Monday, January 30, 2017

Dodging Bullets: Stochastic Terrorism and the Trump Administration

It is not widely known that the Reichstag fire was most likely set in an act of stochastic terrorism. The Communists of the period put about the story that it was set by the Nazis in Braunbuch über Reichstagsbrand und Hitler-Terror, The brown book of the Hitler terror and the burning of the Reichstag, but this has never been proven. It could even, ironically, have been set by the Communists, just as the Nazis claimed.

In any event the young Communist Marinus van der Lubbe was executed for setting the fire. Historians mostly believe he was guilty. He had a history of arson and there is no reliable evidence he acted in concert with anyone else. The Nazis followed his act of terrorism with a crackdown, and that was the end of freedom and democracy in Germany for the next decade, and the beginning of the path to World War II in Europe.

It is entirely possible that some Muslim or some Trump opponent will undertake an act of terrorism, either against Trump himself or against some hated representative of the administration, and provide the excuse for the Trump administration to crack down and start a war in the Middle East. We are literally dodging bullets.

2 comments:

The Blog Fodder said...

That fear is in the minds of every rational person. We are closer to war than we have ever been. Putin has already upped the ante in Ukraine

Raven Onthill said...

I saw the news from Ukraine. My sympathies.