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CARLOS BARRIA / REUTERS
Where the present slips, it makes sense to find support in the past.
In such times, the genre of historical analogy flourishes: the search for parallels in history in order to better understand and classify the here and now and the people involved.
No wonder, then, that since 2016, when the previously unimaginable happened and Donald Trump moved into the White House, a veritable deluge of historical analogies has come over us.
They were the attempt to master all the unheard-of and often also the absurd, to put at least something familiar to the side of the apparent insanity.
All the great monsters in world history have probably already been drilled through on Trump - and sometimes the great idiots too: from insane Roman Caesars to medieval child emperors.
But of course these were just gimmicks compared to the trump card in the historical analogy quartet: Trump as a fascist leader à la Hitler or Mussolini.
The comparison remains controversial, but it has received a huge boost after the events of January 6th.
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