Web might have stopped Hitler, says Nobel winner

What utter nonsense! The problem was not that no-one knew what the Nazis were up to; everyone in Germany knew! The Nazis were elected, they didn't seize power in a revolution!

But as I always say in such discussions, you cannot evaluate history out of context. In the 20s and 30s it was perfectly normal to be what we would now consider a political extremist. It was fashionable be a Fascist or a Communist. Everyone gets swept up in the zeitgeist in any era. I guarantee that the next generation will look back at us over some issue and say, WTF were they thinking?!

Sadly, that is baloney. The rampant and pervasive anti-semitism of Weimar Germany wasn't the key to his getting into power, it was that the other powers in Germany saw him as an easy-to-manipulate dupe that they could control. And Hitler played them like the fools they were.