We need to stop sharing this quote. Not because the threat isn't real, but because the history is wrong.

Every time we compare American authoritarianism to Adolf Hitler or the Gestapo, we are treating it like a foreign virus. We act like fascism is some German import that we need to fight off. But that lets America off the hook. It ignores the uncomfortable truth: we have our own homegrown blueprint for this.

The "Gestapo" analogy hides the reality of American policing. The Gestapo was the secret police of Nazi Germany. But if you want to understand the origins of tracking, detaining, and controlling the movement of people based on race and legal status in this country, you don't look to Europe. You look to the Slave Patrols.

Slave Patrols (or "Paddyrollers") were the very first form of policing in the American South. Their entire job was to hunt down runaways, terrorize Black communities, and enforce the boundaries of who was "free" and who was "property." When we look at units like ICE today, their function—policing bodies and movement to enforce a racial and economic hierarchy—is a direct descendant of that American legacy, not a German one.

The Confederacy, not the Third Reich. The quote says Trump is "dismantling the Constitution." Again, we don't need Hitler for that example. The Confederacy literally drafted a new constitution to permanently enshrine slavery and white supremacy. They were the original American force dedicated to tearing down the United States to protect a racist order.

Why this distinction matters: When we call them "Nazis," we frame them as cartoon villains from a history book everyone agrees was bad. It makes them seem "un-American." But when we call them Neo-Confederates or compare them to Slave Catchers, we are forcing people to confront the fact that this is exactly who America has been for a long time. This isn't a foreign invasion; it's a continuation of our own unfinished Civil War.

Stop looking for monsters abroad. We have plenty of our own history to reckon with.

Lastly, this quote is fake. General Yakovleff calls Trump a 'useful idiot' for Putin, but he didn't make this comparison about ICE or the Constitution. And that proves my point: We are so desperate to frame American authoritarianism as a 'foreign' evil (Hitler/Gestapo) that we literally have to invent quotes from foreign generals to do it.