One of the stranger experiences of our time is turning on a historical documentary and realizing you’re also watching today’s news unfold. Netflix’s recent series, Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial, tells the story of how Germany’s democracy collapsed from within—not in a sudden coup, but step by step.
Let's start with this rather amazing piece:
“History exposes MAGA: a movement built on denial, not precedent.” - August 20, 2025 - by Heather Cox Richardson. Or, you can listen to her talking about this on the Pod Save America podcast episode - Heather Cox Richardson on Donald Trump, MAGA and How We Fight Back. This is important history and fascinating stuff we've not heard of before, put into context and it's disturbing. Very much so.
Through propaganda, scapegoating, power grabs, and violence disguised as patriotism, a modern society slid into dictatorship. Director Berlinger has said he intended for the series to be a message to younger viewers and a warning that "normal people can do horrific things".
I put this doc on and was surprised, but not really, to feel I was watching the news today, in America, under Donald Trump's "administration" as yet again, a second failed attempt at being POTUS, or a complete lack of effort thereof.
Trump's not even trying hard to be an autocrat as just as Hitler was, he's lazy. He uses mob boss mentality of "yesmen" around him to pick up his intent and run with it to please what they think he wants, fearing being put out of his realm of influence, offering ever more plausible deniability and potential atrocities.
It makes more understandable just how things got so out of control under Hitler. No, Trump is NOT Hitler, likely never will, or can be in today's America, today's world. But they thought that back in the 1930s, in Hitler's rise to power.
As I watched, the déjà vu was chilling. The echoes of today’s MaGA movement and the Trump administration were unmistakable. The cult of personality, the disinformation, the rewriting of reality until truth itself no longer mattered—it all felt eerily current. I posted widely suggesting that MaGA supporters watch the series and tell me, honestly, that they don’t see the parallels.
But of course, they’ll find ways not to. That’s the real problem—when people can no longer see reality because they’re looking through a mental lens handed to them by those who don’t want to be seen clearly. They ignore history, and they ignore the present they are immersed in. If they could stand back and see themselves in the sweep of history and culture, they’d be horrified at their place in it.
For decades now, they’ve poured their frustrations into vilifying an “Other”—liberals, progressives, Democrats, “libtards.” Just as has happened in every pre-genocide atrocity, the first step is always dehumanization. Yet they remain blind to the fact that in doing so, they are revealing exactly who and what they have become. It's interesting. MaGA watches this series and rejects it because they cannot see what is happening all around us today with THEIR Trump administration. No, I'm serious.
A Case Study in Denial
If you think I’m overstating how predictable these rationalizations are, just look at how one MaGA-leaning reviewer described Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial:
POLITICAL PROPAGANDA COWARDLY DISGUISED AS A HISTORICAL DOCUMENTARY! I wanted to get away from all the political debacle and tension all over my social media, as after a while it can make your head spin. So I opened up Netflix and I see they have added a new documentary about Hitler and the Nazi’s, I thought to myself “you know what, enough of this Democrat vs Republican, Trump vs Biden, let’s just turn on something historically educational, and see if there’s anything interesting I can learn from this series”, so I start watching… as I’m watching, I start to hear slight remark's and comment's from these “historians”, who start to weave a narrative, attempting to draw similar political circumstances from those times, and reference it to the climate of America today. I let it go in the first episode, and also the second episode. As soon as I got to the third episode I couldn’t believe what I was really watching, it turned into a lecture for us Americans about which party we should vote for ! to even make the comparison of Hitler’s retreat to the Mar a Lago?? I turned it off right at that point. Isn’t it ironic that the same propaganda and fear monger tactics that the documentary tries to educate us about, are the EXACT SAME tactics they used in the VERY SAME series. Thank you DEMOCRATS for RUINING what could’ve been a great show !! AS YOU DO WITH EVERY MOVIE AND SHOW YOU TOUCH.How MaGA Rationalizes Away the Parallels
When confronted with the similarities, Trump loyalists often reach for familiar defenses:
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Minimization: “It’s not the same. Nazis killed millions, Trump hasn’t done that.” As if the only valid comparison is genocide, while ignoring the early stages—the corrosion of norms and institutions—that we are living through right now.
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Deflection: “The real fascists are Democrats.” By turning the accusation around, they avoid having to examine their own movement.
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Exceptionalism: “This is America—it can’t happen here.” As though geography or patriotism protects us from history.
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Conspiracy Thinking: “That documentary is liberal propaganda.” Any fact that threatens the narrative is branded “fake.”
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Idol Defense: “He’s just showing strength. Finally someone is fighting for us.” Authoritarian behavior is reframed as heroic leadership.
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Cognitive Dissonance Avoidance: For many, it’s too painful to admit they’ve been misled. Easier to mock the comparison as “hysterical” than face reality.
Why Those Rationalizations Collapse
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Saying “It’s not the same” is willful blindness. History doesn’t repeat as a carbon copy—it rhymes. The warning isn’t that Trump is Hitler, but that authoritarianism follows recognizable steps.
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“The left are the real fascists” is projection. Protest, accountability, and free speech are features of democracy, not signs of tyranny.
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“It can’t happen here” ignores that Germans once thought the same about their modern, cultured republic. It did happen there.
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Branding history as propaganda is the clearest proof of indoctrination. If truth itself can be dismissed, authoritarianism has already taken root.
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Calling cruelty “strength” and corruption “patriotism” may feel powerful for a moment, but it only disempowers citizens in the long run.
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Denial doesn’t stop the march of events—it accelerates them. Pretending the parallels don’t exist only buys time for authoritarianism to harden.
The Takeaway
Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial isn’t just a historical documentary—it’s a mirror. When MaGA insists they can’t see themselves in the reflection, it’s not because the image is unclear. It’s because they’d rather close their eyes.
The question isn’t whether the parallels exist. They do. The question is whether enough of us are willing to recognize them before it’s too late.
Cheers! Sláinte! Na zdravie!
Compiled with aid of ChatGPT
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