Changes

The most extreme example of widespread DCM in recent times was Germany during the 1930's.  Rationalizations based on a false cultural narrative, the maligning of ethnic minorities, promotion of gender stereotyping, distortion of economic and political data, and an intensive propaganda campaign convinced enough Germans to tolerate the rise of Nazism that the party was able to seize power and enforce one of the most violent and destructive political regimes in world history.  This period ended with the Second World War and more than 50 million military and civilian dead.  DCM has been a growing problem in the United States, arising as it has in response to the success of the Civil Rights movement and the sexual revolutions of the past 70 years, and fueled by a cultural backlash against new laws and cultural expectations that seek to advance racial and gender equality.  Although not quite comparable to the cultural shaming that led to Nazism in Germany, the causes of the so-called "conservative" backlash have some similarities with the German experience, insofar as the impetus today seems to be a kind of resentment at being thought of as "deplorable" for one's cultural attitudes, just as Germans resented being blamed for causing the First World War.  The difference, of course, is that it was not really true that Germany caused the First World War, whereas the racism and sexism that "conservatives" may feel righteously entitled to express and defend in the United States today are, in fact, shameful.

The most extreme example of widespread DCM in recent times was Germany during the 1930's.  Rationalizations based on a false cultural narrative, the maligning of ethnic minorities, promotion of gender stereotyping, distortion of economic and political data, and an intensive propaganda campaign convinced enough Germans to tolerate the rise of Nazism that the party was able to seize power and enforce one of the most violent and destructive political regimes in world history.  This period ended with the Second World War and more than 50 million military and civilian dead.  DCM has been a growing problem in the United States, arising as it has in response to the success of the Civil Rights movement and the sexual revolutions of the past 70 years, and fueled by a cultural backlash against new laws and cultural expectations that seek to advance racial and gender equality.  Although not quite comparable to the cultural shaming that led to Nazism in Germany, the causes of the so-called "conservative" backlash have some similarities with the German experience, insofar as the impetus today seems to be a kind of resentment at being thought of as "deplorable" for one's cultural attitudes, just as Germans resented being blamed for causing the First World War.  The difference, of course, is that it was not really true that Germany caused the First World War, whereas the racism and sexism that "conservatives" may feel righteously entitled to express and defend in the United States today are, in fact, shameful.