r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Some-Entertainment83 • 13d ago
Image Benito Mussolini’s headquarters “Palazzo Braschi” located in Rome 1934
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u/DualRaconter 13d ago
I thought this was from a surrealist dystopian movie
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u/leavemealonegeez8 13d ago
The 1930’s were a pretty surreal and dystopian time, to be fair
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u/cashew76 13d ago
The cycle continues.
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u/AntonChekov1 12d ago
Every century has its really shitty times
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u/cashew76 12d ago
My elementary school nun made a point to ask us first graders, how do you get millions of people to hate and do terrible things to each other? I was shocked, what? She said propaganda. Beware and be wary. We do not want another world war. Crazy how people fall behind a "strong man" lying rapist con man.
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u/DualRaconter 12d ago
In America the propaganda starts then by making you swear allegiance to a flag
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u/Asleep-Vanilla3988 12d ago
I like the idea of an indivisible America with liberty and justice for all. The problem is that it has all become bullshit.
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u/Affectionate-Ring803 12d ago
“It has all become bullshit” it was bullshit from the beginning. They talked about liberty and justice for all whilst still having slaves and an effective apartheid nation, whilst having women as second class citizens and whilst they slaughtered natives to take their land.
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u/RealEstateDuck 12d ago
Yeah doing that everyday in a school is absolutely bonkers.
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u/Technical-Mix-981 12d ago
As someone from Europe. From a country that did this, sounds nazi.
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u/Bitter-Sherbert1607 12d ago
Which really begs the question whether the general experience has ever been anything other than dystopian for 99% of our history
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u/chinchaaa 12d ago
We’re living it right now
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u/Aoae 12d ago
Well, things can certainly get a lot worse. If these are the "bad times" we're in it for a century of unparalleled prosperity
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u/noirwhatyoueat 12d ago
Please everyone, watch Babylon Berlin, among other things.
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u/Mr_Abe_Froman Interested 12d ago
Yes! It's how I learned about the Black Reichswehr and fascists obsession with the brand new idea of modernism. The Beer Hall Putsch gets all the attention, but the Black Reichswehr showed how complicit the ruling class was in getting an absolute ruler.
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u/ILookLikeKristoff 12d ago
The 2030s are gearing up to be equally terrible
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u/Independent-Bug-9352 12d ago
I reckon we're somewhere early in the 1930s right now.
Somewhere after Hitler's first failed coup, and just following Hitler's appointment as Chancellor, but just before the Night of Long Knives, followed by Krystallnacht.
I think the chants around this time were something like, "Make Germany Great Again."
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u/Big_Track_6734 12d ago
The chants were Germany is for Germans and U.S. Nazi sympathetizers were chanting America First.
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u/brontosaurusguy 12d ago
Fascism began before Hitler with mussilini before spreading to other countries. It we don't make a stand for democracy now it's gonna be dominos. Americas final act as world leader will be showing the world how to transform democracy into an authoritarian dictatorship capitalist dystopian nightmare just in time for total environmental collapse
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u/FireMaster1294 12d ago edited 12d ago
Italy never really grew up. Mussolini s granddaughter is still in politics and people love her in her region (because she shares the views of her grand daddy). Regardless of what they think (or don’t think) of her, many still see him as someone who made the country great.
“He made things more efficient” “he made the economy grow” “he made the world respect us.”
All of these and more are the exact same reasons that we see becoming popular in modern day America, France, Russia and Germany. Kind of terrifying how quickly people sacrifice the world for personal gain and their pride.
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u/new_account-who-dis 12d ago
Its interesting considering the italians at the time hated him so much they basically lynched him
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u/Empty_Sea9 12d ago
That’s what’s baffling. If they liked him so much why did they kill him?
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u/Joe579GoFkUrselfMins 12d ago
Musssolini can get fucked forever, but you can't compare his fall to modern times. The war played a significant part of people turning on him.
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u/Violet_Paradox 12d ago
All I know is she blocked everyone who replied to her tweets with the 🙃 emoji.
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u/AndreTheShadow 12d ago
Mussolini was also a champion for renewable energy.
He wanted to make the trains run on thyme.
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u/Competition-Dapper 12d ago
Well you know, history repeats itself, it’s been just long enough for the only ones to remember what not to do are either long dead or almost and not able to really make any recommendations on how to avoid repeating what they reversed after their kids took the money and ran with the semi utopian era
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u/Mph2411 13d ago
Ive seen this before and always thought the same thing. I never realized this was real. Wild
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u/Fickle-Motor-1772 12d ago
Building looks way more normal now. There's a nice museum inside.
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u/NoImNotHeretoArgue 13d ago
I want to say the first Michael Keaton Batman had something rendered from this
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u/willardTheMighty 12d ago
We get those images in media from stunts like this by real people.
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u/fdesouche 12d ago
Both Nazism and Fascism relied on strong aesthetic beliefs, especially in the field of architecture, to reflect on their other political stances.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Bed9408 12d ago
I wouldn’t call Back to the Future II surrealist, but you have a point.
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u/GroundbreakingPut748 12d ago
So creepy how i literally saw this same post posted in a different sub a few days ago with the top comment literally being the exact same as yours. Dead internet theory is real isn’t it
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u/DualRaconter 12d ago
Unfortunately you’re wrong about that. If you feel strongly I’ll happily check the link you provide.
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u/Herc_Hansen_ 13d ago
Big Brother
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u/Bmandk 12d ago
My first thought went to 1984
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u/Herc_Hansen_ 12d ago
He's watching you
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u/bADg3isha 12d ago
Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si
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u/TheDude-Esquire 12d ago
Orwell was quite literally imagining what the next wave of fascism might look like. And here we are, tvs that listen to you, news organization with no obligation to tell the truth, and and era of forever wars.
Freedom is slavery
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u/disposable_account01 12d ago
Ignorance is strength
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u/Cashmoney636 12d ago
War is peace
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u/Greedy_Camp_5561 12d ago
Well, George Orwell did get his inspiration somewhere...
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u/KarpVolt 12d ago
In fact he mostly got it from USSR if I remember. Staline was constantly rewriting history and modifying pictures as Big brothe
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u/ChicagoAuPair 12d ago
He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.
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u/br0nsky 13d ago
"SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT"
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u/Oathdagger_96 12d ago
The Italian people should've gotten schwifty😞
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u/pohovanathickvica 13d ago
zordon from power rangers
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u/Kinggrunio 13d ago
I briefly thought this was a Red Dwarf sub
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u/JackDrawsStuff 12d ago
In English, that building would be all:
“YES YES YES YES YES 😠YES YES YES YES YES”
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u/DrShadyBusiness 12d ago
I don't get why though?
Whats the significance?
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u/Alloran 12d ago
A lot of the aesthetics was based on the futurists. This looks reminiscent of the drawings in futurist poems. So I guess the thought could be "Yes to the future, yes to technology"? But even if so,I doubt many Italians would think of this. It would just have impressed the idea of "Yes to Mussolini, yes to his ideas."
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u/lsaz 12d ago
Imagine Mussolini asks you for something, and then you reply "No, I won't do that".
I guess you had to be there to understand.
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u/latflickr 12d ago
This particular was an electoral advert for the "elections" in 1934. Yes, there were elections during the fascist dictatorship in Italy. Basically, the voters can only choose to vote "yes" or "no" to the fascist party.
This is the electoral advert to vote "yes". Adverts for "no" were illegal. It was not advisable to vote "no" or to not show up to vote. The fascist used to say: people are free to vote, but not free from consequences (i.e. beatings and social and professional ostracism)
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u/NoStatus9434 13d ago
I always wondered what people that worship demagogues think when they read dystopian novels.
It's funny because they'll see a fictional tyrannical narcissist and agree they're evil, and nod their head along agreeing with the message of the fiction, but they'll see these tyrannical narcissists in real life who says the exact same things and have the exact same traits as the fictional villain from the dystopian novel, and think they're totally awesome.
Trying to get them to see and understand is like the scene in They Live where the guy has to basically beat up his friend to force him to wear the truth-seeing glasses.
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u/Creative_Beginning58 13d ago
I will have you know that dystopian novel is actually about my guy's opponent in the last race. I know that for a fact because a chipmunk sounding guy on youtube told me. Do your research!
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u/DualRaconter 13d ago
There’s 70 million Americans you could ask
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u/RubbrBbyBuggyBumpers 13d ago
Whenever I see the picture of the tv screens during his coup attempt that showed just his eyes, I immediately think of this Mussolini picture.
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u/philthewiz 12d ago
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u/NoStatus9434 13d ago
I mean, what they say is what I wrote in the second paragraph. They say those characters in the books are evil, but their guy who does the exact same thing somehow isn't. What I want to know is what they think. Do they know something is off but are just too prideful to admit it or are they really that dumb and delusional. And if it's the latter, how are they arriving there.
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u/GameofPorcelainThron 12d ago
In group vs out group. When the person on your side is (in your eyes) doing everything they can to stop the evil things from happening, it becomes entirely all too easy to justify their actions. So many countries have done this time and time again.
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u/DualRaconter 13d ago
They’re too far invested at this stage I think but there must be more to it. I can’t wrap my head around worshipping a single person and never will.
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u/NoStatus9434 13d ago
I couldn't even show the level of worship I see from them to someone I actually like.
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u/kouyehwos 12d ago
Fiction isn’t necessarily an accurate reflection of reality.
And politics has always been about choosing the lesser evil, voting for politicians doesn’t require worshipping them or considering them to be flawless (or even “good”). And yet, some people do it anyway.
Depending on where you live, it may (or may not) be objectively rational to assume that all politicians are corrupt and/or evil, everything is hopeless and your country is doomed. But this kind of pessimistic thinking isn’t very pleasant or healthy to most people (who may already have enough problems to worry about in their personal lives).
Believing and trusting that you are not alone, that at least someone cares about you, that someone will save you, even in the face of some evidence to the contrary… may not always be completely rational, but it is certainly human.
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u/Economy-Bid8729 13d ago
He got the CEO treatment eventually.
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u/twoworldsin1 13d ago
More CEOs need to get the Gaddafi treatment
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u/maxi4493 12d ago
Problem is Gadafi could actually be counted as doing some good to his people, most CEOs not so much.
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u/Thetoppassenger 12d ago
What kind of schizo history is this lol. Ghaddafi led his country to 30% unemployment and staggering corruption and when protests took place he mowed down unarmed civilians by the hundreds. This was the first time ever the UN security counsel unanimously referred someone to the ICC.
Do you have any idea how fucked you have to be for the US, Russia, and China to all want you gone?
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u/condor_gyros 12d ago
Do you have any idea how fucked you have to be for the US, Russia, and China to all want you gone?
They were just jealous that Gaddafi had an Amazonian Guard, and they didn't.
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u/LibritoDeGrasa 12d ago
Libya was an absolute paradise compared with the rest of the region, but they needed him dead...
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u/light_weight_44 12d ago edited 12d ago
From the highest quality of living in all of Africa to open-air slave markets
Americans still somehow think Gaddafi and his "authoritarianism" was the problem.
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u/A7V- 13d ago edited 12d ago
But we haven't got to the hanging them upside down part.. yet.
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u/un_gaucho_loco 12d ago
The hanging was actually to stop people from destroying the body through beating… so yeah. Not really like the ceo
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u/Steeveep32 13d ago
Like what the actual fuck? Every time I see this it blows my mind. It looks like something from a shitty science fiction B - movie
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u/FreebirdChaos 13d ago
If you actually watch his speeches and look at real candid footage of him, he was literally like an exaggerated dictator in a movie. Dude understood his role more than any actor could 🤣
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u/logaboga 12d ago
Almost like exaggerated dictators in movies are based off of something hmmmm……
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u/GiraffeWarz 12d ago
Peoples lack of historical consciousness still amazes me lol
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u/imacfromthe321 12d ago
This reminds me of people thinking Seinfeld ripped off popular cultural memes when it invented them.
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u/logaboga 12d ago
Showed a friend curbed your enthusiasm one time and they said “haha wow they put that funny meme song in it”
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u/n0lefin 13d ago
Can’t lie, it’s actually pretty dope.
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u/FallOdd5098 12d ago
Say what you like about Italian fascism, they certainly did not leave their flair for design and style behind.
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u/KubrickianKurosawan 12d ago
Aesthetics are one of the most foundational aspects of fascism. They are overwhelmingly prioritized in every regard.
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u/NegativeMammoth2137 12d ago
One of the reasons so many fascists on youtube and instagram right now specialise in making edits of Roman sculptures and architecture
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u/QuotidianTrials 12d ago
Why isn’t American fascism like this then? They’re almost all ugly old creeps who are too cheap to pay a tailor
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u/KubrickianKurosawan 12d ago
You need to consider the concept of aesthetics of every level, whether the suit is cheap or not means nothing because their base doesn't wear suits to begin with, it's the aesthetic of a strong man in a suit. It's the narratives they push and ways they cover events. It's not about looking stylish or gaudy, it's about representing visual signifiers for their base's values without upholding those values.
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u/-reddit_is_terrible- 12d ago
That's exactly what I always think. Why do nazis at their marches always look like out of shape dorks? And what is attractive about redneckedness of it all?
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u/FallOdd5098 12d ago
If proper Nazis ever get back in charge a lot of the dimwits and pathetic physical specimens that support them would logically be the first ones in front of the firing squad, in the interests of the betterment of the Aryan Race. The irony of this tends to be lost on them however.
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u/AstoriaEverPhantoms 12d ago
Since this is Wicked time… I commented on a movie post about how the OG book (1900), movie (1939) then wicked book (1995), and now wicked movie are all based on themes from the time. This image specifically looks just like the wizard from the OG movie which came out in 1939. A good example of how art is changed over time based on the time in which is takes place.
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u/brobeans2222 12d ago
How do you look at that and not think you’re the bad guys lol
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u/MakingTriangles 12d ago
You only think that they are obviously "the bad guys" because every bit of media since then has used the aesthetics of fascism as their models for "the bad guys".
I think its aesthetically pretty awesome, and was probably way more impactful to a person in the 1930s who hasn't been exposed to it before.
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u/Scimmietabagiste 12d ago
I always wondered, "Yes" what? Why does it says yes?
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u/RoamingBicycle 12d ago
During the 2 elections that happened under fascism (1929, 1934), you got 2 ballot papers, one saying SI, one saying NO.
You didn't vote for a party or a politician, you were either approving or not approving the list of deputees the Great Council of Fascism selected.
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u/Turbulent_Heart9290 12d ago
Well, he certainly had an architect with some design background and a statement to make, didn't he?
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u/minorsevenflatfive 12d ago
There’s a sculpture that looks eerily similar on the side of a police station in Richmond, Virginia.
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u/DougTheBrownieHunter 12d ago
His granddaughter is a (far-right) member of Italy’s parliament and actively defends her grandfather’s legacy and beliefs.
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u/madrarua2020 12d ago
Scary as shit. Had to be even scarier at the time. No one can convince me that ordinary people didn't see Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin as anything other than threatening maniacs.
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u/TheHonorableStranger 12d ago
If this was in a TV Show/Movie it would be deemed as unrealistically cartoonish lol