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This course reads Nazi literature to learn about evil. Here’s why.

Hitler’s chief propagandist used ’emotional appeal’ to lure people to evil, professor says

A professor at the University of Austin teaches students about evil by having them read from some of the 20th century’s worst people – including Hitler’s chief propagandist.

Professor Morgan Marietta is the dean of economics, politics, and history at the upstart university, which just began its first semester.

Professor Marietta offered a course for high school students on “good and evil” that included reading Joseph Goebbels (pictured, right), Hitler’s propagandist, as well as Karl Marx and Benito Mussolini.

Fifteen students took the course, according to a statement a university spokesperson provided The College Fix. Students were “challenged to confront difficult concepts, including the ideologies that led to deaths of millions in the 20th century,” the spokesperson said.

The independent-minded University of Austin is known for tackling subjects considered taboo by others, and last year for example offered a “forbidden courses” summer program to address questions ignored or avoided by other schools.

Marietta shared further comments on the non-credit seminar via a phone interview with The Fix. He previously taught at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell and the University of Texas-Arlington, according to his faculty bio.

“To be clear, part of the course is reading propaganda,” Marietta recently told The Fix.

“The idea is to see how they are using arguments,” he said about the summer seminar hosted in early August. He is teaching at the university this fall as well.

“There are essays where Goebbels doesn’t even mention anti-Semitism,” he said.

“The goal [of the essays] is to get people to nod along with the other arguments of socialism,” Marietta said. “They were using this emotional appeal. They’re leading you down a criminous path.”

“We need to understand the anti-Semites. I think studying it in this way helps students understand this modern-day world,” he told The Fix.

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The main objective is to “draw a clear-minded distinction between good and evil. In order to avoid evil, you need to know what it is.”

Marietta provided The Fix with a copy of the syllabus.

“Propaganda stands between the idea and the worldview, between the worldview and the state, between the individual and the party, between the party and the nation,” the syllabus states.

Propaganda is “the forerunner to state control,” according to the document.

Though some of the writers are from decades ago, the lessons are relevant today, according to Marietta.

“I think studying it in this way helps students understand this modern-day world,” he said.

Marxism lives on under the name of wokeness, according to Marietta. While it has new premises, it incorporates elements from Marxism.

He previously said people must “think through the beliefs of others” to understand them.

Then it can be understood “why the fascists thought Americans would join them against the communists, why utopianism leads to violence, or why wokeism embraces anti-semitism.”

A university spokesperson told The Fix there will likely be further classes focusing on “historical figures” — both good and bad.

“UATX is committed to exploring a wide range of important topics, including discussion of both good and evil,” the university said in an email.

“Our Intellectual Foundations seminars devote much study to the concept of the ‘good’ and ethical theory from Plato and Aristotle to Kant,” the spokesperson said.

“While future seminars are still being developed, students can expect a continued focus on historical figures and challenging ideas.”

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IMAGES: Bundesarchiv Bild; German license

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About the Author
College Fix contributor Pedro Boccalato Rodriguez-Aparicio is a pre-law student at Florida State University. Since becoming a citizen in 2019, Pedro has aspired to pursue a career in American politics, law, and journalism.