• yesman@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This whole “Chamberlain appeased Hitler” meme might be trivially true. But it’s also banal, obtuse, and a confession that one has never read a history that didn’t have to be turned back in at the end of the year.

    I’ve seen prominent politicians and public intellectuals shitpost the Chamberlain meme every time they’ve wanted to justify aggression or discredit diplomacy. Not to mention that Chamberlain was doing exactly what the vast majority of British citizens demanded of him. Scared as they all were after the Great War. Or the little detail that British Intelligence had produced a report saying that preventing Germany from taking Czechoslovakia militarily was “impossible”.

    The whole premise is fucked. GB was in no position to dictate anything to Hitler. Would history look more kindly on impotent sabre rattling? Would Hitler have been cowed?