Do dictators go to heaven?

The news, in brief …

• Trump’s “embarrassing” UN speech shocks critics

  President Trump used his UN speech to call climate change a "hoax" and tell other nations they are "going to hell.” Read more.

Make me smarter …

Even under Trump, American democracy is not a lost cause — yet

But a serious "democratic breakdown" is upon us, says political scientist Susan C. Stokes. Read more.

Sorry, Hitler went where?

Given enough time, anyone who uses social media, and especially anyone who has ever logged into the website formerly known as Twitter, is destined to post something regrettable. But for most people — those, charitably speaking, one might describe as “normal” — cringe takes the form of an embarrassing humblebrag or a passive-aggressive dig at an ex.

For Karlyn Borysenko, introduced this month to Fox News viewers as an “expert” on violent, left-wing extremism, it’s hard to pick just one post that really ought to have been deleted. As Salon’s Russell Payne detailed in an exclusive investigation, Borysenko has repeatedly claimed that mass-murdering dictator Adolf Hitler died and “went to heaven.” And lest you think she was engaging in some esoteric point about religion and how “hell” isn’t real: no, not at all — this point, about where the soul of Nazi Germany’s leader went after it left that bunker in Berlin, has been paired with altogether too many posts about the Holocaust (she has questions) and how we were lied to about World War II.

Now, someone being a little “off” in a Nazi-leaning way, on Elon Musk’s X, is not breaking news in the year 2025. Nor is it altogether surprising that producers for Jesse Watters, the heir to Tucker Carlson’s prime-time hour, are not too discerning when it comes to booking guests willing to blame “the left” for all of the ills in Donald Trump’s America. But what is notable is that those on the once-unacceptable fringe are now wielding power: Earlier this month, Borysenko succeeded at getting a Texas State University professor fired by posting a misleadingly edited clip of them speaking at a conference on socialism. That is her bread and butter: “infiltrating” left-wing public events and then reporting on the deep, dark secrets revealed at what are essentially glorified book clubs for liberals with graduate degrees.

That is, unfortunately, where America is at — a place where avowed fascists who defend America’s worst enemies are building careers by canceling those who actually know their history. It sure isn’t heaven.

Where do you think mass murderers go when they die? Sound off in the comments.

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Before you go …

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