard Peikoff brilliantly explained that. The book also has foreseen this rise in Nazism that we are witnessing nowadays.
The way out of this destructive path is for Americans to wholly reject collectivism and embrace individualism, i.e., the moral supremacy of the individual over the collective. Once that major philosophical swift is done, any such evil racist doctrines, such as those of Hitler and Bin Laden, would be wholly rejected. Until that happens, we are unfortunately only going to move closer and closer to national socialism.
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References
1. Nilsen, E. (2023, November 7). The viral TikTok trend that got young people reading Osama bin Laden’s “Letter to America”. Vox. https://www.vox.com/politics/23966248/tiktok-osama-bin-laden-letter-to-america-the-guardian
2. Middle East Eye. (2023, November 5). Professor who called October 7 “exhilarating” keeps her job. https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/professor-who-called-october-7-exhilarating-keeps-her-job
3. YouTube. (2023). Freedom or Slavery, Adolf Hitler.
4. Carlson, T. (2023, April 7). Tucker Carlson interview with Darryl Cooper. X. https://x.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1830652074746409246
5. Animal welfare in Nazi Germany. (2024). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_welfare_in_Nazi_Germany#:~:text=Adolf%20Hitler%20and%20his%20top,ban%20the%20hunting%20of%20animals.
Very thoughtful. Thanks!