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News & ArtsThursday, October 15, 2009
Politics / Media Glenn Beckwatch: The Boy Who Cried Nazi
Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Oct 15, 2009 at 1:04 PM
MediaMatters just compiled this fascinating list of the number of times Glenn Beck has compared Obama to Hitler, or Fox News to Jews in the Holocaust, or America to just-pre-Nazi Germany. Here's one entry in Beck's shit(ler)list:
Beck: "I'm not comparing" Obama to Hitler, but asked his audience to "please read Mein Kampf" and learn from Germany's mistakes. On the August 12 broadcast of his radio show, discussing Obama's position on health care reform, Beck stated: "I am not comparing him to this, but please, read Mein Kampf for this reason. If you read it now, you see that Hitler told you what he was going to do. He told the Germans. It outsold the Bible. Germans read Mein Kampf, but what did they do? They didn't listen. 'Oh, he doesn't mean that.' 'Oh, he's just saying that to appeal to X, Y, Z.' All of the same lies we're telling to ourselves. 'No, that's crazy. Nobody would actually do that.' They buried their heads in the sand, and then it became too late. Please, America, take this man for what he says."
According to the list, there are ten separate incidents of Beck crying Hitler (sometimes literally crying, no doubt) when referring to the Obama administration. He also called Al Gore a Nazi at least twice, invoked the Holocaust three times, and compared progressives to Nazis at least once.
In conclusion, I'd like to put up a definition from Urban Dictionary that Glenn Beck should read:
Godwin's Law: A term that originated on Usenet, Godwin's Law states that as an online argument grows longer and more heated, it becomes increasingly likely that somebody will bring up Adolf Hitler or the Nazis. When such an event occurs, the person guilty of invoking Godwin's Law has effectively forfieted the argument.
2
He might as well just say
"I'm not comparing Obama to Hitler, but I am comparing him to Hitler"
One word for this guy: SHAMELESS
"I'm not comparing Obama to Hitler, but I am comparing him to Hitler"
One word for this guy: SHAMELESS
3
It's breathtaking how this guy has seen such a meteoric rise in attention and glory in such a small amount of time. His CNN show and radio show were bombing in ratings, what, only two years ago? Marketers should be studying how he did it.
4
That's sort of Godwin's Law. The correct version, as found in the (authoritative) Jargon File, is "As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.” There is a tradition in many groups that, once this occurs, that thread is over, and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever argument was in progress. Godwin's Law thus practically guarantees the existence of an upper bound on thread length in those groups. However there is also a widely- recognized codicil that any intentional triggering of Godwin's Law in order to invoke its thread-ending effects will be unsuccessful."
You can read the actual Godwin in question, Mike Godwin, discussing his Law here: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.10/…
You can read the actual Godwin in question, Mike Godwin, discussing his Law here: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.10/…
5
I thought Mein Kampf was a simple heirarchy of races and how the aryan races were getting screwed by the Jews, the gypsies, and the slavs.
I don't think mein kampf had much to say about financial bailouts or health care reform.
Unless financial bailouts has something to do with Jews controlling money????
Bare with me, I'm grasping for contextual logic here.
But what the hell do I know.
I don't think mein kampf had much to say about financial bailouts or health care reform.
Unless financial bailouts has something to do with Jews controlling money????
Bare with me, I'm grasping for contextual logic here.
But what the hell do I know.
6
he's referenced many times how he's been accused of being a holocaust denier because he doesn't believe in man-made global warming.
i can see the whole, "what? you think global warming is a hoax? i suppose you think the holocaust was a hoax too, you moron" types of "accusations," but those aren't the kind he's referring to, i don't think.
i can't figure out what he's trying to do by linking the two ideas over and over.
i can see the whole, "what? you think global warming is a hoax? i suppose you think the holocaust was a hoax too, you moron" types of "accusations," but those aren't the kind he's referring to, i don't think.
i can't figure out what he's trying to do by linking the two ideas over and over.
7
Right. The Germans were completely snookered by Hitler. They had no idea whatsoever that Jews were being rounded up and put into death camps. Complete shock!
8
I don't know if this is an infraction against Godwin's Law but there does seem to be a heavy use of Josef Goebbel's Big Lie Technique when it comes to the bile spewing forth from Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity etc. The first step is to tell a monumentally outrageous lie and then to continually repeat it until enough idiots believe it.
The lie in question here is that Barack Obama is even remotely similar to Adolf Hitler.
@3 I suspect that Beck will have a fiery flame out to match his meteoric rise. That is one sick fuck.
The lie in question here is that Barack Obama is even remotely similar to Adolf Hitler.
@3 I suspect that Beck will have a fiery flame out to match his meteoric rise. That is one sick fuck.
9
The problem with Godwin's law is that it posits that there can be no legitimate comparisons made between Hitler/the Nazis and any other person/thing/group/situation.
11
I think Glenn Beck is referring to the passeges in The Audacity of Hope that call for the extemination of the Jews, Slavs, Gypsies, socialists, communists and homosexuals.
13
No @12 Godwins Law says, later someone will mention Hitler, when they got nothin' at all to begin with.
14
@12 More or less. On internet forums where asynchronous debates can go on for days or even weeks or longer, the likelihood of Nazi comparisons are much greater than, say, the comments on a news/blog article, though this typically tends to happen in threads that center around (or get derailed to) incendiary or controversial topics.
15
So, like, does that also mean that this very post was automatically lost before it really started?
16
What should scream out at everyone is that up until, oh, 2008, any Democrat who mentioned Nazis or Soviet gulags or the like was loudly denounced, starting with Fox News, but inevitably seeping out to the rest of the MSM, until they took it back. See, e.g., Dick Durbin comparing soldiers who used torture to the Soviets - the difference, of course, in that case being that his comparison was accurate. Now, for some strange reason, all we hear all day is Hitler, Stalin, etc., and nobody from the MSM seems to have a problem with it.
18
@17 Er, actually, speakin' of Nobels given for "please be nice in the near future, please?", the Nobel committee did consider giving one to Hitler at some point in the mid 30's.
19
@ 3: I think maybe he did it the same way H*tl*r did it.
And--H*tl*r was Time Magazine's Man of the Year at least once.
And--H*tl*r was Time Magazine's Man of the Year at least once.
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