The Nazis never saw themselves as villains.

You look at the horrible atrocities they committed and you think they MUST have known they were the monsters.

But they didn't.

Instead, the Nazis thought they themselves were the VICTIMS.
1/
That's how the Nazi party came to be in the first place, you know, how it rose to power.

The Nazis convinced Germany that it had been victimized by the rest of the world. Had somehow lost its greatness, lost its place among nations. Disrespected. Treated unfairly.
2/
Nazis thought themselves victims, persecuted by elitism. By liberalism. By intellectualism. By foreign influence. By multiculturalism. By a loss of manly vigor. By dilution and/or contamination of racial purity. By unemployment and economic disadvantage.
3/
When they came to power, the Nazis didn't think of themselves as villains, rather they were convinced that they were heroes. They saw themselves as restoring the might of Germany, forging a new civilization that would last a thousand years.
4/
They firmly believed they were right.

They believed that history would vindicate their actions. All the horror would be justified when they triumphed. Because THEN people would FINALLY understand.
5/
They believed that when the world looked upon the mighty works of Nazi engineering, the miracles of Nazi science, the purity and beauty and genetic superiority of the Aryan race, at the order and security of Nazi society, well, THEN the rest of the world would understand.
6/
They thought the rest of the world would admire them for what they had done.

They wanted the world's fear and respect -- for in their minds fear and respect were the same thing.

They were blind to the horror they created. Purposely so.
7/
The Nazis never saw themselves as villains.

Villains never do.

They told themselves they were making their country great again and the atrocities were necessary to that greatness and would be justified in the end.

And little by little, bit by bit, they become monsters.
8/8
Little by little, bit by bit, they become monsters. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1008506045373845504
Little by little, bit by bit...
10/ https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/1008517525339103232
Little by little, bit by bit, we become monsters.

11/ https://twitter.com/jacobsoboroff/status/1008481247344152577
Our leaders tell us that we are losing our identity, our history, our rights and privileges, our security and we come to fear that they are right.

This is how it goes.

And little by little, bit by bit, we become monsters.

12/ https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1008696952559734787
Little by little, bit by bit, unnoticed, unaware, we become monsters.

13/ https://twitter.com/wesley_jordan/status/1008677654256447488
Cages.

They say it's not inaccurate. They say, well, yes, it may be cages, they may be putting children in cages, but they are not being treated like animals. In cages.

Little by little, bit by bit, rationalized, normalized, we become monsters.

14/ https://twitter.com/CBSThisMorning/status/1008695502379077637
They made us do it, you see. If they had not come seeking our mercy, why, we wouldn't have had to put their children into cages. We had to do it, to protect America.

Little by little, bit by bit, we become the monsters.

15/ https://twitter.com/KasieDC/status/1008489837127716864
Some were already monsters.

Little by little, bit by bit, it became normal for them to show themselves in public. To take pride in their monstrousness and raise up horror as a virtue.

16/ https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1008721149793054722
Little by little, bit by bit, day by day, we become the monsters.

17/ https://twitter.com/AntonioArellano/status/1008710814851837952
Little by little, bit by bit, in the name of National Security, we become monsters.

18/ https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/1008747903316299777
Little by little, bit by bit, the atrocities are justified in the name of law and order, in the name of security, because we had to, and we become the monsters.

19/ https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1008750443252666368
Little by little, bit by bit, one shitty diaper at a time, we become the monsters.

20/ https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1008763280326873088
Two hours ago, she very specifically said that children were NOT being separated from their families. Now she says they are, but they're "well taken care of."

This is how it happens, little by little, bit by bit, lie by lie, we become the monsters.

21/ https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1008726798136377344
Little by little, bit by bit, lie by lie, Reichstag Fire by Reichstag Fire, we become the monsters.

22/ https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1008855385858551808
Little by little, bit by bit

23/ https://twitter.com/MyDaughtersArmy/status/1009187647674306564
Little by little, bit by bit, callousness hate by callousness hate, we become the monsters.

24/ https://twitter.com/passantino/status/1009220051172495361
Lying is bad enough, but when you start lying to yourself, there's no going back.

Little by little, lie by lie, we become the monsters.

25/ https://twitter.com/ndrew_lawrence/status/1009255847107661824
Little by little, bit by bit, always in the name of safety and security, we become the monsters.

26/ https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1009411866475532288
Little by little, rationalization by rationalization, we become the monsters.

27/ https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1009390464523554817
Little by little, agent by agent, guard by guard, wall by wall and fence by fence, we become the monsters in a prison of our own making.

28/ https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1009770941604298753
Little by little, our fellow countrymen become our enemies and we become the monsters.

29/ https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1009775416456941568
He attacks the very institutions of democracy.

He mocks the poor and the helpless.

He paints himself as the victim. Every time.

Little by little, gaslighting by gaslighting, we become the monsters.

30/ https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1009916650622251009
Nits make lice.

They're just animals.

Little by little, bit by bit, rationalization by rationalization, dehumanization by dehumanization, we become the monsters.

31/ https://twitter.com/mmfa/status/1010135249836281856
Nits make lice, that's what this is about. Sure, they're cute now, but they'll grow up to be rapists and murderers. And conveniently there is no comparison to crime committed by CITIZENS.

Little by little, vilification by vilification, we become the monsters.

32/ https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1010246126820347906
120 THOUSAND people shipped across country, detained in camps described in planning documents as intended to be "Temporary and austere." RUN BY THE MILITARY.

Little by little, camp by camp, brutality by brutality, we become the monsters.
33/ https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1010271733318897665
Little by little, bit by bit, lie by lie, bigotry by bigotry, hate by hate, we become the monsters.

33/ https://twitter.com/Mikel_Jollett/status/1010238593560743936
The Bully Pulpit becomes a pulpit for bullying, where the most powerful man in the world attacks citizens because, at the his core, he is nothing but a mean and frightened bully.

Little by little, abuse of office by abuse of office, bully by bully, we become monsters.

34/
There's a fake Tom Jefferson quote that goes, "When governments fear the people, there is liberty..."

When government fears people, what comes next is totalitarianism.

Little by little, fear by fear, bullet by bullet, we become monsters. https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1011376260516384769
Manufactured victories, imaginary battles, illusory enemies, designed to stir up the population and convince them of some threat.

Questions are dismissed as unpatriotic.

Little by Little, Gulf of Tonkin by Gulf of Tonkin, we become the monsters. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1013016168377081856
One of the core tenets of fascism is a hatred of liberalism. The Nazis rose to power demonizing liberals.

NO Democrat advocates for open borders, yet Trump promotes this lie every day.

Little by little, lie by lie, we become monsters

37/ https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1013394559429169152
The Press is the ONLY business given enumerated rights by the Constitution.

When government declares the Press to be the enemy, when the people come to believe it, then fascism is not far behind.

Little by little, we become monsters.

38/ https://twitter.com/Channel4News/status/1025097819080876032
The Press is not the enemy of the people.

The Press was specifically named in the Constitution for a reason. It is the watchdog of liberty, the voice of the citizen, and is the rightful and deliberate adversary of government.

The press forgets this at its own peril.

39/
"Germany for Germans."

Little by little, purity test by purity test, we become the monsters.

https://twitter.com/ndrew_lawrence/status/1027380439420420101

40/
In 1938, a few weeks after the Anschluss, the Nazi government passed a law requiring Jews to register any property worth more than 5,000 Reichsmarks. Making it easy for the Nazi government and German businesses to begin seizing Jewish wealth...

41a/
... including German banks which began freezing and confiscating Jewish assets. Without means, Jews could not support themselves, could not flee, would not be accepted into foreign countries. More, it cut Jews off from their own art, community, and history.

41b/
When the Nazis removed Jews from villages in Poland, their property was distributed to loyal locals. Winning popular support for genocide while looted Jewish wealth paid for it.

Little by little, dollar by dollar, we become the monsters.

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1035546774193270785

41c/
You shoot rubber bullets at people who are simply seeking a better life. Call them criminals and terrorists. Herd them into camps. Put their children in cages.

At first the gas is non-lethal. At first.

Little by little, we become the monsters.

42/ https://twitter.com/BBCJamesCook/status/1066812239418552321
"A recurrent theme in Nazi antisemitism propaganda was that Jews spread diseases."
-- US Holocaust Museum.

Lie by lie, deception by deception, we become the monsters.

https://twitter.com/__gabbymiller/status/1069966107199574017

43/
Fascism is contagious, it spreads like a plague.

Hate is heredity.

Our children see us, emulate our examples good OR evil. If they are not taught better, then they don't know any better.

So they become us.

And generation by generation we become the monsters.

44/
When disapproval of the state and its leader becomes grounds for arrest and interrogation, tyranny is not far behind.

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1107991137770487809

Liberty dies in darkness, and interrogation by interrogation, we become the monsters.

45/
Martain Miemoller warned us: First they came for the socialists, but I didn't speak out -- because I was not a socialist...

Sooner or later, these fascist sons of bitches WILL come for you.

Casual atrocity by atrocity, we become the monsters.

https://twitter.com/robferdman/status/1111730238168449024

46/
The Polish word was "łapanka," meaning "to catch," commonly called "a roundup." That's when the German army would seal off the streets and go door to door rounding up "undesirables," who were then shipped off to the camps.

Knock by knock, we become the monsters.

47/
When the Wehrmacht committed atrocities, the Nazi Government called them heroes. And so small atrocities led to larger and larger acts of barbarity until brutality was the norm.

Bit by bit, that's how a professional service becomes monsters in the name of patriotism.

48/ https://twitter.com/David_Philipps/status/1195703481358618625
You wonder how a military could turn from professionals into murderers and thugs?

Simple. You disparage honor, duty, and courage, and raise up murdering thugs as heroes.

Bit by bit, professionalism is replaced by a cult of personality and we become the monsters.

49/ https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1227358673376305152
Authoritarian governments and their supporters always move to outlaw any opposing political parties.

Expect Trump to repeat Hannity shortly.

Little by little, we become the monsters.

50/
You can follow @Stonekettle.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: