Why the comparsion to Hitler?

[AngryDem001]

Why do Republicans always compare something that they don't like to Hitler and/or the Nazis? Throughout Barack Obama's time in the WH, pukes have, sometimes literally, painted a Hitler mustache on the President. Gays and Gay rights advocates are continually compared with the Gestapo or the SS. Universal healthcare is almost always in the same sentence or paragraph as "Nazism".

Is it projection? Is it a manifestation of a deep desire in far-right fringe to become like Nazi Germany?

[lame54]

1. It's a short-cut to evil...

a nazi appears in a movie - instant bad guy - no need to spend screen time defining him

that's how repugs see them - instant bad guys - no need to dig deeper

[treestar]

3. Exactly

They see the world in black and white. Evil and Good and nothing between. So anything that falls on the side of undesirable is as bad as the Nazis.

[Cerridwen]

2. It's the only history they know. n/t /snark

[marym625]

4. I was just going to say that

Although some seem to know a little about the cold war. I love when they call the President a commie/nazi.

[Cerridwen]

6. socialist/communist/nazi At least those things they say outright.

Apparently, because the nazis called themselves socialists and appropriated socialist rhetoric early on, they were socialists. Et voila. fascists become socialists because they said so.

Just ask George Orwell.

To this day I'm not sure of any repub/right wing groups that are honest in naming themselves or stating their true agenda.

[marym625]

8. I agree with that

Though they're coming closer of late

[KingCharlemagne]

12. That is a damned good point about no Repub\RW groups being honest in naming themselves or

stating forthrightly their agenda. Maybe the Forced Birth community has a few, but I can't stand to spend much time there, as doing so simply enrages me and gets me frothing at the mouth.

[EX500rider]

5. Both side do it...

[kiva]

7. Odd, I've noticed it more on DU

than anywhere else.

[Journeyman]

10. That's been my experience as well . . .

but then, I read these boards more than I do conservative texts. Were I to spend equal time on both formats, I'm certain the same lazy shortcuts would be exhibited on both in near equal measure.

As I have commented at other times on this board (addressing the foolish and the ignorant of both sides):

Ah, Hitler! Without you, political hyperbole (to say nothing of stupidity) would be impossible!

What this nation needs is fresh, original hyperbole, some more nuanced stupidity.

How about some outrageous comments comparing politicians we don't like to tyrants and despots of the distant past, so we can at least enlarge the public's ignorance to include false comparisons to lesser known and even more misconceived analogies.

How about Tigleth Pilesar III? Or perhaps Yang Guang? Two especially fertile tyrants from which we could all draw some wickedly stupid comparisons to all sorts of people.

I grow tired of Hitler. I'm bored with Stalin. Castro and Chavez and such were never more than a regional distraction. Let us seek out new fields of ignorance, and boldly go where our stupidity beckons.

[2naSalit]

29. I agree and I nominate

Darth Cheney to replace Hitler as the new icon for evil... and he's still here to enjoy that fame.

[KingCharlemagne]

13. A Republican administration tortured detainees to death. Just sayin' - nt

[kiva]

19. I'm not defending anything,

but count up the Nazi comparisons here...just sayin'

[Initech]

9. Using Nazi references has become so overused that they have their own logical fallacy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hitlerum

[Cleita]

11. I think it's projection. they know they are very close to

the Third Reich in their political philosophy and policies. So accusing their opponents of what they are guilty of deflects the scrutiny from them.

[Jesus Malverde]

14. It's not just republicans.

People here go full godwin all the time.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014976498

[NuclearDem]

21. Because God knows there are no apt comparisons between Putin's Russia and Hitler's Germany.

One wages a campaign against a vulnerable minority, represses dissent, and grabs parts of neighboring countries for nationalistic reasons, and the other is Hitler.

Also, as a side note, Godwin's Law is just an observation about the internet, that the longer a discussion on the internet goes, the greater the chance of someone invoking Hitler. Reductio ad Hitlerum is a fallacy, but one intended to inflame passions by simply invoking Hitler, not point out legitimate comparisons.

[Jesus Malverde]

28. .

Jesus

[NuclearDem]

30. Maybe read up on what Godwin actually is before going off about it.

That was basically about the reaction I had, too.

Still open casting for Chamberlain in this situation, too.

[JI7]

15. i think they make the comparison to communism more , DU often has the hitler comparisons

[msongs]

16. for the same reason dems did it to bush. remember the "chimperor"? nt

[pampango]

17. I don't have a problem learning from history. repubs don't do that.

They just throw scary words around.

[Posteritatis]

18. No, it's something the entire political spectrum in the US does constantly. (nt)

[Vattel]

20. They see Hitler and Nazism as well as Socialism as a kind of "collectivism"

where individual rights are ignored and the state is seen as supremely important.

[oberliner]

22. Democrats do the same thing

That is definitely not a habit confined to Republicans.

[smirkymonkey]

27. Yes, but our comparisons are actually based upon the

observation that the Republicans and the 3rd Reich actually had certain similarities in common. They just pull bogeymen out of their asses and count on the fact that their idiot followers will swallow it whole without even thinking.

[oberliner]

31. Come on now

No one should be comparing Bush to Hitler (nor Obama, obviously).

[former9thward]

23. A Hitler mustache on the President?

You mean like this?

[Iggo]

24. Everybody does that. (n/t)

[joeglow3]

25. You have to be intentionally blind to miss everyone (left and right) doing this

https://www.google.com/search?q=Bush+hitler&sitesearch=democraticunderground.com&gws_rd=ssl

[JEFF9K]

26. It's all they've got.

[B Calm]

32. Hitler was a right wing fascist.

[Capt. Obvious]

33. You know who else liked to invoke Godwin's Law?

[pintobean]

35. You know what I've noticed?

[sofa king]

34. Because fascists fear themselves, is why.

Our American fascists are still programmed to hate Hitler, even though we are now a fascist oligarchy run by the descendants of the people who financially funded Hitler and guided him to power (i.e., Prescott Bush). In just the past 15 years, we've had our own Reichstag burning, our own Gleiwitz Incident, our own Ribbentrop double dealing with allies and enemies alike, and so on.

We're so fucking Nazi now that the difference comes down to the choice of blue or black on our lapel pins.

Conservatives have to puff themselves up with a lot of bullshit in order to "hate" Hitler. They have to actually believe the comedic lip-service that the Nazis paid to "socialism," when in fact Hitler abandoned all aspects of socialism as soon as he usurped the German government, and murdered the actual socialists within the NSDAP.

They have to forget that Hitler also hated blacks, jews, and gays, just like them, and continually used the power of the state to marginalize and lower the life expectancy of those folks, just like the American Nazis do today.

But the punchline is this: just like Hitler, George W. Bush succeeded best at destroying his own country and killing his own people. W. lowered the life expectancy of 100 million Americans--more than ten times the number of Germans that Hitler got killed, and the vast majority of them white conservatives.

Now, even bastions of American Nazism like North Carolina can't steal a mid-term election without the most excruciating gerrymandering. Because just like Hitler, the GOP exploited their subjects until they were gone.

[deutsey]

36. In addition to the good reasons already posted

many of them equate the Nazis with left-wing socialism.

I think they get that idea from Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, et al.

I once had a very long and heated debated a few years ago with a conservative friend of mine who insisted that Hitler was a left-winger. After I bombarded him with emails loaded with plenty of historical verification that Hitler was indeed a right-wing phenomenon, my friend finally relented and we haven't discussed it since.