The Weimarization of the American Republic
America is not Weimar Germany. But there are troubling historical echoes in our politics today.
Ben Woodfinden
120d ago
Normally when people throw around Weimar analogies they are ahistorical and cherry picked to make sensationalistic comparisons. This by @aaronsibarium is a rare exception to this. A great essay, thoroughly considered and researched, and a must read.
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Really terrific essay by my friend and former colleague @aaronsibarium. People throw “Weimar” around with abandon. Aaron doesn’t. Lots to chew on here. Read it, slowly.
Gripping historical/political essay. Read this and try not to read the rest.
americanpurpose.com/articles/weima… pic.twitter.com/ne87MKKm7I
"What they lacked is what we presently need: an ethic of responsibility to temper our convictions. The only way we’ll avoid the flames is if both sides rediscover it."
In August, @sullydish took a lot of heat for comparing the United States of America to Weimar Germany. Here's my case for why the comparison has some merit, and for treating both sides—the "fascists" and "anti-fascists"—as equivalent threats.
This comes as close to my read on the current situation as anything I’ve yet read. Another winner for the infant @americanpurpose
Wonderful essay by @aaronsibarium @americanpurpose describing the dynamic by which radical polarization proceeds in America. and the potential consequences. americanpurpose.com/articles/weima… pic.twitter.com/nhwugQtbmR
Brilliant stuff from my former colleague @aaronsibarium, who takes the Weimar America analogy to more eloquent and thoughtful places than anyone else. Love the sobering admonition from Weber at the end, in particular.
americanpurpose.com/articles/weima… via @americanpurpose
"Since America is not Weimar, and it is the left rather than the right that controls the culture, I suspect our own despotism (if it comes) will end up being woke instead of trad."
Read this piece on Weimar by my brilliant one-time TAI colleague @aaronsibarium. FYI: He's not one to throw around lightly terms like "troubling echoes." He earns the comparisons he makes.
This is a deeply insightful piece on the current American situation. Includes the most interesting critique of post-liberalism that I've encountered. A must read.
"Norm-breaking carries with it two risks: 1: that the left will follow suit and harness the breakdown for its own ends; and 2: that the breakdown will make way for a...much more radical right, which does not seek re-founding so much as regime change."
This morning's reading: my brilliant young friend @aaronsibarium's essay on Weimar America.
excellent and terrifying article, though I'd argue the missing spark here is that the average citizen of Weimar was an illiberal Schmittian while there is still a broad silent American majority for recognizably small-l liberal electoral democracy
"With the possible exception of Vermeule, most post-liberals seem unable or unwilling to articulate a positive political blueprint that reconciles modern realities to pre-modern mores, beyond cheerleading things that disrupt the former." @aaronsibarium
”Intellectual conservatism, accused of abandoning liberal democracy, produces scathing jeremiads against liberalism; academic leftists, accused of abandoning America, pen paeans to cop-killers.”
A text of serious foreboding.
I'm not qualified to comment on Weimar history, but this essay is a thought provoker..@aaronsibarium
"if fascists are already in power, it is hard to imagine how things could get worse. As Weimar’s left learned the hard way, things can always get worse."
Excellent work by @aaronsibarium for @americanpurpose. Going to let this marinate for awhile...
"the left has simply leaned into its Puritan, Protestant roots, substituting the wokes for the WASPs. That gives progressivism a home field advantage in our emergent culture war; so far, it doesn’t seem to have squandered it."
Damir was an invaluable resource on this, both as an editor and a mentor. After two years of fierce debates, he convinced me to take a break from trolley problems and look at the big picture. It's bleak: americanpurpose.com/articles/weima… twitter.com/dmarusic/statu…
"Thus the danger of a return-to-normalcy discourse in our own case: Moderate as Biden is, he stands little chance of stopping progressivism’s leftward drift, to which Trump was both a reaction and an impetus." Ominous and fantastic piece by @aaronsibarium
Stop throwing around accusations of Nazism and Communism and read @aaronsibarium on the Weimarization of America in @americanpurpose
@CHSommers "What recalls [Weimar] Germany is not the chaos itself, but the way it has been excused, even encouraged, by those notionally in a position to stop it—many of whom seem ambivalent about whether the republic it threatens deserves defense."
@jawillick "Thus the danger of a return-to-normalcy discourse in our own case: Moderate as Biden is, he stands little chance of stopping progressivism’s leftward drift, to which Trump was both a reaction and an impetus."
@ConceptualJames Tentative counterpoint, which agrees in some ways and disagrees in others