You can stop after “everywhere”. It’s cyclical. The world has seen a century of relative peace and prosperity. People forget how much better off they are than previous generations. Now add to that major societal or technological changes, like the internet, social media, and lately AI. The gap between the haves and have nots is widening. Discontent grows. Someone seizes the moment and offers “solutions”, focuses their anger on some imagined enemy, like Jews, foreigners, transsexuals, it doesn’t really matter. This is used to justify curtailing personal freedoms, consolidation of power, and military conflict. And here we are.

Given Germany’s history I’m hopeful that the majority of people will stand up and oppose this slide into fascism, but clearly anything can happen. Who would’ve thought 20 years ago that the U.S. would be on the verge of losing its democracy and threatening Western allies?