One unfortunate side effect of the Bush=Hitler meme is that we can no longer look at Hitler without comparing him to Bush. We can't read about WWII and think of the horrors of those years without the knee-jerk satisfaction of how not-Hitler Bush really is. Lileks did it today:
In Klemperer’s book there’s an anecdote about a professor who is talking with some colleagues, telling jokes. Hitler goes to heaven. He talks to Moses, and says so, you can tell me. You set the bush on fire yourself, didn’t you?
He’s reported. He goes to prison for ten months.
And, as Klemperer notes, he was “an Aryan.”
Ah, but don’t we have the Big Lie? The WMD debacle? This is one of those things that makes me just turn off the radio or TV or hit the back button or whatever it takes to decamp.
I did it with Stalin back when I was reading The Gulag Archipelago:
I dare anyone who thinks the Patriot Act is killing democracy to read this book, where the first person to stop clapping at a tribute to Comrade Stalin, after 11 minutes of straight clapping, was sent to the gulag. Or the woman who happened to walk past a truck full of bodies. Or the man who had doodled on a newspaper photo of Stalin. All of them gone.
It's a crying shame that I can't visit a concentration camp without the smug satisfaction that today's Bush-haters have no idea what they're talking about. I don't want to think about Bush at a concentration camp. I don't even want the Bush=Hitler thought anywhere near my head, because it's completely demeaning to the real people of that era who died for nothing. I've seen a lamp made out of Jewish skin; how DARE anyone make that comparison to President Bush.
It's disgusting, and I'm disgusted that every time Hitler comes up, we find mental ways to disassociate him with Bush. I think that's revolting.
Posted by Sarah at October 11, 2004 08:35 AMYa know just because I think Bush is not fit to be president does not automaticly equate to hatred. I am a little tired of the blind defense of him by people that seemingly should know better. Of course I am mature enough to seperate the man from policy.
Posted by: Bubba Bo Bob Brain at October 12, 2004 03:42 AMIf Bush in particular and conservatives in general want to stop the comparison most people make betweem them and Nazis, all they really have do do is stop acting like Nazis.
People are smart enough to notice the change, if it ever occurs. Meanwhile, don't hold your breath.
Posted by: dc at October 12, 2004 04:14 AM."" I've seen a lamp made out of Jewish skin; how DARE anyone make that comparison to President Bush.""
Ewww.. I had heard of such sick things almost makes me with my ancestors were something normal.. like Cannaibals...
(that's a sort of joke My Grandfater was a very gentle man.. who happened to be a mechanic in the German army at the wrong time) I only wish I had been a bit older when I knew him.
Posted by: LarryConley at October 12, 2004 07:06 AMI doubt that the first 2 commenters even know what they're saying. It's just the Kool-Aid talking.
Posted by: CD at October 12, 2004 07:27 AMred herring!
Posted by: dan at October 24, 2004 07:45 PM