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Although the current year had already been poised as the worst year in modern history regarding the international system established after WWII, recent days proved to be among the most devastating so far. The Israeli government further ignored obligations toward global agreements after deploying a squadron of warplanes to Qatar, bombing a Hamas delegation engaged in peace negotiations within Qatar’s capital. The final significant platform for diplomatic negotiation may now have vanished completely.

At least 19 Russian drones violated the territorial skies of Poland. For the first time, Nato airpower was engaged to counter hostile objects inside a Nato country. Whether the incursion resulted from an error or deliberate probing by Moscow, according to analysts in the West, this was the nearest the world has come to outright war after WWII,” the Polish leader, Donald Tusk, said.

And then, Charlie Kirk, an outspoken right-wing figure and staunch supporter of Trump, was shot dead during a speech to college students and political followers on a campus in Utah. In the absence of proof regarding the perpetrator or intentions, Trump immediately blamed “those on the radical left,” accusing them of rhetoric that led directly for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country now.”

When questioned about a polarized country might reconcile following the murder, Trump said he was indifferent”. His explanation for that was chilling: Right-wing extremists are radical because they don’t want to see crime … The radicals on the left are the problem – being dangerous and despicable and politically savvy.” In this manner polarisation hardens into tribalism. This is how the spiral of hatred accelerates toward irreversible conflict.

In reality, more than three-quarters of deaths linked to extremism in the US in the past decade were perpetrated by rightwing extremists, with the radical left accountable for just a small number of these incidents. The former president denounced ideologically motivated attacks in general a day later – yet omitted mention of the recent spate assaults against Democrats, including several killings. To him, the problem is perpetually others, and not the loyal supporters constituting his core followers.

The political and cultural aftershocks from the assassination will no doubt unfold in the coming weeks, but the biggest danger amid deep divisions involves the shooting transforms into a historical parallel in contemporary times. The deliberate burning on 27 February 1933 signaled Germany’s shift away from democracy to outright dictatorship. Hitler, newly appointed as head of state, seized the moment to eliminate basic rights of the Weimar constitution – expression, press, association, assembly.

“Anyone who stands in our way will be cut down,” he said, surveying the arsoned building. Thousands of communists were jailed, even elected representatives in parliament. With the left neutralised, the Nazis swiftly consolidated power.

Within modern America, Kirk’s death has gripped the country, galvanising the Maga movement and Trump’s supporters, and he knows it. The white supremacist, a controversial commentator, demanded the arrest of every Democratic politician, explicitly labeling the killing as the movement’s turning point.

In truth, this incident serves as a potential rescue an increasingly unpopular presidency plagued with significant declines in employment figures, a weakening dollar, and a housing crisis. The former president grieved as though he were family, but the rhetoric implied it might become as much about pursuing Trump’s enemies rather than justice. Right after the assassination, he vowed to pursue all individuals of those who contributed to this atrocity … including the organisations providing backing.” He singled out a billionaire philanthropist, the American-Hungarian philanthropist and Democrat donor. “He’s a bad guy,” he informed NBC News, he deserves imprisonment.”

The motive behind the assassination remains unclear. The political views belonging to the attacker, a young individual, appear as muddled as those of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20 year old who tried to kill the former president in Pennsylvania. Is this truly the radical left attacking the radical right – or rather an obscure online culture from internet forums entering the real world? Phrases engraved upon the bullet casings at the scene appear unlike an ideological manifesto than a crude bricolage of immature jokes and virtual world allusions.

Yet concerns arise that the repression of “unwilling” academics, lawyers, media workers, government employees, armed forces members, and judicial figures across the country will intensify. Already, reactions on social media resulted in a wave of terminations and US state department officials have cautioned foreign nationals not to praise or make light of the murder, directing embassies to implement measures against any foreigners who do.

The former president has often prospered amid turmoil and instability. When genuine emergencies are absent, he fabricates them – including imagined crime pandemics in Los Angeles, Washington DC and Chicago. Fake chaos fuels his power grab. Now he has been handed chaos on a silver platter. It is understandable he couldn’t care less if the nation comes together.

This incident provides the perfect pretext for tightening his grip, silencing dissent, and concentrating power – so that his successors may inherit total governmental power, irrespective of personal appeal, qualifications or electoral support. After all, all authoritarian regimes has to be built first; after consolidation, it is simpler to maintain.

Democratic systems and the rules-based global order have flaws, yet they provided peace, advancement and economic growth – the antithesis of dictatorial rule. To suggest that the US, the architect of the postwar order, could soon slide into complete dictatorship, its leaders thinking like Nazis in 1933, could appear unlikely.

But from another vantage point, it is not far-fetched at all. Totalitarianism remained recent history during the upbringing even at the heart of modern democratic Europe came of age. From Belgium to Bulgaria, numerous households have some history of fatalities, devastation, hatred and destitution resulting from oppressive regimes. To safeguard their near future, they may want to consult our recent past.