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Writer's pictureTim Walsh

Gleichschaltung – The Grandfather of Cancel Culture


The Nazi term Gleichschaltung or "coordination" was the process of “Nazification” by which the Nazi Party successively established a system of totalitarian control and coordination over all aspects of German society and occupied societies from the economy and trade associations to the media, culture, and education.


Merriam-Webster has the following definition:

The act process, or policy of achieving rigid and total coordination and uniformity (as in politics, culture, communication) by forcibly repressing or eliminating independence and freedom of thought, action, or expression: forced reduction to a common level: forced standardization, or assimilation.

  • brutal Gleichschaltung by police methods

  • the political Gleichschaltung of a reluctant adult population


Many people in German society who dissented were sent to concentration camps for “re-education”. Many people today don’t realize Dachau was originally established in 1933.


“When Dachau opened in 1933, the notorious Nazi war criminal Heinrich Himmler christened it as “the first concentration camp for political prisoners.” And that’s what Dachau was in its early years, a forced labor detention camp for those judged as “enemies” of the National Socialist (Nazi) party: trade unionists, communists, and Democratic Socialists at first, but eventually Roma (Gypsies), homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses and of course, Jews.” Quote Excerpt from The Horrifying Discovery of Dachau Concentration Camp—And Its Liberation - HISTORY


The irony is there are many people in American society today that are engaging in two activities and mindsets: First, they are actively embracing “cancel culture” that is actually implementing many of the activities and methods of Gleichschaltung in the name of “doing it for the common good”, and second: They are labeling and identifying those who disagree and call this activity out for what it is as “Nazis” or “Hitler like” – most infamously Morning Joe labeled President Trump as “Hitlerian”. The hypocrisy doesn’t get any more blatant.


What lead society to this point? Let's look at the last time it led to that point where an entire society was duped into believing this. Germany in post-WWI was chaotic, but then funding from the US came to stabilize its economy. After the stock market crash of 1929, 6,000,000 Germans were out of work, and the streets were filled with chaotic riots between the socialist Nazis and the Communist Bolsheviks.


Hitler KNEW if society was doing well, the Nazis couldn’t rise to power. If there was chaos in the streets, the people would “turn to the government” for help. (is this ringing a bell?) The Nazi Party fomented chaos in the streets and blamed the communists. After Hitler was made chancellor in Jan 1933, one month later in February 1933 the Reichstag building was set on fire by the Nazis and burned to the group. That was the excuse they used to pass “the enabling act” which allowed Hitler to ban all other political parties. Naturally, they blamed the communists.


The Nazi government also knew they needed to start “Nazification” at the earliest point in life at the youngest possible age. The more it is impressed on a young person, the more “normal” it becomes, because in essence that’s all they know. Modern-day interviews have shown some that “let it slip” about how they are pushing an agenda in public schools “at the youngest age they can get away with” and the reason is simple: ‘because they are more mutable at a younger age”. Again, anyone pushing back against this indoctrination is labeled an extremist.


When you look at cancel culture today, there are still people posting things like “I have no problem with sending conservatives or Trump Supporters to “reeducation camps”. You have businesses “getting in on the action” by canceling or even seizing money from conservatives. And of course the most egregious example is the social media platforms working “in secret meetings” with the Biden administration to control information flow on social media platforms.


Joseph Goebbels would have relished an opportunity to work with the likes of the social media titans to control information flow in society and punish those that disagree, or more.


How can this happen in America today? Don’t’ we have a constitution and a first amendment? It's scary and alarming to see what happens once a political party has taken over media, culture, and education. Luckily we still have elections and we can vote out those who don’t represent us, but some even question how reliable that is.




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