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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy the comparsion to Hitler?
Why do Republicans always compare something that they don't like to Hitler and/or the Nazis? Throughout Barack Obama's time in the WH, pukes have, sometimes literally, painted a Hitler mustache on the President. Gays and Gay rights advocates are continually compared with the Gestapo or the SS. Universal healthcare is almost always in the same sentence or paragraph as "Nazism".
Is it projection? Is it a manifestation of a deep desire in far-right fringe to become like Nazi Germany?
lame54
(35,315 posts)a nazi appears in a movie - instant bad guy - no need to spend screen time defining him
that's how repugs see them - instant bad guys - no need to dig deeper
They see the world in black and white. Evil and Good and nothing between. So anything that falls on the side of undesirable is as bad as the Nazis.
Cerridwen
(13,260 posts)marym625
(17,997 posts)Although some seem to know a little about the cold war. I love when they call the President a commie/nazi.
Cerridwen
(13,260 posts)Apparently, because the nazis called themselves socialists and appropriated socialist rhetoric early on, they were socialists. Et voila. fascists become socialists because they said so.
Just ask George Orwell.
To this day I'm not sure of any repub/right wing groups that are honest in naming themselves or stating their true agenda.
marym625
(17,997 posts)Though they're coming closer of late
KingCharlemagne
(7,908 posts)stating forthrightly their agenda. Maybe the Forced Birth community has a few, but I can't stand to spend much time there, as doing so simply enrages me and gets me frothing at the mouth.
EX500rider
(10,849 posts)kiva
(4,373 posts)than anywhere else.
Journeyman
(15,038 posts)but then, I read these boards more than I do conservative texts. Were I to spend equal time on both formats, I'm certain the same lazy shortcuts would be exhibited on both in near equal measure.
As I have commented at other times on this board (addressing the foolish and the ignorant of both sides):
What this nation needs is fresh, original hyperbole, some more nuanced stupidity.
How about some outrageous comments comparing politicians we don't like to tyrants and despots of the distant past, so we can at least enlarge the public's ignorance to include false comparisons to lesser known and even more misconceived analogies.
How about Tigleth Pilesar III? Or perhaps Yang Guang? Two especially fertile tyrants from which we could all draw some wickedly stupid comparisons to all sorts of people.
I grow tired of Hitler. I'm bored with Stalin. Castro and Chavez and such were never more than a regional distraction. Let us seek out new fields of ignorance, and boldly go where our stupidity beckons.
2naSalit
(86,765 posts)Darth Cheney to replace Hitler as the new icon for evil... and he's still here to enjoy that fame.
KingCharlemagne
(7,908 posts)kiva
(4,373 posts)but count up the Nazi comparisons here...just sayin'
Initech
(100,099 posts)Cleita
(75,480 posts)the Third Reich in their political philosophy and policies. So accusing their opponents of what they are guilty of deflects the scrutiny from them.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)People here go full godwin all the time.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014976498
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)One wages a campaign against a vulnerable minority, represses dissent, and grabs parts of neighboring countries for nationalistic reasons, and the other is Hitler.
Also, as a side note, Godwin's Law is just an observation about the internet, that the longer a discussion on the internet goes, the greater the chance of someone invoking Hitler. Reductio ad Hitlerum is a fallacy, but one intended to inflame passions by simply invoking Hitler, not point out legitimate comparisons.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)Jesus
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)That was basically about the reaction I had, too.
Still open casting for Chamberlain in this situation, too.
JI7
(89,262 posts)msongs
(67,433 posts)pampango
(24,692 posts)They just throw scary words around.
Posteritatis
(18,807 posts)Vattel
(9,289 posts)where individual rights are ignored and the state is seen as supremely important.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)That is definitely not a habit confined to Republicans.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)observation that the Republicans and the 3rd Reich actually had certain similarities in common. They just pull bogeymen out of their asses and count on the fact that their idiot followers will swallow it whole without even thinking.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)No one should be comparing Bush to Hitler (nor Obama, obviously).
former9thward
(32,068 posts)You mean like this?
Iggo
(47,564 posts)joeglow3
(6,228 posts)JEFF9K
(1,935 posts)B Calm
(28,762 posts)Capt. Obvious
(9,002 posts)pintobean
(18,101 posts)sofa king
(10,857 posts)Our American fascists are still programmed to hate Hitler, even though we are now a fascist oligarchy run by the descendants of the people who financially funded Hitler and guided him to power (i.e., Prescott Bush). In just the past 15 years, we've had our own Reichstag burning, our own Gleiwitz Incident, our own Ribbentrop double dealing with allies and enemies alike, and so on.
We're so fucking Nazi now that the difference comes down to the choice of blue or black on our lapel pins.
Conservatives have to puff themselves up with a lot of bullshit in order to "hate" Hitler. They have to actually believe the comedic lip-service that the Nazis paid to "socialism," when in fact Hitler abandoned all aspects of socialism as soon as he usurped the German government, and murdered the actual socialists within the NSDAP.
They have to forget that Hitler also hated blacks, jews, and gays, just like them, and continually used the power of the state to marginalize and lower the life expectancy of those folks, just like the American Nazis do today.
But the punchline is this: just like Hitler, George W. Bush succeeded best at destroying his own country and killing his own people. W. lowered the life expectancy of 100 million Americans--more than ten times the number of Germans that Hitler got killed, and the vast majority of them white conservatives.
Now, even bastions of American Nazism like North Carolina can't steal a mid-term election without the most excruciating gerrymandering. Because just like Hitler, the GOP exploited their subjects until they were gone.
deutsey
(20,166 posts)many of them equate the Nazis with left-wing socialism.
I think they get that idea from Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, et al.
I once had a very long and heated debated a few years ago with a conservative friend of mine who insisted that Hitler was a left-winger. After I bombarded him with emails loaded with plenty of historical verification that Hitler was indeed a right-wing phenomenon, my friend finally relented and we haven't discussed it since.