What about when there are valid parallels? Also comparing there actions, rhetoric or rise to power doesn't mean they compare in other ways. So why or why not?
In a rat colony, as long as there are the basic necessities - which among rats amounts to food, water, a place to sleep - then rat society is quite respectible. The mothers take quite good care of their children, they are intelligent enough to work together for the common good, they even avoid pooping on each other and are very clean actually. They even play a bit, and teach each other new pathways across the street or onto the rooftops or to other locations of food.
But as soon as the food cuts off and water sparse - things change a lot.
I believe it is some sort of chemical reaction in the rat brain - but they notably change. Once the water is gone - something changes in the brain. Once that changes, they get sort of very nasty. Then if the food is cut off, another chemical (IMO) change happens in the brain.
They literally become a different rat. They don't like anyone sleeping near them. And if another rat does - suddenly they think "that rat hasn't urinated in a while (no water) and is staring at me too much (no food) so - I am going to take a bite at him".
Then next a bite and then a swallow.
Next thing you know, they start cannibalising on each other. And it gets worse - and "rat insanity" kicks in, some literally charge in a group and go right over the edge of the roof and fall to their death.
Why am I talking about this?
Germany. The "war is over" (WW1). Young men who were soldiers thrown into the streets, no jobs. The cold German winter comes. Some were just getting out of the hospital. Maybe they were hospitalized because of mustard gas.
Like Hitler, for example.
Even water becomes a problem in the pouring rain, ice. Food.
No place to sleep properly. Cold.
The brain changes. Especially living during a war, then the war is over and you lost and you are cold, thirsty, hungry.
The nice rat colony sort of starts cannibalizing on each other.
Hitler is more than a person. It is a chemical.
There were far worse than the many Hitlers in Germany. Oh sure, you can play the numbers game. But, for example, the Cambodian Khmer Rouge were far worse than the Nazis, even though less were cannibalized. Of course less - the population was less. Far more in China under Mao - but the Khmer Rouge were worse than the Maoists.
I think it makes more sense to compare some of these politicians to Pol Pot instead of Hitler. Sure - an exaggeration... but... maybe not, I mean if one of them ever got hold of the colony it could very well be Pol Pot in genre. I have no doubt, Michelle Obama would be the tutelary head of mass rat cannibalization. She would be much worse than Barbara Bush. Let Michelle get a hold of power than it will be a rat colony on rabies. Once the Khmer Rouge level, the chemicals hit the brain. Pol Pot is as much a chemical as a person.
Now if the rat colony has the water, and the food, and a place to sleep, then the extra chemicals do not build up. Some real smart rats help with the situation. But really, no rat has a way to make sure. I mean, no politician can or ever will, either. There is no such solution. Some rat may tell you there is. But no rat is really that smart. Not dumb, either. But not able to feed the world, and water for everyone and a nice sleep. Too many things can go wrong. Even a little earth quake can really shake things up. An astedoid.
The thin veneer of civilization.
Sieg heil.
Its sad how many people think that Hitler had some super-human power to mesmerize
people into doing evil, when war is just a result of population pressure. If not Hitler,
then Himmler or Goebbels. But there is a real danger in attributing imaginary powers
with superficial understanding of evil to historical figures, or even contemporary people.
The danger being, that doing this is to 'demonize' others in much the same way that
the Nazi's demonized the Jews. It shows the extent to which society is prone to such behavior.
Pathological social attitudes to things like drug-addiction (eg Philippines) demonstrate this clearly.
But there are some differences between rats and people. It may be that rats have some
rich human-like communication system, but most likely that they do not. We have records
of history, but those records are often couched in superstitious ideas about evil hypnotic
leaders that magically make people into evil killing machines. Still, we can think about it
more closely than the rats probably can. And then we get religion, which teaches us fidelity
and sexual morality. This is designed to stop the over-breeding problem. However, if people
impose sexual 'morality' with violence and punishment, then the young grow up with
subconscious sexual desires, and that actually often makes the problem worse.
Still, we are free to stop and think about it all.
But I did have pet rats, and they are really lovable creatures when in a stable situation.
But I am not aware of rats practicing family values, and limiting their own off-spring
out of conscious awareness of religious morality.
