Everyone is Hitler But Me
April 16, 2017
Godwin’s law states : “If an online discussion (regardless of topic or scope) goes on long enough, sooner or later someone will compare someone or something to Hitler.” As an avid user of social media, I can attest to this. But it leaves out an important fact – everyone who is not me is Hitler.
OK, that’s not completely accurate. There are some other people who also aren’t Hitler. But they might as well be. At least that’s the attitude that permeates the progressive left in 2017.
On the other hand, Hitler-izing their political opponents is nothing new for the left.
Long before White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer made an inartful (but technically accurate) analogy between Bashar al-Assad and Hitler on Wednesday, people have been using Hitler’s name to illustrate just how awful someone is.
But only one side of the political aisle has been painting those who stray from their thought plantation as equal to, or even worse than, history’s greatest monster.
Even before the election of Donald Trump, Democrats and the media (sorry for being redundant) were quick to play the “Hitler card,” not only against Trump but against anyone who dared disagree with them.
Liberal icon, former vice-president and Democratic Party presidential nominee Hubert Humphrey said of Richard Nixon, “If the British had not fought in 1940, Hitler would have been in London, and if Democrats do not fight in 1968, Nixon will be in the White House.”
Four years earlier, former California Gov. Pat Brown, father of current California Gov. Jerry Brown, said Barry “Goldwater's acceptance speech had the stench of fascism. All we needed to hear was Heil Hitler.”
These are but two examples of the many compiled by writer Daniel Greenfield , so you begin to see how everyone who isn’t a rabid progressive is Hitler.
It’s unhinged, of course, neither of these men were like Hitler. Nor were any of the other Republicans routinely compared to the Nazi leader.
Putting aside the policy intersections between progressive Democrats and the “National Socialist German Worker’s Party,” (ever notice how Democrats never use their full name or mention their domestic policies? Weird, right?) calling someone else Hitler is always wrong. It highlights just how weak your argument is. Maybe that’s why Democrats use it so often. It’s either that or they simply want to distract from the aforementioned policy similarities.
Whatever the reason, Hitler analogies are outrageous…but only, it seems, when someone on the right makes them. When a progressive makes them it’s par for the course.
On inauguration day, Chris Matthews said President Trump’s speech was “ Hitlerian .” There was no real blowback for that. Nor was there any outrage from his current pearl-clutching colleagues when Matthews casually said pretty much the same thing Spicer said less than four years ago. “We didn't use them (chemical weapons) in World War II. Hitler didn't use them. We don't use chemical weapons, that's no deal,” he said in 2013. Is he a holocaust denier? Were there calls for his firing or an apology? Any punishment, or even a call for it?
An argument could be made that simply being on MSNBC is punishment enough, and when you add in being Chris Matthews you’re approaching cruel and unusual; but nothing beyond that. He’s hammering checks from NBC News and passing judgment on others to this day.
When a non-progressive compares the actions of an unequivocal monster like Assad to Hitler, all hell breaks loose.
All three network nightly newscasts led their shows with Spicer’s gaffe. And that’s what it was – a gaffe. He forgot the words “on the battlefield,” since even Hitler did not use chemical weapons on the battlefield in World War II. He obviously used them in the concentration camps to exterminate 6 million Jews and 5 million others the Nazis deemed undesirable.
If Spicer had mentioned that, which he sort of did when asked to clarify, he would have been accurate. He still would have caught hell for making the analogy because you shouldn’t make Hitler analogies and he’s not a leftist progressive.
To give just one example of how crazy the media went in manufacturing this “outrage,” the Washington Post had an “ analysis ” piece by Amber Phillips stating, “If you're tempted to mention Adolf Hitler — if you're tempted to even think his name when a microphone is in your face — don't.”
It’s solid advice. Her employer should take it.
Maybe Phillips doesn’t read her own paper, but here are a few of the gems that have run in the Post in just the past few months:
After President Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress where he announced the government would finally compile statistics on crimes committed by illegal aliens, the Post ran, “ Adolf Hitler also published a list of crimes committed by groups he didn’t like .”
On Election Day, the Post ran an analysis of how Trump isn’t quite Hitler, but “These comparative gestures, particularly to Hitler, serve to obscure more than they reveal. But they go to show the depth of concern about Trump’s candidacy and rhetoric, which taps into a larger far-right, populist turn that also seems to be taking place…”
Just three weeks after the election, the Post ran a piece entitled, “Trump/Hitler comparisons are overstated. How did Hitler actually consolidate power?” They’re “overstated?”
The piece then goes through a different way Trump could become Hitler. It concludes, “So is the comparison useful? I believe it can be, as long as people are willing to keep their minds open, but also their eyes and ears. Pointing to parallels in Trump’s past is not a convincing argument, as the new president’s policy priorities could be entirely different next year. But using the analogy of Hitler and Trump to chart what must not happen next can be useful.”
So Hitler analogies, according to the Post, “can be useful.”
But fear not, one Post piece did take issue with all the Trump-is-Hitler comparisons . “Don’t compare Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler. It belittles Hitler,” the headline declared. It addresses the all-important questions, “Is Trump a megalomaniacal demagogue? Yes. Is he a sociopath? Undoubtedly. Is he dangerous? Maybe.”
These are just a few of the Trump-is-Hitler stories written in just one newspaper. A paper that, once again, ran a piece chastising Sean Spicer for making a gaffe-laden Hitler comparison this week. Every mainstream media outlet expressed the same outrage, and most have indulged similar hypocrisy in their pages and on their airwaves.
No one is Hitler except Hitler, and he’s dead. Since Democrats get so upset over analogies using his name, perhaps they should stop making them. And maybe we can get back to saving outrage for the truly outrageous. If you don’t agree, you’re probably Hitler.
Tags
Who is online
75 visitors
Now this is more like it.
Well I USED to think you were above this racist shit like this picture Six. Now I know I am wrong.
What racism? Sounds like like typical leftist projection.
Six,
I was actually going to give you a reasonable and rational response to your article, but when you did the very thing that the article is criticizing, well, then that just falls into ironic and you lose your high ground.
I don't get you at all Six. When we have conversed in the past, you always seem so level headed and fair... and then this..
I already had another meme ready to put up when I received my first objection to my first comment. Now let's see how much it disturbs you Perrie. Here it is.
You'll notice right away there are two different standards. If it wasn't for double standards, the left wouldn't have any standards at all.
I thought how can I put this one up first, but decided to put the other one. It would have been interesting to see the reaction if I had done the exact opposite. Just a test to me.
I Don't Believe You.
Well Randy I can't do anything about what you believe, but I'm not into lying. The first image I looked up was "Trump Hitler" and found quite a few. Then I looked up "Obama Hitler" because I knew there were Obama Hitlers, Bush Hitlers and Trump Hitlers. I'm sure there are Hitlers from just about every president.
I have to admit, I had a harder time finding a Reagan Hitler.
You know Randy had I put the Trump one up first, no one would have commented and it wouldn't have bothered you in the least. I've tried to put myself in the position of being a Liberal and you guys don't know how easy you have it, believe me. Anything you want is at your fingertips. Almost all the search engines are geared to satisfy your desires in finding what you want. Some time ago, quite some time ago, I did a search for all the good things George Bush did and I Googled it. The first few screens turned out to be all the good things Obama had done instead of what I searched for.
I tried it again recently and it doesn't turn out the same anymore. Bush has won the approval of the Liberals by not supporting Trump. That's the way Liberals, Collectivist work. It doesn't make any difference if you are Black, Asian, Mexican or whatever, Liberalism trumps all of those. If you are not a Liberal and you are Black, you become an Uncle Tom and so on.
You have so much more freedom of speech than those who are unlike you in political beliefs. You can say Hitler didn't use chemical weapons and everyone in the media and your friends will automatically know you mean on the battlefield, but let anyone who isn't one of the Collective say the same thing and the whole media complex will go crazy over it.
There are all kinds of examples, but it would be a waste of time trying to open your eyes to it. You would be unable to see it or accept it even if you did see it.
What you should have done, was put up both pictures and seen what the reaction would be, but by putting up one before the other, you skewed the outcome.
But in good faith, I will respond.
I find both disgusting. Neither Obama or Trump did what Hitler did. Not if you went to the moon and back.
While this article does make some good points about how we abuse Hitler's legacy and how easily it is dropped to spread propaganda; i.e. Chris Matthews said President Trump’s speech was “ Hitlerian .” and “These comparative gestures, particularly to Hitler, serve to obscure more than they reveal.
it also makes some of it's own biased commentary:
Putting aside the policy intersections between progressive Democrats and the “National Socialist German Worker’s Party,” (ever notice how Democrats never use their full name or mention their domestic policies? Weird, right?)
Come on.. we all know what the official name of the Nazi party is.. including democrats.. and this:
All three network nightly newscasts led their shows with Spicer’s gaffe. And that’s what it was – a gaffe. He forgot the words “on the battlefield,”
I didn't realize that the author was a brain reader and knows what words Spicer forgot. If he forgot any words, it was concentration camps or gas chambers, which he referred to as Holocaust Centers. Yup, I am sure it was a gaffe, and I am not sure what the takeaway is from this gaffe. Is it that only 70 years after one of the worst moments in mankind, that we have actually forgotten what these words what the concentrations camps and gas chambers were? You tell me?
Is Spicer Hitler like? No. I happen to be a big believer in Godwin's Rule.
On the other hand, Hitler-izing their political opponents is nothing new for the left
And as your meme well showed, it is nothing new for the right either. I can find dozens of pictures of Obama depicted as Hitler. Are you as equally outraged by those as by the examples given in your article?
Maybe one day, we might see an unbiased article on this subject, where we can see clearly that propaganda be it left or right, is just that, and Hitler's name is just a tool to tool up the emotions.
I was typing the comment above your while you were typing the one above this one. At least I assume you believe me and a little thought came into my mind when I saw the two memes I chose, one Trump and the other Obama. You see the one I chose and I see the reaction I received, It was to be expected, I guess and you're probably correct, the one of Obama doesn't bother me any more than the Trump one does or all the rest of those I put in the comment above.
They say they're all distant cousins anyway. LOL
3 in 4 journalists claim to be Democrat and the owners of the media are left leaning, so there is a big difference when reporting on people from the left and people on the right by these media sources. It's so obvious, it's ridiculous. I can see and understand why so many people feel the way they do. If every night they turned on one of the MSM stations and received their news and opinion pieces, it's like I am reading between the lines the whole time, since I understand what the objectives are already.
Six,
I watch NBC Nightly News and Meet the Press, and I have never heard either Lester Holt or Chuck Todd make a Hitler reference and that is MSM. The issue is the cable networks who cater to specific audiences, be it right of left. Granted, Fox is probably the only right leaning network, but so maybe it seems that the left says it more. But I have heard these ridiculous references from all the cable networks, and frankly, once I have heard it, I never take them seriously anymore.
I'm sure you are correct about that.
Six, I always knew you were on the right wing and that was fine because at least you used to be cool about it. You were reasonable. But something has happened to you lately. You have changed and not for the better, You have become wildly extreme. In fact I think you have become the most, by far, extremist right winger on this site and that's not a good thing. You are beginning to make the alt right look like liberals. Whatever has happened to you I hope you turn back away from it, because this doesn't fit you well.
What does this have to do with the article, Randy? If you want to have a conversation about Six, why don't you send him a message instead of trying to derail his article? Weren't you a moderator at one point in time? You know better.
And it's simple that people use 'Hitler' as a tag to insult someone else-because it's easy and in the media, it lights up the populace-it's a 'Hot-Button' word. I think there were and are many others out there where a more apt comparison of genocide could be made-Idi Amin? Pretty much any of the leaders in the Balkans not so long ago.
What does this have to do with the article, Randy? If you want to have a conversation about Six, why don't you send him a message instead of trying to derail his article?
It was a commentary on his posting of the article, so it was on topic. If you don't think so then flag it. I will admit I made a mistake. Six is not just becoming to most right wing, but the most alt right also.
Randy, you are absolutely right. Sixpick has always been a conspiracy fanatic who has posted hundreds of false articles and videos on this site over the years, and an anti-communist fanatic who scours the internet for propaganda pieces which claim every Democrat under the sun is a subversive, he has done these things for years, but now he seems to be ramping the bs up to a new level.
I blame all of you who have glad handed with him over the years for enabling this kind of crap.
Randy, you are absolutely right. Sixpick has always been a conspiracy fanatic who has posted hundreds of false articles and videos on this site over the years, and an anti-communist fanatic who scours the internet for propaganda pieces which claim every Democrat under the sun is a subversive, he has done these things for years, but now he seems to be ramping the bs up to a new level.
I blame all of you who have glad handed with him over the years for enabling this kind of crap.
Read the article John. Ignore the comments if you have to, but the article is what this whole thing is about.
You are funny today. Thanks. Read any good Raw Stories lately?
By the way, I took Jefferson's test three times trying to get on the right side, but I still couldn't do it. LOL I guess I'm transpolitical.
`
`
Trump is not like Hitler. Hitler was a serious person.
The right likes to bring this topic up because they like to say the words National Socialist Party in relation to Nazi Germany. They think Nazis were socialists. Dumb fucks.
People throw around the comparison to Hitler as a slur just like they do all the other slurs. It's the same old tired way of ending debate . . . call them Hitler or fascist or commie or evil or racist or some kind of phobe etc.
Hitler was on a mission, first to unify all Germans and later to put the world under Germanic rule. Trump, by comparison, is rudderless. But that doesn't mean Trump is harmless.
To me, Trump is a buffoon but, in the beginning, lots of people didn't take Hitler seriously either. Hitler was the prototype for a democratically elected dictator. He portrayed himself as beloved by children and dogs, with only good intentions. He was Time magazine's man of the year. He slid into power and began gradually suppressing democratic institutions and his opposition until he had complete control of everything. Once he was master of Germany, he could exterminate millions in death camps as easily as he would an infestation of rats and started a world wide conflagration that killed 60 million people. Even if there were no holocaust, 60 million people would still be dead.
Trump is an authoritarian (ruthless in business and unaccustomed to governmental checks and balances). He should be carefully watched. If he begins to suppress democratic institutions as Hitler did, then people should be reminded of how Hitler came to power and what he did with the power once he had it. People need to understand history so they won't be don't repeat it.