The damned spot that won’t wash clean
A Threads post from Kurt Andersen (“Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History“) points out the lingering effects of tyranny (map above):
So interesting that the Germans in the part of Germany run by tyrants for most of the 20th century—Nazis for 12 years, Soviet-proxy communists for 45—are those now most supportive of the right-wing AfD party. Tragically, enduringly habituated to dislike democracy and outsiders.
It got me thinking how often we see U.S. maps reflecting politics and policies that carry traces of the Confederacy that died far longer ago than the Nazi and Soviet regimes.
https://www.splcenter.org/20220201/whose-heritage-public-symbols-confederacy-third-edition
The taint is not uniform over all issues and all states, clearly, but it persists.
Happy Hollandaise, you filthy animals!