To wonder if Nazi Germany felt like the UK does now, when they were creeping into power?

[oneggshellsforever]

Transformations in the justice system are happening, stacking the odds against disabled people having a fair hearing when they appeal sanctions or having disability benefits turned down.

They're getting rid of in person tribunals, and getting rid of expert panel members.

Disabled people are often successful when it goes to appeal, so the government seem to be systematically stripping the legal system of a fair trial?

Will start happening in October. What the government is doing to disabled people, and people with very little money in general, is chilling me to the bone. I honestly wonder if the feeling in the atmosphere was like this in 1930's Germany.

www.theguardian.com/society/2016/oct/12/online-benefits-appeals-tribunals-disabled

I think there is a bar set for what we as a civil society consider acceptable, and unacceptable, in terms of how we treat human beings.

To my mind, it looks like the bar is getting lower and lower and lower. But gradually. So you don't see it lowering.

I never thought in 2017 that food banks would be in such demand, for example. But that's just how it is, it's an accepted part of society.

Did you see the thread about modern day slaves

The 'hostile environment' sounds familiar, going to look more at that.

What was the thread on modern day slaves?

'Right to rent' is part of the 'hostile environment'. Under this law, landlords are required to carry out checks on prospective tenants' immigration status. Even if they do the checks and keep evidence, if the tenant's docs turn out to be false and it is decided that it should have been 'reasonably apparent' for the landlord to have spotted this, they can face up to 5 years imprisonment (the landlord that is, not the tenant).

Understandably, landlords are becoming risk averse in the face of this law:

42% of landlords said that the Right to Rent requirements have made them less likely to consider someone who does not have a British passport. 27% are reluctant to engage with those with foreign accents or names. Checks are not being undertaken uniformly for all tenants, but are instead directed at individuals who appear ‘foreign'

Results from our survey show that only one British citizen in the pilot area had been asked by their landlord whether they had permission to be in the UK. It is also noteworthy this person did not describe their ethnicity as ‘White British’. This compares to 73% of non-British citizens in the pilot area who stated that they had been asked by their landlord whether they had permission.

I just don't know. I can see your point, OP, but IMO the extremes of the Nazis would never happen again in the West. I can't remember the name of the historian who coined the term, but the Holocaust is described as the end of history. Certainly the end of history as the West understood it, that there was a massive, irrevocable paradigm shift, a loss of innocence, a realisation that something so grotesque had happened that the world would never be the same. I think there is enough visible, vocal resistance out there, being shared and networked online, that the Holocaust would not ever be allowed to happen again. We have 24 hour instant access to news and communication.

But yes, things are bad for anyone deemed Other and they are getting worse.

There are moves afoot making it compulsory fro GPs to check on prospective patients immigration status.

If I wanted to become an immigration officer, I would have become one...

Great post Bananasaregood

The proliferation of technology will hopefully stop fascism in it's tracks.
I also am heartened that whenever the far right have tried to come to my home town, they have literally been chased away.

I have no idea why you are linking the two and think you are seriously getting carried away with yourself here.

I have no idea why you are linking the two and think you are seriously getting carried away with yourself here

Do you have any concerns over the way society is changing?

You have to remember that your average German had NO idea about most things that were going on. They were told their nice neighbours had moved, not that they been annihilated. But certainly agree with OP, that the creeping othering of the poor, the sick and the foreign , who are blamed by the press to be the root of all problems, is extremely worrying.

"To wonder if Nazi Germany felt like the UK does now, when they were creeping into power? "

Yes, yes YAB(v)U.

Germany had lost a gruelling, terror inducing war (WWI) and was broken. Life as people knew it was in the process of changing beyond recognition for everyone in Germany (and elsewhere) due to modernity as well as the terrible Wall Street crash.

Am sort of in the middle of bedtime so a lazy c/p.

By 1914 Germany had become Europe’s most powerful economic and military power, and was second only to the United States in the world. Four long, terrible years of warfare meant that, by 1918, Germany’s economy was in ruins.

The period between 1918 to 1933 was a time of low economic growth, mass unemployment and high inflation in Germany. All of these contributed to the support of extremist parties in Germany. The Nazis took great advantage of the situation.

After WW1 unemployment was a major feature of the German economy. The Wall Street Crash during the autumn of 1929 had terrible consequences. Between 1929 and 1933, high unemployment led to severe poverty in Germany.

The end of the war brought chaos and confusion to Germany. After the Kaiser had left, there were many groups who thought now was the time to make changes to the way the country was governed.

There was a power vacuum which enabled Hitler to take command of the country. He was democratically elected and managed to obtain emergency powers.

The Nazis very quickly began a campaign of violence and terror against Communists and other opponents. Their campaign also involved banning opposition newspapers, leaflets and meetings. The Nazis’ campaign also involved anti-communist and antisemitic propaganda, using the radio, newspapers, leaflets, rallies and all other methods at their disposal.

So, not quite what is going on in the UK --thankfully-. However I very much agree that as a society we are rapidly loosing compassion for our fellow human beings. We in the UK have no feeling of responsibility for each other and not for equal opportunities for all regardless of sex, class or ethnicity. Disabled people are becoming disenfranchised as a result of austerity cuts. I must admit I don't understand why our government is acting in this inhumane way but there is a widespread belief in the UK that there are those who are good and deserving and hard working and those who are lazy and deserve to live in poverty. I can imagine that we'll be back to workhouses for the poor in less than 20 years if we continue with current politics of austerity. Oh and Brexit is gonna fuck up whatever openness, prosperity investment and innovation we may currently enjoy in the UK.

One other thing I have observed in the last 5-8 years is that we are becoming more classist, racist/xenophobic and definitely more sexist.

For a crash course in German History view

www.theholocaustexplained.org/ks3/the-nazi-rise-to-power/economic-issues/1919-1933-an-economic-overview/#.WY3vE6tWgp8

No, not at all.

Orlantina.... the problem is there is not an overflowing pot of money to keep paying the benefits that we have paid out over the last fifty years or so, so there has to be some changes to that. Still don't know why the OP is linking Nazi Germany to disability benefits. In a lot of ways, society is much much better than years ago, attitudes have changed, society as a whole is much more allowing and accepting of many issues that were not accepted years ago.

society as a whole is much more allowing and accepting of many issues that were not accepted years ago

It doesn't take much to change attitudes though.

Society is better for the disabled than years ago. But it is also far more sexist, and classist than in the recent past.
But we do not have the same conditions as Germany did before the rise of Hitler. The economy had virtually collapsed with rampant inflation and very high unemployment. Life was desperate for most people, so they were open to someone stepping in who could make life better for them and give them an enemy they could blame.

The far right clowns - the EDL, KKK, alt-right, UKIP bla bla bla are a distraction.

While everybody's feeling heartened because they have stopped a march in their town by Rosen's 'fascists in fancy dress', laws are being quietly changed by our mainstream government that are moving us in a frightening direction. It's happening incrementally and people are not noticing. There's not much debate because a lot of the changes are to the 'rules' rather than primary legislation.

The fact the govt. have been cheerfully using a phrase like 'hostile environment' since 2012 should give people pause for thought.

Um FrankaPotentially the potted history you have posted is nothing new to me. I am unsure as to what point you seem to think it makes.

To me it honestly looks like you just conveniently compartmentalize the German political maelstrom and Nazi regime, and barricade it safely off to reassure yourself it could never happen to us.

Life was desperate for most people, so they were open to someone stepping in who could make life better for them and give them an enemy they could blame

Sounds familiar.

No.

I would ban referendums as most people are too selfish and thick to see a good way foward

Orlantina....dunno about that....it took a long time to get to where we are now such as sex and race discrimination. It was an entirely different world when my parents were young.

(No the comparison is ridiculous, and yes yabu)

orlantina No it does not. Life is desperate for some people now, but not the majority. And by desperate I mean having enough to eat, being able to feed your kids.