Episode Details

Dr. Rainer Zitelmann — historian, author, and one of the world's leading experts on Hitler and National Socialism — joins Lou to discuss something that would be unthinkable in the United States: he's currently under criminal investigation in Germany for retweeting a meme comparing Putin to Hitler.

Zitelmann, who wrote his doctoral dissertation on Hitler and has spent decades studying National Socialism, shared a post drawing a parallel between Hitler's promises before invading Czechoslovakia and Putin's promises before invading Ukraine. The result? A letter from the Berlin police and thousands of dollars in legal fees — with potentially more to come.

They dig into Germany's Section 86a speech laws, how legislation designed to stop neo-Nazis is now being used against libertarians, historians, and center-right journalists, the government-funded neighbor-reporting hotlines that echo the Stasi, why cancel culture has escalated into legal repression across Europe, and what it means for free speech when even the people who know the history best can't reference it.

They also get into Rainer's new book New Space Capitalism (Skyhorse Publishing) — the case for private property rights in space, how SpaceX has done what 50 years of government programs couldn't, and why capitalism is the only system that has ever actually worked, on Earth or anywhere else.

 Pre-order New Space Capitalism: Search "New Space Capitalism" on Amazon  Follow Rainer: RainerZitelmann.com

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Lou Perez is a comedian, author, and producer. He's appeared on Gutfeld!, FOX News Primetime, and One Nation with Brian Kilmeade. He was Head Writer and Producer of the Webby Award-winning We the Internet TV, and his sketch "Wolverine's Claws Suck" has over 20 million views. He hosts The Lou Perez Podcast on the Lions of Liberty Network.

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