Fox News host Brian Kilmeade mocked on Twitter after claiming he read Mein Kampf in school
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Fox News host Brian Kilmeade claimed that he was required to read Adolph Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" during his high school years.
The questionable admission came Monday morning during a discussion on "Fox & Friends" about U.S. military Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley arguing in front of Congress last week that he is supportive of being well-read on the topic of "critical race theory."
"I thought General Miley totally missed the point last week. He said, 'Oh, I read Mao, I read Stalin' that has nothing to do with it," Kilmeade stated.
Brian Kilmeade claims he read Mein Kampf in school pic.twitter.com/E1kf62Oxrq
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 28, 2021
"We read 'Mein Kampf' in school; no one thought we were Nazis, that is part of the curriculum, you find out about other things and other insurgencies, we get it, that has nothing to do with critical race theory," the Fox News host added.
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"Umm...in a U.S. school?" White House Playboy reporter Brian Karem responded to Kilmeade's claim.
Another Twitter user wrote, "It's interesting to me that Brian Kilmeade is so upset about CRT being taught in schools — even though it's not — but he doesn't seem to have an issue with Mein Kampf being assigned in high schools. (Which it isn't.)."
"Mein Kampf," an anti-semantic book penned by Adolf Hitler while in prison, was a lengthy diatribe about the Nazi Party, which Kilmeade claims was required reading at Massapequa High School in Long Island, New York, where he attended high school in the 1980s.
Milley faced accusations this past week by Republicans in Congress that he was far too "woke" and embracive of "critical race theory." He pushed back on that GOP lawmaker characterization, calling it "offensive" over merely "studying some theories that are out there."
The high-ranking military official further stated that he reads an assortment of literature from Lenin, Karl Marx, and Mao Zedong, claiming that doing such "doesn't make me a communist." Milley added during the hearing, "So what is wrong with understanding, having some situational understanding about the country for which we are here to defend?"
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This is interesting . I wonder if there is anyone here roughly Kilmeades age who went to high school on Long Island and knows whether or not Mein Kampf was required reading ?
That might be near Perries wheelhouse, maybe a little bit later but close.
I did live in Massapequa but as a young adult. The town is mostly Italian and Jewish, so I doubt Mein Kampf was actually taught there. The town that I grew up in was about 5 miles away, and back in the 30's was Long Islands headquarters for the Bund, so let's say there were some holdovers from that period, and I did hear nasty comments about Jews at least a few times a week. Then again, it was the 60's and 70's and the way you handled things back then was with your fist, which is totally unacceptable now. That being said, Mein Kampf was not taught in the Wantagh school system.
Yeah, i'd be surprised if it was required reading in any HS in the US.
Other than the Bard, I read what was not required and lots of it.
He MIGHT have read a section or two of Mein Kampf in one of his high school classes, but I doubt it because that would most likely only be in AP classes and you know Brian didn't take any of those. I do not believe for a second that Mein Kampf was required reading at his school, or any public school, in the country.
He may have read Mein Kampf while he was high school age (although thats not usually something 17 year olds brag about) but it wasnt assigned to him by his high school social studies teacher.
I wasn't aware that Brian could read.
no shit. he was probably too busy getting his pizza-faced ass kicked for inappropriate riding time at wrestling practice.
Why do people mock this as if they know all the reading lists of every school in America over the last what? 40-50 years?
I doubt that the whole book is required reading in very many courses, but I imagine excerpts are probably not uncommon. It’s hard to believe his comment was controversial.
She Was Excited for a New School. Then the Anti-Semitic ‘Jokes’ Started. - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
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In Mein Kampf, Hitler blames the ills of Germany, and the world, on Jews.
Do you actually believe an American high school would make this required reading? You must know something the rest of us dont know.
I believe it’s most certainly possible simply on the grounds that it is an important historical document that offers insight into the most notorious - and most studied - dictator (and regime) of the 20th century.
I think that American teachers would understand that a book like Mein Kampf might have an appeal to disturbed young minds.
I agree with you to a point, but to teach that book has to be done carefully. I'm not an English teacher, but if I were teaching it, it would be more of a "how not to turn into a Nazi" course than looking at as literature. It was never required reading in my school, and I don't think it was in the library. I could be wrong.
I don't know it I would call it a historical document. It's more of a screed justifying why you hate an entire segment of society. It's also a how to manual on whipping up the crowd to hate those that you hate
So we should never teach about the villains of history because it might appeal to disturbed young minds in the present? Where did this bizarre educational policy come from?
Teaching about the evils of Hitler and reading his autobiography are two different approaches. Not comparable.
Why wouldn’t you call it a historical document? It is one. “Historical document” doesn‘t equal “something you want everyone to read and be inspired by.” It is a significant and useful document for gaining insight into the past. That makes it a historical document. The very fact that so many have heard of Mein Kampf, know who wrote it, and what its general content is testifies to its historical significance.
ok...you win
lol, he always wins , by attrition
I ran out of arguments.
Believe it or not I don't argue just to argue, that's too much like trolling and Mr Giggles does that to me when he's drunk.
I’m not trying to win anything. If you’re worried about who “wins” that says more about you than it does about me.
I have a take and I support it with evidence and what I hope is a rational argument. I’m not doing anything more than that. No one is required to agree with it, but if you don’t like my take, responding by attacking me personally is just rude (not to mention unpersuasive).
Not trying to win anything.
Did you ever read Harriet Beecher Stow's, "Uncle Tom's Cabin?"
a very good point
As far as I can see no one on this thread agrees with you. Does it ever occur to you that maybe you are wrong and everyone else is right or do just enjoy being opposite?
What exactly are you talking about now? No one agree with me about what? Do you even understand what my position is?
Literally my main point - as stated at the top of this thread - is that it is possible someone might be required to read some or all of Mein Kampf at some point in their education. To disagree with that one would have to take the position that no school in America could possibly assign any readings from Mein Kampf. To this point, no one has been able to provide a shred of evidence that that is true.
The only corollary discussion I have had to this point is whether or not Mein Kampf is a historical document and other than “no it isn’t” I haven’t seen an actual argument to dispute that either.
So, would you ban the book? How far would a ban extend? To college? Both public and private? To public libraries? The internet?
If you have a point you want to make, feel free to make it.
I'd say it's the latter.
Did you read it or not? No point. Did you read it? If you did what were your understandings?
Then I see no reason to respond.
Your understanding is clearly understood.
I won’t be trolled. Express a take or take off.
I agree with you to a point. Like the General said about CRT. He read all of the books, learned what he could for a wider understanding.
Did you read it?
Never had to read that book and had no desire to.
Now 1984 was required HS reading and much more appropriate to todays times than Mein Kampf will ever be.
Some of the principles written about in1984 are amazingly accurate for what's happening today over 70 years later.
... as another example of a political manifest for autocrats.
That's one way to view it ..... the wrong way but there you go.
That book had one of the more depressing endings.
Yep, Winston resisted long and hard but everyone has a breaking point i guess. Whether we want to admit it or not.
Senior year, American Government class, we viewed Animal Farm, read 1984, were exposed to excerpts from Mein Kampf and those of Marxist dogma. They were were all used as examples of why democracy, while difficult to maintain is so critical to the protection of individual freedoms. In the 1980s we had the labeled "evil empire" as a ready example of why a vibrant democracy needed to be defended and expanded right at home.
This is how American Government was taught in a small town in Kansas in the late 1970s.
And in Home Economics The Anarchist Cookbook was required reading.
Molotov cocktail, the local drink
And all she wants to do is dance, dance
They mix 'em up right
In the kitchen sink
And all she wants to do is dance
I still have my copy.
I'm sure he read it 'in' school the same way I read "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich", "Atlas Shrugged" and "Johnny Got His Gun" in school. These were definitely not assigned reading.
Graduated HS in 1965 from a small Ohio district. Many parents, including my Father and a couple teachers were WW2 veterans. Mein Kampf was not in our school library.
Kilmeade is younger, grew up in a different America. An America where the Ku Kluxers, White Nationalists, Sovereign Citizens, Nazis and others of similar ilk are gaining prominence because of the demise of old standard conservatism and the rise of right wing financial power which was the same entities that cleared the path for The National Socialists.
I believe it extremely unlikely that his high school listed Mein Kampf as a required read. Unless Kilmeade was in an advanced class to study and learn how fascism can arise and become a dominant force in a democratic nation. I sincerely believe that was not the case seeing as how he ended up at a propaganda outlet.
I do not think he should be faulted for reading...
Judging by his demeanor he did not read much.