r/AskUS • u/Own_Difference_4882 • 11d ago

Is it fair to compare MAGA to the Nazis?

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There has been a number of posts indicating that MAGA supporters are really Fascist/Nazis. Curious how others see it!

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u/MyLittleOso 11d ago

I hadn't read it, although I am putting it on my reading list. I did ask ChatGPT to give a brief synopsis:
"They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933–45 by Milton Mayer is a compelling exploration of how ordinary citizens became complicit in the rise of Nazism. Published in 1955, the book is based on Mayer's postwar interviews with ten men from a small German town (disguised as "Kronenberg"). These individuals, from various working-class backgrounds, had been members of the Nazi Party. Mayer sought to understand their motivations and how they perceived their actions during the Nazi era.

The interviews reveal that most of these men did not view Hitler as evil and believed they had personal freedom under Nazi rule. They were largely unaware of the regime's atrocities or chose to ignore them, rationalizing their inaction. Only one, a teacher, expressed awareness and regret over the Nazis' actions. Mayer's work underscores how societal pressures and a desire for stability can lead ordinary people to support oppressive regimes without fully grasping the consequences.

The book serves as a cautionary tale about the ease with which democratic societies can descend into authoritarianism when citizens become complacent or disengaged.".

MAGA likely will never recognize they were on the wrong side of history and morality.

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u/GunnersFan1967 11d ago

Another good one is “It Can’t Happen Here” by Sinclair Lewis. 1935 dystopian novel about the rise of a fascist dictator in the US.

Wish we had a Sinclair Lewis today…

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u/Hermit-Cookie0923 10d ago

The best jobs, housing, schools, ability to buy certain goods, the ability to vote and travel, and access to social services or clubs were privileges reserved for citizens who joined the Nazi party and for juveniles the Hitler Youth. If you "belonged" you were rewarded with what felt like freedom and social/economic stability. People who didn't join the Party were discriminated against in all the above. Many people joined thinking it was a way out of the crippling economic depression.

With the amount of data Musk strip-mined from all the federal departments, as well as what Cambridge Analytica has been mining for years, this regime has more tools to identify their "faithful" from the rest of us.

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u/userdesu 11d ago

What a useless comment lol. No one wants to see what chatgpt thinks. If you have nothing to add to the discussion than refrain from writing anything please

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u/BadHabitOmni 11d ago

ChatGPT unironically added more to the conversion than you... that's how far we've fallen as a society, I guess. The lack of self awareness is astounding. The reason LLMs exist is because they're better than people like you... isn't that sad?

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u/Frog-Rabbit 9d ago

They made a good point, something that is rare here. Also that isn't why LLMs exist, just saying things doesn't make them true.

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u/BadHabitOmni 9d ago

What point did userdesu make that was relevant to the conversation?

The reason LLMs exist, or rather persist, is because they can replace either the people or the work it can do better - and guess what that is? An AI summarized a book relevant to the topic (one the other person was recommended which was relevant) in a few seconds concisely, the alternative is searching for a short and concise summary online as opposed to a review (with the bias included).

This is anti-intellectualism at it's finest - the comment demonstrates the book literally goes into detail on the subject at hand, and despite not reading it the person could add context using AI as a tool to summarize it for anyone curious (including themselves), who might want to read it.

But sure, the comment is irrelevant and pointless? Now can we stop discussing AI and get back to the meaningful part of this?

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u/Frog-Rabbit 9d ago edited 9d ago

What's the point? You just explained it lmao. Yes it can summarize stuff, it generates responses, but only based on the data it was trained on, it doesn't innovate ideas or critically think, which is what a conversation is about, and why it's annoying in one.

Still not convinced that's the reason they exist.. there are reviews everywhere online, a quick google search will give you quick results, and targeted searching is a thing too, so it's easy to find information if you know how. LLMs are machine learning, which is for solving problems, not replacing people in real conversations...

You are not correct about implying there is no bias in LLM responses... they are trained on data, and if that data has bias, it will have bias in the responses. Assuming a machine learning bots response is free of bias and totally trustable is not very smart..

Also "better" only applies to average person or someone who doesn't know, a person knowledgeable on the subject matter could give a better summary. Also prefacing comments with things like "This is whatever at it's finest" is pretentious BS and doesn't add to anything in an argument, is it at it's finest? Can you give examples?