"He learned from studying Hitler's speeches": Leading civil rights lawyer on 20 ways Trump is a copy

HLMenckenFan@lemmy.worldmod to politics @lemmy.world – 239 points –
"He learned from studying Hitler's speeches": Leading civil rights lawyer on 20 ways Trump is a copy
salon.com
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Trump “learned”? From “studying”?

Nah, dude is just an opportunistic dumb fuck

It’s wild to see his ex-wife’s claim, but I just don’t believe Trump was smart enough to study a book by Hitler and understand it. Hitler, as cruel and insane as he was, had a brain.

You're thinking of Trump now, as a deranged old man. It's entirely possible he studied it back before he was a rambling incoherent loon. A lifetime of hamburders, drugs and privilege must really fuck a brain up.

No, he was always an idiot

Professor Kelley told me 100 times over three decades that “Donald Trump was the dumbest goddam student I ever had.” I remember his emphasis and inflection — it went like this — “Donald Trump was the dumbest goddam student I ever had.” Dr. Kelley told me this after Trump had become a celebrity but long before he was considered a political figure. Dr. Kelley often referred to Trump’s arrogance when he told of this — that Trump came to Wharton thinking he already knew everything.

He was absolutely a dumbass this whole time.

To be fair, for a professor, any student reading Hitler's speeches on the side is very likely to either be a) the next Hannah Arendt or b) the dumbest goddamn student they'll ever have.

Good thing trump wasn't as smart. If he had half of hitler's intelligence, our democracy would've been fucked.

Edit: Not to praise whatever hitler's intelligence level was, just highlighting how much less competent trump was by comparison. (Eg: How he handled Covid)

I highly recommend actually reading “Mein Kampf”. After the opening paragraph we should talk again about Hitlers intelligence.

That man was an absolute buffoon, but he was highly intelligent in a social sense of the word. Not entirely unlike Trump.

You make a good point.

Trump is one of the dumbest men on the planet. However, he has clearly stumbled onto a disturbing social skill...Just like Hitler (who was also known to be an idiot).

I actually read the full article on this one. There are a lot of good points and similarities. Did he study Hitler's speeches? I doubt Mr. "Nuke the storm" or "inject bleach" is capable of studying. I think it's much more likely that he either blindly stumbled into the same success or learned a few tidbits from what he heard.

I differentiate 'learn' and 'study', the same way I might pick up a few words words from vacation abroad, vs cracking open a text book. "Fake news" probably comes up in a Hitler speech as much as bano and cerveza do on a vacation in Mexico.

The translators do him some seriously unearned favors.

No, it's not really any better in German. The man wasn't very smart, he hit a nerve.

Hitler im Original ist grausam. Allein seine seitenlange Tiervergleiche. Ich kann Serdar Somuncus Lesung von Mein Kampf sehr empfehlen.

I was saying that the German original is even dumber than the translation. It's my understanding that the translation is in properly written English, while the original is in poorly edited hick German.

I think a dangerous trap we fall into is assuming that Trump is the mastermind at all. Hitler didn't rise to his position without a lot of things falling into place by a lot of people whose best interest it was in that he ascend. Stopping Trump sets this process back, but the whole organization of politicans, journalists, and business leaders who support him need to be held accountable as well.

of course. i say lets start in congress and the pentagon. mtg and felonious mike flynns brother would be two great people to start with.

Hitler was ridiculed for his incoherent speeches back then, too. And he was far from the brilliant military strategist he was built up to be by propaganda. His economic ideas were terrible as well and would have ruined Germany in record time even without the war.