The first surprise in store for us with this 2026 World Cup is the impressive amnesia of everyone involved, including the international media. Nothing, not a word, absolutely no mention of its infamous “ancestor,” the 1936 Berlin Olympics. For, despite the 90 years that separate them, the elective affinities between Hitler’s Olympics and Trump’s World Cup are glaringly obvious: the same propagandistic exploitation of the sporting event by the same authoritarian, racist, and freedom-suppressing regimes led by megalomaniacal supreme leaders devoid of moral and democratic scruples.
That said, it is precisely these similarities and elective affinities that allow us to better understand and assess the differences between Hitler’s Olympics and Trump’s World Cup. And the first of these concerns the popular and other reactions they have provoked. Virtually none in 2026, at least on the part of states and international organizations. And only a few—rather rare—protests and criticisms here and there from NGOs and social movements. In short, an apathy that betrays a resigned acceptance of the event in the name of the highly fatalistic “*what can one do against this gigantic circus?*”. The difference from what happened before and during the Berlin Olympics is striking. In contrast to the resignation prevailing in 2026, movements to boycott the 1936 Olympics—which brought thousands of demonstrators into the streets—had emerged in the United States, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Czechoslovakia. These movements were unable to prevent the Berlin Olympics from taking place, but they effectively articulated their anti-fascist cause, alerting the public and mobilizing anti-racist vanguards by fighting on a class-based line against supporters of the Olympics and other admirers of Hitler. Read full article: https://oaklandsocialist.com/2026/06/16/from-hitlers-olympics-to-trumps-world-cup-a-connection-that-speaks-volumes-about-the-state-of-our-world/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#42077): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/42077 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/119846009/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
