Putin is making fascism great again, worldwide.
Trump isn't the only Nazi on Putin's payroll. Putin is financing Nazi parties in every democracy, and nobody is doing anything to stop him.
This is a 2004 documentary about the rise of Neo-Nazism in Putin’s Russia. Listen to those young Russian Nazis bragging about beating up immigrants.
They sound just like your average Proud Boys MAGA dumbfuck, don’t they?
That’s no coincidence.
Like America, Russia has well-educated people living in the big cities, and uneducated, ignorant rural yokels who can be easily manipulated by propaganda, because they’re too dumb to know when they’re being lied to.
In America we call these rural yokels rednecks. In Russia rednecks are called vatniks.
Far-right Russian vatniks think of themselves as “patriots” and worship strongman Putin, the same way far-right MAGA rednecks worship strongman Trump.
Putin has been breeding young Russian Nazis for over 20 years. He has been targeting the Russian population with Nazi propaganda straight out of Hitler’s playbook. And the vatniks swallowed Putin’s propaganda hook, line, and sinker.
We Germans know a thing or two about fascism. Ask any German to describe Neo-Nazis in just one word, and the answer you get most often is “Ausländerfeindlichkeit” or “Fremdenhass.” Xenophobia, or hatred of immigrants.
Nazis are nationalists. All Nazis all over the world think of themselves as “patriots” in their particular countries, and they all hate immigrants.
To a nationalist, a foreigner is the enemy. Foreigners are inferior and bad. That’s the core of Nazi ideology.
Fascism is violent nationalism. Nationalism among nations is like racism among races. Hating others is baked right into the ideology.
You’ll find Hitler wannabes like Trump in every other country.
And just like Trump, all the other Hitler wannabes are spreading the very same lies about immigrants, to incite hate and violence. Just like Hitler did in Nazi Germany, and Putin does in Russia.
The lies Trump spreads about immigrants are literal, actual, authentic, typical Nazi propaganda, to incite hate and violence against minorities. If Hitler was alive today, he’d sound exactly like Trump. Or like Putin.
Putin is a fascist dictator and he has been spreading Nazi propaganda in Russia for over two decades. Most of the young Russian men he has brainwashed don’t even realize they’re Nazis, because they think it’s patriotic to hate foreigners.
Listen to the Russian Nazis in the first video above. They’re not remorseful or ashamed of their crimes against immigrants. They’re proud of themselves!
Fascist propaganda creates an upside-down world, and it brainwashes the Nazis to think of themselves as the good guys, and their victims as the bad guys.
They will commit mass-murder with a self-righteous grin on their faces and feel absolutely no remorse. Fascist propaganda turns normal people into bloodthirsty sociopaths who think it’s their righteous, patriotic duty to kill others.
After WW2, violent nationalism fell out of favor for obvious reasons: it had killed millions of people.
Nations all over the world realized they needed to learn to live together peacefully, and the United Nations was born. The one and only purpose of the United Nations is to ensure global peace by preventing violent nationalism.
But fascists didn’t really disappear. They just hid in the shadows while plotting their return to power.
After WW2, fascism was banned in Germany.
But the fascists hiding in the shadows tried to re-enter German politics by disguising themselves. They pretended not to be Nazis, to avoid getting arrested.
One of these new Nazi parties was called The Republicans. I shit you not.
The Republicans (REP), German ultranationalist political party, founded in West Germany in 1983. Although they reject the label, many observers regard the party as neo-fascist.
The Republicans’ chairman from 1985 to 1994 was Franz Schönhuber, a former volunteer in the Nazi Waffen SS. The party called for lower business taxes, restrictions on foreign residents and an end to immigration, and an emphasis on law and order.
Sound familiar? It should. The political platform of the German Neo-Nazi Republicans is pretty much identical to the political platform of the US Republicans.
This shouldn’t really surprise anyone, because US Republicans have been openly fascist for decades. All that crazy over-the-top flag waving is typical for nationalists.
Right-wing Americans don’t recognize fascism, even when it’s right in front of their face, because they have been brainwashed by fascists their entire lives. Just like those Russian vatniks.
The strangest thing about fascism in America today is that most American fascists are so dumb, they don't even know they're fascists. Just like those Russian vatniks.
They don't even know what the word fascism means. They vaguely know that it had something to do with Hitler and the Nazis, but that's it.
They have no idea that the first words of the Nazi anthem were "Germany above all else" which was their version of "America first."
And the way German Nazis demonized Jews was no different than the way American Nazis demonize Muslims, black people, liberals, gay people, and immigrants.
Adolf Hitler’s prejudice against Jewish people is widely understood and condemned today. But his parallel and rabid hatred of leftists is less frequently broached in popular discussions of the Second World War.
Yet the two hatreds were deeply intertwined. The scholar Robert Paxton has noted that fascism was distinguished specifically by “an anti-liberal, anti-socialist, violently exclusionary, expansionist nationalist agenda.”
In his book Mein Kampf, Hitler is obsessed with what he called “Bolshevist-Jewish” Communism. Hitler hated leftists because he saw them as Jewish, and Jews because he saw them as leftists.
Hitler promised to "make Germany great again." And Hitler denounced the newspapers, which exposed him for what he really was, as "Lügenpresse," which is German for "fake news."
If the German Nazi party still existed today, they would look exactly like the Republican party under Trump.
Hitler's rallies looked no different than Trump's rallies. And Hitler would absolutely love a well-oiled propaganda outlet like Fox News.
Anyway, eventually The Republicans in Germany were replaced by a new disguised Neo-Nazi party, called AfD or Alternative for Germany.
Frontline investigates the rise of the Neo-Nazi AfD party in Germany.
German far-right leader intentionally used banned Nazi slogan, court rules: Alternative for Germany politician Björn Höcke was fined for uttering a phrase employed by Hitler’s storm troopers.
AfD leader accused of echoing Hitler in article for German newspaper: Historians say Alexander Gauland’s piece has striking parallels to 1933 Hitler speech.
US Republicans see the AfD Nazi party as their natural allies, since they have identical political platforms: Fascism.
A collection of radical right figures including white nationalists and ultranationalist European leaders gathered in Manhattan for the New York Young Republican Club’s (NYYRC) annual gala Saturday night, where that group’s president declared “total war” on perceived enemies.
Republican speakers repeatedly voiced an anti-democracy, authoritarian ideology, and extremists in the audience cheered wildly.
White nationalists such as the Brimelows of VDARE and leaders from extreme far-right European parties like Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, AfD), whom German officials placed under surveillance for their ties to extremism, and Austrian Freedom Party (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, FPÖ), ate and drank in the same room as newly elected Republican congresspeople, such as Long Island and Queens-based George Santos, Georgia-based Mike Collins and Florida-based Cory Mills.
Fascists have been hiding in the shadows since WW2. They have tried to regain power in western democracies, but did not have the same success in European countries as the Neo-Nazi Republican party in the US.
Until everything changed a few years ago.
European Neo-Nazis used to be tiny, insignificant fringe parties. Almost nobody in Europe was dumb enough to vote for a Neo-Nazi party after the horrors of WW2.
But then Putin started pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into European (and American) politics. And now all the far-right parties in the West are parroting the same fascist Putin propaganda that turned Russian vatniks into bloodthirsty Nazis.
Russia funded media company that paid right-wing influencers millions for videos.
Russia has spent over $300 million on influencing foreign elections since 2014.
Europe's far-right enjoys backing from Russia's Putin.
Trump, Farage, Le Pen: Why the Western right-wing loves Putin.
Russia co-opts far-right politicians in Europe with cash.
German politician filmed taking Russian money: Petr Bystron, of far-Right AfD party, allegedly given €20,000 by pro-Kremlin broadcaster.
German far-right MP could be absolutely controlled by Russia. The politician, Markus Frohnmaier, is a member of the German parliament from the far-right AfD party.
Far-right’s ties to Russia sow rising alarm in Germany.
AfD pro-Russia movement
EU Commission President Von der Leyen criticises European far-right for being ‘Putin’s proxies.’
Far-right AfD shrugs off Putin-propaganda allegations.
Flush with Russian cash, and with the support of an army of Russian disinformation agents, far-right parties in the West have made huge gains and are now winning big, important elections.
My fear is that the same thing will happen here in the US.
Trump is a Nazi. It sounds insane that a Hitler wannabe could win an election in America, but that’s exactly what’s been happening in one democracy after another lately.
AfD becomes first far-right party to win German state election since 1945.
German far-right wins first major election since World War II.
Far-right Alternative For Germany party set for shock election win: Controversial politician Björn Höcke hails anti-immigration party’s historic victory.
Germany bewildered about how to halt the rise of the AfD: The far right’s rise is sending shock waves through the country’s political landscape.
Campaign to ban AfD, Germany's far-right party, gains momentum: The far-right party's strong results make it a danger to democracy, say its opponents. But banning the party would take several years.
These articles all focus on the AfD Nazi party in Germany.
But the same thing is happening in all the other European democracies.
They all have their own tiny fringe Nazi parties. And those all get millions in bribes and propaganda support from Russia, and they’re all suddenly, unexpectedly winning major elections.
Here’s the Austrian version:
A far-right party with Nazi roots is on the brink of power in Austria.
Far-right set for Austrian election history 79 years after Nazis lost power.
Far right wins close Austria election, a boost for Putin: FPÖ leader is branded the “Volkskanzler,” or “people’s chancellor,” by his party, a term most associated with the Nazis who used it to describe Adolf Hitler.
Victory in Austria is another step in far-right’s march across Europe: If FPÖ can take power it will join a growing Moscow-friendly, anti-Brussels, autocratic bloc in the EU.
Here’s the Dutch version:
Shock election win by the far-right worries academics in the Netherlands.
What a far-right surge in the Netherlands means for Europe.
What's behind the Netherlands' turn to the far-right?
Putin’s propagandists cheer Geert Wilders’ Dutch election win: Moscow’s ultranationalists hail far-right firebrand as a supporter of Russia.
Russian funding supported far-right Dutch politician’s campaign against Ukraine agreement.
Many of these wins were unexpected, shocking surprises that caught Europe totally off-guard.
Europe underestimated the power of Russian disinformation on social media, that encouraged uneducated, rural, low-info voters to vote for Nazis.
Putin is taking over Western democracies through corrupt Nazis on the inside. One democracy after another is falling. And so far, Western governments have no idea how to stop the hostile takeover.
Some are not even aware that it’s happening at all. I’m looking at you, America.
Russia's propaganda is more persuasive than we think.
The West is still oblivious to Russia’s information war: Paralyzed by free speech concerns, Western governments are loath to act.
WW3 has already begun, but most people don’t realize it yet because it doesn’t look like WW2.
Russia is using a new kind of weapon: information warfare on social media. It sounds silly, but it could be even more dangerous than a conventional war.
America’s military is vastly superior and would beat Russia in a conventional war.
But Russia’s disinformation army is vastly superior in information warfare.
Russia is easily beating Nato in this new kind of war right now, by turning the citizens of Nato democracies against their own democratic governments.
Russia’s hybrid war against the West.
Russia is winning the global information war.
America is an information island. Most Americans have no idea about any of this pro-Putin Nazi stuff happening in Europe, and that all of this is a sign of things to come here in the US.
We may be witnessing the death of democracy.
We take democracy for granted because we were all born into it and it’s normal to us. But democracy is a novelty. It’s not normal when you look at all of human history.
For most of our history we were ruled by dictators and tyrants. And the ruling class would prefer to go back to dictatorships, because democracy is messy and inconvenient. It’s much easier to control and exploit the masses in a dictatorship.
Putin wants to destroy Western democracy, and he’s succeeding, because corrupt traitors like Trump are helping him.
All of these “nationalist” Nazi parties in the West have identical talking points, because they all get them from the same source: Putin.
They all hate their own nation. (Pretty weird for self-proclaimed nationalists.)
They’re all pro-Putin. (What a coincidence!)
They all parrot Russian talking points.
They all hate America.
They all oppose helping Ukraine defend itself against Putin’s fascist invasion.
They all want to destroy the West, destroy the UN, destroy the EU, and destroy Nato.
They all hate democracy and democrats.
They all hate immigrants.
They all hate LGBTQ.
They’re all antivaxx.
They all believe exactly the same absurd conspiracy theories.
They all hate women’s rights.
They all have much stronger support among men than among women.
They all idolize toxic “alpha males” like Putin, Trump, Elon Musk, and Andrew Tate.
They all fetishize predatory capitalism.
They all hate everyone on the left: liberals, Marxists, socialists, and communists.
They all hate “globalists.” (And by that nationalists mean everyone else on the globe.)
They all deny global warming.
They all use lies as a weapon.
They all want to start civil wars or race wars in their own nations, which would destroy the West and accomplish Putin’s goal.
They’re all winning elections, thanks to a flood of toxic Russian disinformation.
A vote for Trump is a vote for Putin. It’s a vote for fascism. It’s a vote to end democracy and install a Nazi dictatorship in America.
Trump says “I’m a nationalist. We’re not supposed to use that word, but I am a nationalist.”
We Germans have been trying since 2016 to warn America that Trump is a Nazi.
If you like freedom, vote for Kamala.
Don’t say we didn’t warn ya.
Terrific article this morning ☕ Oliver, never in my life could I've imagined"Fascism"would be in the same sentence with a Presidential Election ?! Holding the Line here and will reStack ASAP 💯👍🇺🇸🌊
An excellent, very informative article.
My only complaint is that you characterize rural voters as yokels and rednecks.
I live in a rural area, with corn and soybean fields as far as can be seen. Most farmers support Trump. I hear it at the local diner. But they are good, intelligent people on balance. (Try using GPS to identify areas particularly in need of attention.)
I don't mean to be harsh, but everyone needs to be careful not to stereotype folks. But keep them coming about Trump.
Again, thank you for your article.