Du Bois blamed mass ignorance for public deference to authoritarian rulers.

Evidence

If we give Mr. Roosevelt the right to meddle with the dollar, if we give Herr Hitler the right to expel the Jew, if we give to Mussolini the right to think for Italians, we do this because we know nothing ourselves. We are as a nation ignorant of the function and meaning of money, and we are looking around helplessly to see if anybody else knows. … This is not, as some assume, the failure of democracy—it is the failure of education, of justice and of truth. We have lied so long about money and business, we do not know now where truth is. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 915

Categorization

• CANDY: Du Bois’s 1933 equivalence of Roosevelt, Hitler, and Mussolini as figures granted power by public ignorance is a striking, quotable line.
• XREF: connects to: Racism produces the ignorance that is blamed for generating it — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1222; Du Bois abandoned educational persuasion before fully embracing antiracism — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The…, 824; Du Bois moved from advocating persuasion to the antiracist path of civil disobedience — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The…, 959
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Racism produces the ignorance that is blamed for generating it — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1222; Du Bois abandoned educational persuasion before fully embracing antiracism — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The…, 824; Du Bois moved from advocating persuasion to the antiracist path of civil disobedience — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The…, 959

Broader Connections

• Racism produces the ignorance that is blamed for generating it #complicates (0.82) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1222
• Du Bois moved from advocating persuasion to the antiracist path of civil disobedience #complicates (0.76) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 959