Opinion Watched a documentary today... One of those Hmmmm Moments.

[wonderbread]

I'm a little drunk---IPAs fuck me up, but this brought a lot of thought.

Transcribed.

"Perhaps the most important element was the character of the Nazis themselves. The Nazi tyranny did not encourage free thought. The allies were able to identify and put their best minds into cryptology. In Germany, the best minds did not go into cryptology. Many of the best minds went into concentration camps. To get rid of so many of your leading intellectuals, if you want to conduct a high tech war, is absolutely stupid. The Nazis stifled thought and demanded allegiance to a race of "supermen", themselves. The Nazis were at war with the intellect. The best minds worked against them. The best minds broke the unbreakable enigma and at the very least shortened the war."

 

[TheRealHNIC]

So then why did the US immediately recruit all those Nazi's right after the war?

 

[Amerikuracana]

If you force dishonesty amongst a group, even just a couple things, and those “things” are core tenants of belonging to the party, then you start to fear intelligent/free thinking people out of necessity.

 

[Shoden]

Best minds went into making jets/rockets and badass german war tech.

 

[KeepingItReal]

So then why did the US immediately recruit all those Nazi's right after the war?

They probably though they could learn something from them.

 

[TUFNewb]

Free thinking and education leads to the inevitable rejection of evil authoritarian ideologies that are hellbent on controlling people with ignorance, fear, discrimination, and military aggression. Right wing fascism relies on an uninformed and scared population that is willing to fall in line no questions asked. Rational measured free thought is an existential threat to its existence.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

So then why did the US immediately recruit all those Nazi's right after the war?

This, I'm no war historian but I don't think the nazis lost the war because they had bad technology.

 

[Mr. Shickadance]

This, I'm no war historian but I don't think the nazis lost the war because they had bad technology.

All those? Wasn’t it like 3
Edit I guess it was 1600

 

[Mr. Shickadance]

This, I'm no war historian but I don't think the nazis lost the war because they had bad technology.

But they did have some bad technology which is one reason why we won the war

 

[Hellowhosthat]

But they did have some bad technology which is one reason why we won the war

I think if countries are trying to develop cutting edge technology in an arms race during a war it's inevitable that some of it won't be perfect.

 

[PrinceOfPain]

But they did have some bad technology which is one reason why we won the war

Their technological deficiencies compared to the allies were also a result of the comparative inability of the axis powers to exchange and cross-pollinate ideas. They were not really less advanced than the allies, they were less innovative (obviously, they were also faaaaaaaar less productively and industrially capable).

Victor Davis Hanson talks about this, using the Germans lack of a four-engine bomber while the Japanese had one as an example - because each nation developed their equipment with different goals, and never amalgamated their ideas.

 

[Spiritual Sight]

You see? F students can go on to make documentaries too.

 

[Anaconda99]

He lost cause he started shit with basically the whole world.

 

[Prutfis]

The allies just waited until after the war to put Turing in jail for being gay

 

[Natural Order]

America literally recruited the best brains in Germany after WW2 to enhance their own programs. America hired Nazis. Arguably, there is no further moral high ground to speak from for the USA on this matter.

This fraction of information was also not worth it's own thread. We'll blame that on those tasty IPAs.

 

[RogerB08]

If you've read Umberto Eco's "14 Characteristics of Uhr Fascism", dumming everything down is one of them. He of course says it a bit more eloquently, but the gist is the same.

 

[Poser Caust]

So then why did the US immediately recruit all those Nazi's right after the war?

because they were still alive

 

[ocfightfan]

And yet they still had remarkable success with the world against them.

Oh and you could also say the same thing about the Soviets. More than a few of their scientists would have died in Siberia if Hitler hadn't attacked the Soviet Union and forced Stalin and Co to reverse some of their purge actions.

The real lesson is that authoritarians always try to eliminate people they find undesirable. This is why we should never invest too much power into one person or small group. The brilliance of the American system is that it has limited this for over 200 years. Unfortunately that is crumbling as the authoritarian rats find workarounds for the Constitution.

 

[SakurabasEar]

The germans were at the forefront of engineering at the time. The jews essentially ran trade and finance at the time, hence why they were a target of nazi propaganda in an otherwise economically challenged nation

 

[Broken arrow]

They also developed new war tactics like the blitzkrieg that the rest of the world wasn’t ready for…. Just ask Poland


Everyone was preparing for another version of trench warfare WW1 style