On comparing Trump to Hitler (according to a Holocaust survivor):

arbitraryexistence:

I’ve been seeing a lot of conflict going around about the comparisons that are being made between Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler. Some people think the similarities are worth addressing, some people feel that comparing anyone to Hitler, even someone as unsavory as Trump, is in poor taste.

A few weeks ago, I had lunch with my grandfather. My grandpa is 87 years old (he’ll be 88 in November), and a Holocaust survivor. He lived through Nazi soldiers taking him and his family away, he lived through concentration camps, he lived through all the horrors that come to mind when you think of the Holocaust and far, far more. He is the last person to take casual comparisons to Hitler lightly.

My grandpa and I talked about Donald Trump over lunch that day, and he said something that genuinely scares me: he said that he does see the similarities between Trump and Hitler. He remembers Hitler’s rise to power firsthand, and he told me that its beginnings bear a striking resemblance to what’s going on with Trump right now.

People didn’t take him seriously enough. Yes, he had a lot of visibility, and there was certainly both public support for and considerable opposition against him, but no one really recognized just how dangerous he was. A lot of people took one look at his crazy ideas and blatant racism and assumed that there was no way he could actually get elected.

And then he did.

And no one could ever have predicted the horrors that would follow.

Am I saying that Donald Trump is equivalent to Hitler? No. Trump is a disgusting human being, but he has not committed mass genocide. But he needs to be taken seriously. Do not let it happen again. We cannot let someone like Trump into office.

Please, if you are able to vote, do so. Tell your friends and family to vote. Donald Trump potentially being in a position of power is a serious concern. Take this seriously. We all need to vote.

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