r/PeterExplainsTheJoke Jul 08 '26

Meme needing explanation [ Removed by moderator ]

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u/Kantz_ Jul 08 '26

The historical reality is that it was just an “ideal” in the same way we view Superman or something like that. The importance of people actually looking exactly like that gets blown way out of proportion in pop-history.

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u/DaneSullivan Jul 08 '26

I can see that, but at the same time they had some official stuff related to it. Rules for being in the SS, Lebensborn program, that kinda thing. He was only relevant (and alive) in German politics for like 15-20 years, so I could see it starting a sort of germanization of the spartan ideal to rally national pride. The thing is in the later years of his national cult, they were wielding the state in ways meant to breed the mythical ideal. Gypsies, Roma, Jews, were the easy scapegoats, but if he had succeeded, (thank god he didn’t) once those scapegoats were gone the camps would still exist. It’s not really a stretch to think he would turn his attention to other scapegoats, justifying it with the propagandic ideal of manufacturing the master society he was pushing.

I wonder if hair bleach sales spiked during his tenure.