uhm yeah i think there`s a thousand reasons to be ashamed of us american politicians and media. before i actually lived in the us i thought that most prejudices europeans have about us america are just that, but after spending some time there (and in cali where it`s supposed to be really liberal) i discovered that it`s all worse than we can even imagine. when you tell europeans about some of the prudery, religious nonsense, and general political debate going on in the us they react shocked and disbelieving because the amount of non-education going on in the us is dangerous for a country that is the proclaimed world police...
anyway. i think hitler-comparisons are a problem not necessarily because hitler was "so evil" but because in my opinion this exact thing diminishes what happened under the nazi regime. a hitler comparison makes him this über-human being that was such a brilliant speaker and mastermind who singlehandedly took germanys population hostage and as if that was not enough then forced them to kill 6million jews not to speak of political dissenters, gays, roma and sinti, disabled people, homeless people and everyone else not fitting the nationalsocialist ideas of a worthy member of society. yes he was a good speaker, but he was not the evil mastermind everyone makes him seem like. if hitler hadn`t been there at this point in history it would have been someone else. goebbels the minister of propaganda had much more of a key position.
but the real problem was not hitler, not goebbels or himmler or any of the other high-ups. it were the people following them. it was big busyness funding them, damn it was even the conservative party building a coalition with the nsdap because they were so afraid of the communists and socialists.
and finally yes we should call people out on fascist behavior. and if they don`t get what you mean by saying it`s fascist or totalitarian i think it`s valid to use a nazi-comparison (as in:"see in 1930something the NSDAP did the same thing") but not a hitler-comparison because it acts as an excuse for a lot of people who claimed to have done nothing but followed orders. which is something that should never justify violence.
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Date: 2011-11-02 07:45 pm (UTC)when you tell europeans about some of the prudery, religious nonsense, and general political debate going on in the us they react shocked and disbelieving because the amount of non-education going on in the us is dangerous for a country that is the proclaimed world police...
anyway.
i think hitler-comparisons are a problem not necessarily because hitler was "so evil" but because in my opinion this exact thing diminishes what happened under the nazi regime.
a hitler comparison makes him this über-human being that was such a brilliant speaker and mastermind who singlehandedly took germanys population hostage and as if that was not enough then forced them to kill 6million jews not to speak of political dissenters, gays, roma and sinti, disabled people, homeless people and everyone else not fitting the nationalsocialist ideas of a worthy member of society.
yes he was a good speaker, but he was not the evil mastermind everyone makes him seem like.
if hitler hadn`t been there at this point in history it would have been someone else.
goebbels the minister of propaganda had much more of a key position.
but the real problem was not hitler, not goebbels or himmler or any of the other high-ups. it were the people following them.
it was big busyness funding them, damn it was even the conservative party building a coalition with the nsdap because they were so afraid of the communists and socialists.
and finally yes we should call people out on fascist behavior. and if they don`t get what you mean by saying it`s fascist or totalitarian i think it`s valid to use a nazi-comparison (as in:"see in 1930something the NSDAP did the same thing") but not a hitler-comparison because it acts as an excuse for a lot of people who claimed to have done nothing but followed orders.
which is something that should never justify violence.