Collective Guilt, Then and Now

After World War II, the United States argued at the Nuremberg war-crimes trials—and directly to the German people themselves—that the whole nation bore collective responsibility and guilt for the crimes of Nazi Germany because, despite the risks of resistance in a totalitarian state, they could and should have risen up and overthrown Adolf Hitler. Now the same country, the United States, cannot even be bothered to hold a single substantial protest when its out-of-control president threatens to use nuclear weapons against Iran, despite the fact that Iran poses no danger to us.