Nuremberg only happened because Germany was utterly defeated and occupied by foreign powers. I’m not optimistic America will have a reckoning like that.
A bit of a heads-up: do not watch this video if you want to retain any hint of a fantasy that such a reckoning even did happen in the first place. Do watch if you want a fantastically well written essay about one of the most mythologized and relevant events in history.
We are once again being presented the lesson that we didn’t learn every previous time a tyranny has been overthrown: That the overthrow must be total, that the power and influence the tyrants wielded must be entirely destroyed, that those responsible can’t be allowed to survive their crimes, and that the ideas that enabled their rule must become warnings taught to all from birth.
Until we learn the lesson, we’re never going to grow out of this insane cycle.
Sadly, I believe that’s the point of American public schools not teaching it. If you look at the origins of our public schools, it makes perfect sense.
Nuremberg only happened because Germany was utterly defeated and occupied by foreign powers. I’m not optimistic America will have a reckoning like that.
That’s likely to happen. A lot of innocent people will die first, but that’s basically inevitable.
Here is my favorite video essay of 2025: Fantasies of Nuremberg.
A bit of a heads-up: do not watch this video if you want to retain any hint of a fantasy that such a reckoning even did happen in the first place. Do watch if you want a fantastically well written essay about one of the most mythologized and relevant events in history.
We are once again being presented the lesson that we didn’t learn every previous time a tyranny has been overthrown: That the overthrow must be total, that the power and influence the tyrants wielded must be entirely destroyed, that those responsible can’t be allowed to survive their crimes, and that the ideas that enabled their rule must become warnings taught to all from birth.
Until we learn the lesson, we’re never going to grow out of this insane cycle.
Sadly, I believe that’s the point of American public schools not teaching it. If you look at the origins of our public schools, it makes perfect sense.
Oh I’m well aware of how weak denazification was. I’m saying I doubt the US will even get that much.
But it really needs one.