EDIT:
Context: This is an archived article from 1939 by “Foreign Affairs”.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/germany/1939-04-01/will-hitler-save-democracy
No one seems to have actually read the article, just the headline. This is the ultimate click bait title - kudos to the headline writer in 1939.
The tl/dr: It’s saying Hitler’s authoritarian actions were galvanising other countries to step up and protect democracy after the failures after WW1.
In the final paragraph:
It is one of the most interesting phenomena of Hitler’s political activity that it has resulted in bringing about so soon such an overwhelming and unprecedented manifestation of defensive solidarity amongst the democratic peoples.
And the final line of the article:
It would be the height of paradox if Hitler, of all persons, were destined by his statesmanship finally “to make the world safe for Democracy.”
The article is surprisingly prescient.
Nah, NATO is a really bad example, it’s not union it’s usa controlling others members
I’d love to read it for myself but it’s paywalled. Do you think you could run it through archive.is?
I think I get the point they’re trying to make, democracy had become complacent and Hitler gave it a common threat and enemy, but in retrospect… Didn’t work out that great now, did it
It’s difficult to quantify, but I think there is a compelling argument to be made - just off of my head, WW2 led to:
- the fall of German autocracy/restoration of German democracy (though Hitler did kinda break that one in the first place)
- Italian and Japanese democracy
- redistribution of wealth/power in Britain
- the 4th french republic
- alignment of the European democracies
- establishment of the UN
That’s either an April fools article or the dumbest take ever.
A real archived article from…1 April, 1939.
I don’t think it’s an April Fool’s article, but from just the headline it would not be unreasonable to conclude that.
Journalism has an adage that any headline ending with a question can be answered “no” by the readet who then safely ignores it.
I guess this article was from before they figured that out
