|
nigelswift wrote: But the Germans also "weren't in a good situation" before Hitler took over and Germany had suffered "a loss of national dignity" and Hitler enjoyed "considerable support". But I don't see that that leads to a need to take a "nuanced" view of what he did. What does that mean? An understanding and slightly tolerant one? Contextualising their crimes is what despots and serial killers seek to do and I'm not sure there's any case whatsoever for the rest of us to do the same.
I don't see the usefulness in trying to stretch the Hitler / Duterte comparison. Just because Duterte stupidly compared himself to Hitler doesn't mean that he is in a position to become Hitler, or that the Philippines are set to become the next Nazi Germany.
At a certain level of abstract analysis, one may be able to find parallels between the Weimar republic and the Philippines, though again, it would seem to me that there are more differences than similarities. Germany had long considered itself to be part of the dominant Western "civilization," and its sudden loss from that position after WWI was an immense psychological blow. The Philippines, on the other hand, have suffered under American (and before that, Spanish) domination for centuries. I think a better comparison would be to draw parallels between Duterte and Latin American leaders such as Morales and Chavez, or perhaps with Iran's Ahmadinejad.
In any case, there is a huge book industry about explaining Hitler's rise to power, just as there is a sub-field that documents the lives of serial killers, etc. People, generally, want to understand things, and why certain events happened. Understanding and acceptance are not the same. To understand the current situation in the Philippines requires more than knowing a few choice Duterte quotes and the number of people that died in his drug war. As to whether or not Duterte's approach is what's needed for the Philippines, I will humbly defer to the people living in the country in question. Given the Western media's past support for blatant wars of aggression, I will not automatically buy into their depictions of Duterte as the current manifestation of "evil."
|
