Weimar and the Super Bowl
How We Got Here - And How We Get Out
Super Bowl is where big statements are made - those brash and bold halftime performances - it's where they release the most provocative ads.
It was Super Bowl 1984 when we were first sold the big lie that Silicon Valley would deliver us from the threat of state repression. That same year, Apple launched its iconic Orwell ad, which played on the fears of 1984. The ad, produced by Ridley Scott, smashed through the totalitarian nightmare with the offer of the MacIntosh computer. And then came the tagline:
"You'll see why 1984 won't be like 1984."
Buy the gadget, become empowered and free. It wasn't until Trump 2.0 that 1984 finally arrived, and it was delivered ironically by toxic tech bros and extremist gazillionaires.
So leave it to the Super Bowl 2025 to give us a defining moment to herald the American autocracy. Ahead of Sunday's big game, they've begun ripping up the end field grass that stated, "End Racism."
'Natch, the NFL is trying to play down the significance. But Trump is attending the game and, like so many other American institutions, the NFL wants to be in his good books.
Trump's first 30 days have seen an unprecedented attack on diversity programs and the mass jailing of undocumented minorities.
The NFL gets it: why piss off white dude nation with a statement that questions their ascendancy?
This gesture says so much about this moment in history. How did we get to a point where loud and stupid assholism had to be treated with deference while America's progressive tradition is in shell-shocked retreat?
I am not the only one looking for comparisons between our time and Weimar Germany. And there are disturbing parallels.
Like now, Weimar (1921-1933) was a time of incredible creativity and possibilities. But it was also a time when a small force of hate became increasingly emboldened while those in the centre became too willing to concede ground. The haters legitimized language that first marginalized people and then made it socially acceptable to target them.
Six years ago, if a major sports industry walked back its commitment to fighting racism, there would be a significant cultural debate. Now, people simply shrug.
In his book Vertigo: The Rise and Fall of Weimar Germany, author Harald Jahner writes about how a diverse cultural time fell in lock step with fascism:
"The exhilarating diversity of the 1920s came to be seen as a burden, and by many as a curse. These people felt that their society was torn, split into irreconcilably opposed worlds that would never be mutually comprehensible."
My American friends tell me that I cannot understand the rise of Trump 2.0 without taking into account the deep division that now exists between so-called Red State/Blue State America.
Where once there were Americans who spilled all over the political and social lines, people are now divided into opposing factions.
A similar situation happened in Germany as people lost faith in politics and turned away from the deeply important debates of the time. Jahner writes:
"Why did so many of them see the debates in the Reichstag as so much empty noise, and the newspapers that reported on it as propagating nothing but lies?"
As people stopped trusting in their shared common values and retreated into their silos, democratic society began to disintegrate.
"Around 1930, democracy lost one of its most important and fragile resources: confidence. Much that had, during the boom times, felt like liberation and high-altitude flight, now came to be seem as exploitation and betrayal… The mood plummeted, the desire for salvation rose, new kinds of vertiginous intoxication were south, more thrilling, aggressive and menacing than ever."
Weimer has become a metaphor for the breakdown of democracy into the nightmare of fascism and mass murder. But what makes the study of Weimar so fascinating and tragic is that it didn't have to be that way.
The Nazis were a party of vicious grifters. Their victory was far from assured. Nobody, at the time, believed they could actually take power.
What made their victory possible was the failure of the majority to make the necessary choices that could have stopped the advance of fascism. Jahner writes:
"The march towards National Socialism was not inevitable. Weimar democracy was not so weak that any other outcome was unimaginable. People had a choice, each for themselves, including the polling booth. At the time, they couldn't see how important that choice was."
I have pondered this last statement as I examine the situation facing Canada and other democracies. The choice of where we go from here is upon us. In his first month in office, Trump has threatened to erase Canada's nationhood while putting the boots to Denmark or Panama. He has attacked the International Criminal Court and is signalling his willingness to allow the eradication of Palestine.
Such threats represent the crossing of a historic line that, if stomped over, will move us into a new era of barbarism. Democracies around the world must make the right choices in these dangerous times.
No wonder people are thinking of Weimar in 1933.
Canadians have been aroused from our relative slumber as we realize that the threat south of the border is very serious indeed. And our choices can help us step up for democracy at this troubled time.
I leave you with this thought from Wasteland: A World in Permanent Crisis by Robert D. Kaplan. He writes:
“[Weimar]… Yes, we all know how it ends. But its participants… could have no idea what was in store for them. Will we be any the wiser? I ask because Weimar now beckons us. But, not at all in the way we think. We think about Weimar only in terms of the weakening of American democracy. While we should really think about it in terms of the world."
We are all Weimar now. But we still have the power to change the course of the future.
Yes, we are all Weimar now. In this country, as well as around the world, our choices at the polling booth are now momentous. Doing everything we can here to prevent the disastrous political choices that placed Trump in power is crucial. We now have our own hurricane in process… an Ontario election, then a federal election, both fraught with the danger of Trump wannabes taking (or retaining) power. It’s difficult to keep one’s head from exploding. I am trying to learn to talk about politics calmly and respectfully, to describe the dangers ( doing my best to keep track of them all in the storm!) without ranting; trying not to shriek and tear out my hair. Keep writing, Charlie. You’re saving my head, my vocal cords, and my hair. And maybe the country.
Thank you for continuing to speak out and raise our awareness to what is really going on. Too many have become complacent, heads in sand. This is about so much more than people recognize. Global stability is at stake.