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SheilaT

(23,156 posts)
2. My sentiments exactly. Anything non-fiction written to show how despicable
Wed Jun 6, 2012, 11:51 AM
Jun 2012

the current right-wing is, might even be rejected outright by the group.

Plus, having read that book, I don't think it's one that would convince anyone who is deep into the Fox News mentality. They'd look at everyone she writes about and conclude that each and every person is responsible for his or her own situation, and not see the larger picture.

"The Jungle" could be a good choice, and you can push it as a classic that everyone ought to read. "It Can't Happen Here" is another possibility. The problem with many of those books is that it could be too easy for a modern right-wing reader to simply conclude that they represent an era long gone, and one that has no meaning today. Which is, of course, the heart of the problem: Those who do not remember history . . .

Two recent non-fiction books might possibly work. "A Train in Winter" by Caroline Moorhead tells the story of a group of French Resistance fighters, women, who were captured by the Nazies and sent off to the death camps early in the war. It's about what they did to resist the Nazis in the first place, how they were captured, what they endured, and how some of them survived. It brings back the full horror of the Nazi era, which is being lost, sincfe those who lived through it are mostly gone now.

A book I'm reading right now (almost finished) is "In the Garden of Beasts" by Erik Larson, subtitled Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin. William Dodd was a college history professor when he got tapped by Franklin Roosevelt in 1933 to be ambassador to Berlin. Several other men had turned down the post prior to his selection. Dodd, his wife, son, and daughter arrived in Berlin in July of 1933, when many thought that Hitler could not possibly stay in power more than a year. They witnessed first-hand the awful change in German society and the German people as laws were passed restricting Jews' rights to hold a job, go to school, and so on. The book really only covers the Dodds' first year there (he served until 1937) but it clearly shows what happens when extremists take over a country, totally control the media, and set forth unchallenged lie after unchallenged lie.

Again, it is entirely possible that the point of either of those two books will be too subtle for your group. It will take a lot more than one book, or one movie, or even one personal encounter of some kind (like losing health care and needing serious medicine/surgery, etc) to change people like this. If they don't stop watching Fox, there's no real hope for them.

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