Posted on 12/10/2012 6:24:09 AM PST by Sallyven
In 1941, Harpers Magazine published a fascinating article by writer Dorothy Thompson titled: "Who Goes Nazi?"
Seventy years later, we're asking the question: "Who goes Obama?"
(Before the reader is shocked that this article dares mention "Nazi" and "Obama" on the same page, don't worry -- there will be no comparison of Obama to Nazis here. I will only mention that both fascism and modern liberalism are, at heart, ideologies that fall at the statist end of the political spectrum. So bear with me a moment.)
In "Who Goes Nazi?" Ms. Thompson thoughtfully described and evaluated the personalities of each of the various attendees at a gathering at which she was a guest. She explained:
It is an interesting and somewhat macabre parlor game to play at a large gathering of one's acquaintances: to speculate who in a showdown would go Nazi... I have come to know the types: the born Nazis, the Nazis whom democracy itself has created, the certain-to-be fellow-travelers. And I also know those who never, under any conceivable circumstances, would become Nazis. (snip)
... She answered: "Their race, color, creed, or social condition is not the criterion. It is something in them....Sometimes I think there are direct biological factors at work...[snip] He has been fed vitamins and filled with energies that are beyond the capacity of his intellect to discipline. He has been treated to forms of education which have released him from inhibitions. His body is vigorous. His mind is childish. His soul has been almost completely neglected.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
I've heard it said the other way around: that only people who do not respect themselves, disrespect and abuse other people.
At which point the liberal leaps to his feet, cries "Godwin's Law! Game Over!" and leaves to go have a beer before things get really interesting.
Humility and pathological self-loathing aren’t the same
“Obama is no accident or fluke.”
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Exactly! He may flatter himself that he is a great mover and shaker but in reality he is a puppet and is only the SYMPTOM of what is wrong in the same way that a fever is a symptom of a bad case of influenza or a bloated belly is a symptom of an addiction to sitting on the couch drinking beer, eating pizza and watching TV at every single opportunity. Obama is a symptom of a national electorate which has become willfully ignorant, lazy and very foolish. We have a country full of pathetic dullards who imagine themselves to be brilliant and well educated thinkers. Many of them sport high school diplomas, undergraduate degrees and even, in some cases, graduate degrees but a large percentage would be laughed out of a public school eighth grade classroom circa 1960 or earlier.
Some people who were very much against Obama still said after the 2008 election that they didn’t think he should be compared to Hitler or Mussolini, it just was not a valid comparison. Even then I said that in my opinion it IS a valid comparison. I suspect that most of those may have changed their opinion now that we are farther down the road.
I cannot imagine the "Obama-phone lady" attending any kind of dinner party.
Not even one where Eddie Murphy was a guest.
And I guess whoever wrote this article can't tell Eddie Murphy from Will Smith.
She must have massive boulders between her ears.
Godwin's Law -- "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1" -- was an empirical observation of Internet discussions. Later on, it was taken as implying that any discussion was finished when comparisons to Hitler were made, but that wasn't Godwin's original intent.
You may be thinking of the Reductio ad Hitlerum -- trying to refute an opponent's view by comparing it to a view that would be held by Adolf Hitler or the Nazi Party. When that phrase was coined (by Leo Strauss of all people) comparisons with Hitler were far more common on the left, and directed against conservatives. Have you really forgotten those days?
Whatever you call it, avoiding gratuitous comparisons to Hitler and the Nazis is a wise policy. What's objectionable in this article is that she tries to have it both ways, implying a comparison and then backing out, saying in effect "Oh, of course I wouldn't do that, heh-heh." She doesn't have the guts to go with the comparison if it expresses her thinking or the good sense to avoid using it if it's not what she means.
What is fascinating about these exercizes put out by American Thinker and ilk like it seeking to prove that Obama is a socialist is like having your dog barking after the thief has left your premises empty ....We already know Obama is a socialist ...what the public must be made aware of is what disasters await US now ....AND HOW ANY WHY OBAMA GOT TO THIS POINT....
What
Too bad we’re so short of patriots. If citizens voted for what is best for the country instead of what they feel is best for themselves things would be different.
Of course, this human frailty is the same reason the coming communism won’t work either.
That’s fine with me. Let him have his beer and lose the debate.
Did you read the original article? It does not support an invocation of Godwin’s law.
That’s fine with me. Let him have his beer and lose the debate.
Did you read the original article? It does not support an invocation of Godwin’s law.
That’s fine with me. Let him have his beer and lose the debate.
Did you read the original article? It does not support an invocation of Godwin’s law.
A triple post? Something’s really been wrong with FR software lately. I only hit ‘post’ once.
You've supplied the correct quotation; but I was referring to the explanatory scholia appended thereto, in what I believe is an authoritative source, here:
http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/G/Godwins-Law.html
Linked at that site is an archived Wired article by Mike Godwin in which he discusses his development and utterance of the Law, which for convenience is here:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.10/godwin.if_pr.html
...comparisons with Hitler were far more common on the left, and directed against conservatives. Have you really forgotten those days?
No. Godwin's intent was to invent a counter to the Nazi meme (Reductio ad Hitlerum which you cited). His intention was to resolemnize the Nazi Holocaust by driving out what he regarded as a trivializing, and therefore bad, meme.
I regard Godwin as a liberal, but in retrospect I shouldn't have overspecified that Godwin's Law is a liberal project, since Godwin intended it to be used for a slightly different purpose than that to which online liberals have put it, viz., another discussion-limiting gimmick, just as they used the reductionist argument Godwin wanted to abate, in the way you reference.
The problem with Godwin's project is that, while his intention was benevolent, nevertheless in an age of megalomania and mass slaughters, it is often necessary to discuss and compare various political systems with the Nazi system they consciously ape.
Hitlerism is, quite simply, the gold standard of monstrosity and unintended consequences.
Re the triple post, you can send a private FReepmail to "Sidebar Administrator" and request the extra posts be deleted. I usually do.
Actually, I wasn't replying directly to the article, but to a comment by another FReeper, q.v. above.
Obama got the Good German Vote, no doubt about it. Republicans and Conservatives are the “new” Jews circa 1936.
They have been emboldened with the Reelection of Obama. Things will only get progressively worse as the second Obama Term drones on.
The Democrats would rather have Republicans and Conservatives destroyed before they would wish the same on Jihadists and the Taliban.
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