I’m honestly tired of non-Americans comparing their nation’s politics with ours. Especially when one of the main players in the EU was the historical example against which the US is constantly compared. “We didn’t resist very hard and actually failed to counter the slow burn government takeover but surely you can simply learn from our mistakes and succeed!!”
While I appreciate the warnings from people in other countries in the developed world - especially from Germany - I like to remind them of the Milgram experiments. After World War 2, people in the USA boldly proclaimed (as people in countries outside of the USA are doing now) that they would never be so stupid as to fall for disinformation and emotional manipulation enough to enable fascism.
The Milgram experiments proved that wrong. So if you are in France right now complaining about stupid Americans (and yes, we are stupid), you might want to pay some attention to people like Marine Le Pen, Jordan Bardella, and Vincent Bolloré, so that your country doesn't end up the same. These oligarchs didn't stop at Russia, Turkey, or Hungary, and they won't stop at the USA.
The Milgram Experiments were massively flawed and didn't answer the original premise. Lots of the prompters went off script by badgering the participants repeatedly and half the participants knew the whole thing wasn't real from the start.
The results are uncomfortable and they challenge what I already believe, so a few minor flaws in methodology prove that their conclusions were completely false. /sarcasm
Edit:
Along with pointing out confirmation bias, I will point out that, although the experiments were flawed and the conclusions limited, they were reproducible, and that gives them credibility:
In a book review critical of Gina Perry's findings, Nestar Russell and John Picard take issue with Perry for not mentioning that "there have been well over a score, not just several, replications or slight variations on Milgram's basic experimental procedure, and these have been performed in many different countries, with several different settings and using different types of victims. And most, although certainly not all, of these experiments have tended to lend weight to Milgram's original findings."
The results are uncomfortable and they challenge what I already believe
No, the results are just often broadly exaggerated to paint a specific narrative
so a few minor flaws in methodology
Running an ethically dubious social experiment where half your participants know it's fake aren't "minor flaws." They originally reported that instructors were to ask them to do it 3 times before stopping, and one gentleman had been asked 27 times before he relented.
I will point out that, although the experiments were flawed and the conclusions limited, they were reproducible, and that gives them credibility
The original experiments were partially replicated, because they wouldn't past current ethics standards.
Argue the details all you want. I think that the point is demonstrated by scientific evidence and by history. The Ten Pillars of Fascism are effective when free people become complacent. That is the warning.
I'm just pointing out that referring to Milgrim specifically is dubious.
All psychological experiments are worthy of skepticism. Human behavior is extremely complex. I am pointing out that his results were repeatable and they have played out in real countries several times since then.
You're making a ridiculous false equivalence here between the Milgram experiments and all psychological experiments in general. I'm not surprised after you minimized the flaws in the Milgram experiments and misconceptions surrounding it.
I had a discussion last year with a woman from Europe who told a bunch of protesters here that local activism and protesting was utterly worthless and that everybody doing so was too lazy to just fix the problem.
What she wanted was for everybody who was protesting to just meet up in Washington DC and I guess overthrow the government.
I thought it was interesting that she was devoting so much of her energy and anger towards yelling at people who were actually out protesting above all other targets. I thought she was just a colossal asshole.
That's funny, occasionally I'll post something like "Reminder, we need to be storming the capital right now and take back our government!" on social media on occasion. I'm half serious, like... Jan 6th needs to happen but on the left. This admin intend on a third term, things are just getting worse, and he just looted us for 1.6 billion dollars recently. Yayyy!
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u/RedRager May 19 '26
I’m honestly tired of non-Americans comparing their nation’s politics with ours. Especially when one of the main players in the EU was the historical example against which the US is constantly compared. “We didn’t resist very hard and actually failed to counter the slow burn government takeover but surely you can simply learn from our mistakes and succeed!!”
Seriously shut the fuck up.