Hitler’s Terrible Tariffs: By seeking to “liberate” Germans from a globalized world order, the Nazi government sent the national economy careening backwards—and drove up the price of eggs 600 percent.
Hitler’s Terrible Tariffs
Fascists are nothing if not predictable. Tariffs arise naturally from far-right ultranationalism. There's a few reasons for this.
One is that it plays directly into notions of national/racial exceptionalism. "Our country/race is better than all the rest. Other nations/races should have to pay exorbitant fees just to do business with us."
Second is that it severs ties with international mechanisms of diplomacy and peacekeeping. It serves as a convenient way to detach a state from its allies (who stand in the way of its conquests). This is typified by events like the Japanese Empire's withdrawal from the League of Nations, in that case not over tariffs but a war of conquest, but tariffs can provide similar opportunities to break apart treaties and start preparing a populace for the conditions of all out war.
Thirdly is that it stops trade with other nations. This forces manufacturing facilities to be bolstered in the nation, isolationism. This means that once all-out war is declared, the nation has the full-scale production facilities to create machines of war at the pace required to sustain large-scale conflicts. This creates the precarious situation of having more production than you do resources (because you can't trade for them anymore), but this problem is solved by conquering territories rich in natural resources.
And fourth, it serves as a direct prelude to declaring all out war. Trade wars are nearly always present prior to full-scale conflicts in modern history. Both Nazi Germany and the fascist Empire of Japan were widely sanctioned internationally in the years leading up to the Western, Eastern, and Pacific fronts of World War 2. These trade wars actually served fascist interests in so far as they made the lives of their citizens already feel constrained and pressured. An escalation to all-out conflict wasn't that great a change when already all their sons were being drafted and common household goods were becoming scarce and rationed.
Trump is not original. We've seen these events play out before under a variety of different circumstances. The move of economically isolating the United States from the rest of the world perfectly serves the fascist conquering aspirations of his Christian white nationalist voting base. They'll grumble about cost of goods, but they lap up his ultranationalist "making the world pay us" rhetoric like they're dying of thirst.
Yup. There's a significant cost to having a war with a country you do a lot of trade with. You don't want to pay that cost while having a war at the same time. That could lead to economic collapse. It could even result in your military lacking the resources need to execute the war.
But if you sever trade beforehand, pay the costs of that first, then once your economy has stabilized you can invade other countries without risking economic collapse.
How things really work don't matter much when you're a fascist. They simply lied, lied big, and lied often, until people were convinced otherwise
Of course not. But that narrative is easily applied to tariffs. In political ideologies like fascism which promote centralized authorities not only on morality but on reality itself, what is real is far less important than what the narrative is.
They already doubt all information provided by any source other than their fascist authorities. What any other source has to say on the matter is irrelevant to them. "The entire world is a gigantic global conspiracy against fascism. All non-fascist media lies incessantly to discredit fascism." Any non fascist academic institutions, non fascist news sources, non fascist people, and non fascist organizations will by default be assumed to be lying. The very notion that any information provided to them by anything outside of the fascist sphere of influence could be true is impossible to them. They are not scientists, nor are they economists, nor are they academics. Ask them what tariffs do, and they'll say, "Make everyone else pay America our fair share." That's what the fascist authority has told them. They believe it unquestionably.
Are there non-ardent fascists who support fascism but oppose the tariffs, like investment firms and individual educated citizens? Sure. But we're talking about fascism as it inflicts its ideology as a world view. Those who truly believe Donald Trump to be a good person, a messianic like figure sent from heaven. Those who voted for him not for any benefit they indirectly believed he'd give them (like tax cuts for the wealthy), but purely because they are true hearted fascists. They believe in white supremacy and in Christian nationalism. They want to make America a white christian ethnostate. Whether they state it openly or not, whether they believe that's what their motivations are or not. Racism, christian nationalism, misogyny, and xenophobia these are the only material things he has to offer these people.
So when he says that tariffs do x y and z, he could be saying anything, and they will most likely believe it. If the economy tanks, it couldn't be because of him. He will blame someone like Biden and the deep state (jewish people), and they'll believe him.
Note that all Big Lies serve the dual purpose of crushing dissent, because prople thwt disagree with the leader will expose themselves by saying stuff like this.
It is tragic how society fails to realize how good they have it and start voting Right. Then the Right takes hold, treats them like shit, but tells them it’s all in the name of a bright future for them.
They see someone taking drastic action to make their lives better. That they believe him is likely due largely in part to how stupid he is (not how stupid they are).
Boring old guy trying to make progress at a snails pace is not satisfying when there’s a rich (powerful) guy seemingly trying to fight for the little people and willing to do batshit crazy things to do it.
What we need are some Leftist fascists, I guess? They need to be rich, benevolent, kind of stupid, and batshit crazy about doing what is necessary to get everyone healthcare and a living income.
The playbook is there, is being followed, you people have the 2nd amendment and I have no idea why these people walk freely while you struggle to pay rent and pay your meals
When the 2nd Amendment was written, a bunch of (trained) dudes with muskets represented the pinnacle of military power (at least if there wasn't any artillery around, even back then). So the 2nd Amendment gave the people the right to possess sufficient military power to counter the federal government. Today, having a closet full of peashooters means absolutely fucking nothing to a government with armored vehicles, tanks, helicopters, airplanes, cruise missiles, drones, intercontinental missiles and nukes at their disposal. The idea that the 2nd Amendment represents an antidote to a tyrannical federal government is just as much of a fantasy for the Left as it always has been for the Right.
I wouldn't say "no chance". Last summer Trump was a few inches from being a chunkful of splattered History.
Of course the idea that the population could take the US military full-on is ridiculous. But resistance doesn't have to take the shape of traditional warfare, and anything would be better than the current overwhelming apathy that is the response to being governed by literal Nazis.
No one’s talking about fighting the military. You just form an armed mob like the black panthers did and scare politicians into submission lol. 330 million guns and people in this country no one needs to fire a shot at anyone.
Like Reagan made gun control laws real quick. We should learn from our own recent history
civilian resistance has been notoriously hard for modern militaries to deal with.
hardened targets like tanks have become increasingly vulnerable.
drones are still scary, but anybody can use drones.
if you believe you're already defeated, then you probably are. i have no respect for cowards and pacifists.
Legalize 6th-gen fighter jets. Give me my Pepsi harrier!
Might as well use it to just shoot up schools then
Sure. The US military can just start murdering everyone in the country with their superior firepower. Then the economy is gone and so are the relatives and friends of the soldiers.
Look at Israel failing to militarily defeat Hamas. And that is not only with the firepower difference but also with decades of supremacist indoctrination and a near total disregard for the human life of the people they designate as enemies.
Look at how the Ukrainians took over their country in 2014, throwing stones and pushing garbage cans as shields against the army and police shooting at them.
If the people in the US were dedicated to oppose a fascist takeover, they would win. Yes people will die in the process, but the idea that the army would just massacre everyone without hesitation from a human perspective is far fetched, just as the idea of the government and their cronies happily affording to loose large parts of the population is far fetched.
I wouldn't say it's nothing. It's a lot less meaningful that it used to be but it can still be effective. Whoever killed that CEO last year only needed a basic gun and they managed to make America slightly better with it.
Lots of times this is brought up so I question you this. Why has no one organized cyber warfare against your regime?
Why are we in the outside world not yet supporting American revolutionists via the internet? Everyone seems to have connection. Loads have experience in IT in some way. Just Lemmy alone is full of Americans who fear bullets but own computers.
No bullets inside computers.
I'll probably get reported for inciting violence.
Don’t forget drones.
Also don’t forget the times the superior weaponry of the government was used against our own citizens. Things such as fire bombing our own city blocks or using turrets against protestors.
Unfortunately, there are many (right wing) USAians that would disagree with you. I’ve argued with them.
Congratulations for understanding the true American spirit.
But Hitler made no effort to reassure the markets, insisting that the tariffs were necessary and that he needed time to fix the ruined country his predecessors had left him… Hitler provided scant details as to how this was to be accomplished. By this point, he had broken even with the tariff cheerleader Feder, and had abandoned most of the action items for developing a nationalist and socialist economy. These items had included increased taxation of the wealthy; state supervision of large corporations; and the prohibition of “new department stores, low-priced shops, and chain stores.”
Man, this stuff sounds very familiar.
Trumps whole political career has been right out of hitlers playbook. Unfortunately it has never been enough evidence for anyone to care. Even more unfortunately I think it resonates with a lot of people.
It's just a really quick way to start extracting money from the people you've subjugated. They will complain, and suck it up.
Somehow he keeps forgetting about the taxation of the wealthy. I'm baffled as to why
/S
Where? Because compared to this, what Trump is doing is amateurish and half-assed.
Trump is going half way on half the things, on taxing the rich Trump is doing the opposite, and he is wavering on the other things because he doesn't know what he is doing.
But maybe it's enough, because apparently the MAGA crowd still supports him!
Well, yeah - the article was saying “These items had included increased taxation of the wealthy.” They mean things that Hitler’s team planned to do but Hitler backed out of and didn’t do, going full tilt on tariffs.
It is almost like the Orange Turd is a Nazi.
He has only been sighted reading one book:
Last April, perhaps in a surge of Czech nationalism, Ivana Trump told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler's collected speeches, My New Order, which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed. Kennedy now guards a copy of My New Order in a closet at his office, as if it were a grenade. Hitler's speeches, from his earliest days up through the Phony War of 1939, reveal his extraordinary ability as a master propagandist.
"Did your cousin John give you the Hitler speeches?" I asked Trump.
Trump hesitated. "Who told you that?"
"I don't remember," I said.
"Actually, it was my friend Marty Davis from Paramount who gave me a copy of Mein Kampf, and he's a Jew." ("I did give him a book about Hitler," Marty Davis said. "But it was My New Order, Hitler's speeches, not Mein Kampf. I thought he would find it interesting. I am his friend, but I'm not Jewish.")
Later, Trump returned to this subject. "If I had these speeches, and I am not saying that I do, I would never read them."
Is Ivana trying to convince her friends and lawyer that Trump is a crypto-Nazi? Trump is no reader or history buff. Perhaps his possession of Hitler's speeches merely indicates an interest in Hitler's genius at propaganda
he has mentioned the nazis many time, and wished he had people like them on his administration.
You mean the people that started the second world war with some of the most advanced military hardware and brilliant tactical commanders of their day and still managed to blow it?
Is like poetry, it rhymes…
„Es gibt immer wiederkehrende Zyklen, Höhen und Tiefen, aber der Verlauf der Ereignisse ist im Wesentlichen der gleiche, mit kleinen Abweichungen. Man hat gesagt, dass sich die Geschichte wiederholt. Das ist vielleicht nicht ganz richtig; sie reimt sich lediglich.“
Theodor Reik
"There are recurring cycles, ups and downs, but the course of events is essentially the same, with minor variations. It has been said that history repeats itself. That may not be entirely true; it merely rhymes." Theodor Reik
You see, the — the thing about Star Wars is — is that it’s — it's like poetry, you know — it rhymes. Every stanza kind of — kind of rhymes with the last one.
There's — there's no underwear in space. That's — that's the rule. We didn't — we didn't have bras in space. So — so she had to tape them down. It's just — you know — it’s a space thing.
Well — you know — the music, uh — it's not like rock music, or — or electronic stuff. It's — it's very classical. Very old-fashioned. Because — because it's set in space, but — but it’s not futuristic. It’s — it’s more like a — like jazz . That’s what it is — a space jazz. It’s — it’s why the music is what we — well I call it jizz.
It's just a coincidence.
"Awkward economics"
That historical fact is just joking.
It's what history talks about in locker rooms!
According to DeepSeek, the average price of eggs has increased 258% since 2018.
So far.
For Hitler and Nazi Germany it certainly was a way to prepare for expansionist wars: https://www.richardjevans.com/lectures/autarky-fantasy-reality/
There are several countries that Trump said he wants to annex.
Canada here. Hello! Anyone?
China cut off rare earth minerals and more needed for your war machine. Canada has this in its earth. Along with all the oil, natural gas, coal, water, wood and many other natural resources you will need since you will pretty soon have zero trading partners.
He needs most rare earth, steel and aluminum to continue his reign of terror and spin up your war manufacturing even more. We have those and some means of production as well.
We are Poland or Ukraine right now, in various times in history.
Uh-oh
Wow really? History really does repeat itself and not just rhymes... fuck me.
Hypothetically, if this comic book copy of the Nazis would be just an act, what could be the benefit?
Letting the market be easily bought up by corpos?
And straight driving anyone who can't weather the storm out of business. Especially once the "exceptions" start rolling in.
Isn't owning the libs benefit enough?
Interesting article and it only adds to the current list of Nazi bullshit from Krasnov and his supporters.
Does the U.S. make anything of value as an export compared to what we import from other countries? Almost everything today has a microchip inside it (except food.....I hope) and I'm pretty sure we import most of the microchips we use in stuff. I think the trade war is going to make our economy MUCH worse pretty quick because we are in an even more global economy than we were when Hitler was in power.
Are you asking this genuinely? Yes, we do. We are a net exporter of refined petroleum products, we export low sulfur coke for steel production. We export agricultural products, particularly soy beans. We export advanced robotics and pharmaceuticals. I think, granted this is from 15 years ago, but we also export a significant amount of vehicles.
Yes, I was being genuine with my question (but reading it again I can see how I was a tad snarky). I'm totally ignorant when it comes to this stuff, obviously.
I also genuinely wonder if other countries couldn't figure out how to source that stuff from countries other than the U.S. if they really wanted to. Again, I am ignorant when it comes to this stuff.
We export a lot of soybeans. Trump will be giving farmers lots of subsidies to pay them back for the counter tariffs (again).
Generally speaking tariffs are harder on the nation that is exporting. China will be hit harder as they struggle to find other buyers.
Americans will still keep buying from china, they will just be paying higher tax to Trump.
China imports inside US have a high enough profit margin and are cheap enough that it probably won't matter to importer to most consumers. A $1 dollar hook being sold for $2.4 dollar won't matter to most people who are paying thousands for their iphones.
Some China stuff will probably get rerouted through lower tariff countries (for "assembly") to enjoy even more profits inside US while still raising prices anyway and blaming Woke Trump Tariffs for it.
Manufacturing won't go back to US soon (if it ever goes back, takes years to build the factories and train the people) so it leaves American no choice but to buy from outside US.
I think consumers might just buy directly from China sites to reduce their cost further instead of buying from a American, middle man importer or those who rebrand china stuff.
I also think some American importers may reduce cost by getting rid of American staff in US either because they think they will sell less or just to raise profit by reducing cost.
Yeah it will be much worse since so many things people use are a lot more technologically advanced and therefore more complicated to replace. Like my grandfather was a young man in the 1930s and he used a horse for transportation. Didn't have a landline phone much less a smartphone. Much easier to replace imports with domestic production when most people just needed food and maybe electricity.
Are people now willing to go back to that kind of a life even for a few years under the promise that things will be better someday? It'll take at least two years (in most cases, closer to five) to build a factory to produce many of the products we have.
And who's going to invest the billions of dollars needed to build the factories? Wealthy people under the belief Trump will keep the tariffs in place for years?
Trump seems to forget digital exports.
" The United States is one of the leading countries in the export of software, with a robust and influential software industry that includes major companies such as Microsoft, Oracle, and Adobe.4 As of 2023, the U.S. is also the leading country for digitally-delivered services, exporting $649 billion worth, which represents 15.3% of the world total. ".
Using trump tariff logic, the rest of the world needs to tariffs US to restore software trade imbalances.
Trumpler.
I would say this is the WORST (not really) attempt to try to connect the current American state to Nazi Germany. There are much much better comparisons when considering class conflict. I guess I'm the "idiot" and this is likely good propaganda for the "normies" in our current state. So maybe I'm out of touch in that regard. But the connections are far more important than the price of eggs.
I don't really wanna give more here because I'm tired but for anyone that cares: Just read and you'll get some perspective
I guess I like the simple levels of comparison but I think anyone that actually would be convinced by it needs more perspective.
Obvious/surface level/aesthetic comparisons change hearts & minds. Nobody's reading 160 pages of book unless they agree (broadly) with you already. Headlines & theory serve different functions.
During the GFC the new deal and tariffs caused capital flight, which dramatically increased the great depression. Turns out markets don't like regime change.
It shouldn't but it does still baffle me how Trump is so consistently pulling from the Hitler playbook while still having as many people that do deny it
I think the majority of supporters "don't like what Hitler did" in that they understand that liking Hitler is socially intolerable, and not much else. They either literally can't make the connections because they're dumber than dogshit, or they're deliberately misrepresenting themselves to avoid criticism and shame.
I don't love "dumber than dogshit" to describe a group of people, even Trump supporters. It places blame and denigrates those people while giving a pass to the environment they grew up in that gave them indoctrination instead of real education.
Cognitive dissonance, sunk cost fallacy, modern tribalism, etc. bunch of psychological stuff going on with this mess.
In my opinion it’s that they don’t believe the people Hitler persecuted were the right people and that’s why he was wrong. They were the kind of people who bought into the fascist and nazi propaganda from back then except now they’re buying into it about a loosely defined “immigrant criminal” and LGBTQ+ people in general.
I also think they’e mostly against the idea of concentration camps now but are slowly being groomed to support them. Given enough time they’ll fully believe death camps are necessary for the USA to be “great again”
I figure if they can deny hitlers holocaust they certainly seem ready to deny trumps.
Lack of education. My class spent all of 1 class on WW2. I know because I spent time learning on my own.
Which is quite literally by design. Our education system is so shit because it was literally designed to produce obedient workers. Once the oligarchs who created the system were gone, the new ones did not want to replace it since it benefited them. Thus why we have so many braindead idiots who believe everything they are told. Since that they were taught to believe that what they were told in school was always the truth. This is why colleges and universities have to spend time deprogramming students to have them be able to think critically and for themselves. That is also why people with degrees usually vote against conservative policies, because they are able to think for themselves properly. They see the world for what it is and want unjust systems to be replaced with just ones.
My high school classes spent a lot more time than that on WWII, but most definitely did not cover Hitler's tariff policy.
At a job I worked with like 15 other people. Only 2 people knew what the holocaust was. I was one of the two. Even older people didn't know.
You spent 1 day on it? We had several weeks on it. This was early 00's though.
What's baffling to me, is how many Americans don't seem to realize how closely he is actually following Germany in the 1930s.
There’s that subgroup of Holocaust deniers (or skeptics). I’m not sure how many Trump supporters are Holocaust deniers, but most Holocaust deniers are probably Trump leaning.
I’m sure there are some who think Hitler did nothing wrong.
It’s a mix of
Stupid people
People who don’t believe he could be that evil
And Nazis
Maybe we should train AI on that book to predict what he will do next and what to do to prevent it?
Anyone with AI maybe should try to use big company resources to help weaponize AI against Nazis.
The whole plan is written out step by step... project 2025... it's a long read, but there isn't any need to look anywhere else, they literally released the plan they are following.