A Second American Reichstag Fire?
The two Trump assassination attempts were real, but the fake that follows is what’s important
The reality of the present is messy. What triggers things, what gives them momentum, how society reacts when they happen — all of it is free flowing until it is gradually fixed in our memories through the haze of selective recollection.
Historians have the luxury of overview, the availability of archives and the time to page through multiple sources and draw a conclusion as to what led to what. Eventually, in a free society, some kind of informed pattern is detected and revealed. Hopefully it’s the most careful and deliberate version of events that survives into the future.
But in the immediate aftermath of an event of consequence, the nature of a moment and what caused it is putty in the hands of the powerful. Take for example the burning of the German Reichstag. On February 27, 1933 a fire erupted in Berlin, engulfing the German parliament building and igniting a chain of events that would reshape the political landscape. Though only a single suspect was found at the scene (a Dutch communist named Marinus van der Lubbe) a newly elected chancellor named Adolf Hitler blamed the fire on a broader Communist conspiracy and persuaded then President Paul von Hindenburg to proclaim The…
