Should Germans Read ‘Mein Kampf’?

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Nonsense. Palin will always have a following...

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Nonsense. Palin will always have a following...

[Peikko 1,575]

I had to read Mein Kampf as required reading for my degree. I found it almost entirely incomprehensible, ideologically speaking and very rambly and ill thought out and not thought through. It was hard going, so no one should be made to read it in its entirety but it is a valuable historical document all the same.

[rlogan 2,036]

I read a copy while holed up in a cabin in the Alaska Range with the owner who had an SS belt buckle and was a foaming-at-the-mouth racist.

There are a number of valuable lessons. First of all, how could anyone be surprised at him assuming dictatorial powers after his initial election victory given the sneering contempt he had for elected bodies administering anything. Same goes for his militaristic aggression: his plan for a much larger Germany was central to the book and probably explains a lot about its amazing popularity. The other was his relentless framing of the Jews as enemies of civilization. A third is the same kind of populist B.S. you hear from any politician who at the core is just a megalomaniac. I thought it so odd he railed against communism when it was just another dictatorship in practical terms. But he needed enemies, obviously - that is right now an organizing principle in the USA. War on terror. War on drugs. War on anything so long as it means suspending the constitution and granting dictatorial powers to the government.

[OriZ 3,157]

Yes

[Peikko 1,575]

I read a copy while holed up in a cabin in the Alaska Range with the owner who had an SS belt buckle and was a foaming-at-the-mouth racist.

There are a number of valuable lessons. First of all, how could anyone be surprised at him assuming dictatorial powers after his initial election victory given the sneering contempt he had for elected bodies administering anything. Same goes for his militaristic aggression: his plan for a much larger Germany was central to the book and probably explains a lot about its amazing popularity. The other was his relentless framing of the Jews as enemies of civilization. A third is the same kind of populist B.S. you hear from any politician who at the core is just a megalomaniac. I thought it so odd he railed against communism when it was just another dictatorship in practical terms. But he needed enemies, obviously - that is right now an organizing principle in the USA. War on terror. War on drugs. War on anything so long as it means suspending the constitution and granting dictatorial powers to the government.

...and he lost the plot and descended into conspiracy theory paranoia territory.