Talking Points Memo put together this amusing montage of Fox News commentators comparing any attempt at gun control to Hitler, Pol Pot and other murderous dictators. Then when Bob Schieffer makes a Nazi reference, but not even a comparison, they are outraged about it.
Jan 26 2013
Are Nazi Analogies Okay? Let’s Ask Fox News
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F [nucular nyandrothol]
January 26, 2013 at 12:37 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Off-topic: Who the hell dresses these people?
grumpyoldfart
January 26, 2013 at 1:29 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The good thing is that only a few people watch that channel and hardly any of the viewers believe what the commentators tell them :)
fifthdentist
January 26, 2013 at 1:41 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Actually, the German citizenry were disarmed due to provisions of the Treaty of Versailles, which IIRC the U.S. was a party to.
Under Hitler gun laws actually were relaxed. Owning long guns, for example, no longer required a permit, meaning pretty much anyone* could acquire one. Regulations on pistols also were loosened.
Oh, right, they’re talking about the history they’ve created in their heads.
* Not applicable to Jews.
yoav
January 26, 2013 at 3:56 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Using nazi analogies is never acceptable and you’re just like Hitler if you disagree with me on this.
godlesspanther
January 26, 2013 at 4:53 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I just made a YT vid about the Argumentum ad Hitlerum. I didn’t even get to the issue of gun control.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnHfMkBbmEE
As Dave Barry said — compare your opponent to Adolph Hitler when your opponent is right, and you are spectacularly wrong.
matthewhodson
January 26, 2013 at 4:54 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The whole political system in the United States of America has become a fascist system. Unlike certain countries in Europe in the twentieth century however, its not a fascist dictatorship. Companies can still battle with one another in the political realm. Organisations like the NRA do have fascist policies as they promote collusion between the government and certain companies, in this case gun manufactures, regardless of the will of the people. So a comparison to previous fascist organisations is valid.
kyoseki
January 26, 2013 at 5:08 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
fifthdentist
Yeah, the guys doing the Hitler comparisons always forget that last bit.
It’s funny, because for a lot of them (the guys making the Hitler parallels, not gun owners in general), I’m pretty sure you could swap Jews for Muslims and they’d be totally OK with the exact same legislation.
Randomfactor
January 26, 2013 at 5:18 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I compared Dubya with Hitler once or twice, but never favorably.
lanir
January 26, 2013 at 7:56 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Nazi comparisons are always hyperbole. Always. No exceptions. Even the historical Nazis were not the Nazis people think of when the term is mentioned today. It’s a 50′s era meme that had the incredibly poor grace to be attached to a bunch of really awful things. Stuff that we as a species would have been much better off learning from instead of ignoring by default in favor of a meaningless label.
AsqJames
January 26, 2013 at 9:35 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Fox’s own prediliction for invoking Nazis/Hitler aside, I don’t get it.
Martin Bashir actually says “If anyone acting like the Nazi’s in this it’s not Obama it’s the NRA.”
Bob Schieffer (who seems to be talking about how difficult a political fight tightening gun regulation will be) says something along the lines of “We got the Civil Rights Act passed, we defeated Nazism, surely this issue isn’t beyond us.” To me that says “Yeah, it’s going to be a tough fight, but compared to some of the stuff we’ve done as a nation* it’s not all that hard.”
So, yes it was a comparison, but Comparison =/= Analogy.. It’s like me saying “Ed’s got a pretty strict comment moderation policy, but he’s not exactly Hitler is he?” As a comparison it’s cliche’d and disproportionate, with the end result that you don’t get a very good idea of what I actually think. In fact the only thing you can be sure of is that I don’t think Ed is a Nazi.
* – Because the USA beat Hitler completely on their own you know!
d.c.wilson
January 28, 2013 at 12:15 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Do you know who also made a lot of Nazi analogies?
Hitler.
The Lorax
January 28, 2013 at 10:17 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Brainfuck: Can you Godwin a thread about comparisons to Nazis?
speed0spank
January 28, 2013 at 6:23 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It seemed like he meant taking on the Nazis was extremely hard but we did it so surely we shouldn’t turn tail and run when it comes to the measley NRA. Especially since he said the Nazis were much more formidable, which is obvious. How does one take that and turn it into NRA = Nazis? I think they are fake outraged by their own mangled understanding of what he was saying, but secretly they want to be thought of as being that formidable.
Overall I think Nazis get brought into discussions way too damn much but it’s usually because the right loves using the imagery to fear monger their ignorant viewers.