Hitler Jumps the Shark
Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.
-- Karl Marx (1818-1883)
And Hitler as farce is upon us. Okay, I’ve broken Godwin’s Law in the title, much less in the first sentence, as the Law states: “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1” (or for us non-math majors, “Any political argument, carried on long enough, will eventually provoke a Nazi reference”), and this was in full display at the union protests in Madison, Wisconsin.
How else to explain the over-reaching use of Hitler’s image, his name, the Nazi symbol of the swastika in the protests? And not just over-reaching but downright bad history. It makes no sense to equate Hitler and his government with any elected officials in the United States, Democrat or Republican.
But, what exactly is the deal with Hitler and the unions? Just so we have our facts straight, on May 2, 1933, Adolph Hitler, chancellor of Germany, and the Nazis (National Socialist German Workers' Party) abolished all unions. They did this by seizing all labor union funds, arresting the union leaders and sending them to concentration camps, mandating that the only workers organizations that could exist would be those created by Hitler, and replacing collective bargaining by using Hitler-appointed “trustees” to regulate the conditions of all labor contracts.
Hitler abolished all unions by decree, by fiat, by force, not through the legislative process.
The ill-informed Wisconsin teachers (don’t you know, the Internet is your friend?) and some Democratic legislators (Wisconsin state Sen. Lena Taylor, D-Milwaukee) seemed to think that because Governor Scott Walker and the Republican-majority legislature wrote, as part of their budget repair bill, legislation that restricts collective bargaining and requires public employee union members to contribute more to their health care premiums and pension funds, among other things, that the age of Hitler is once again upon us. “The history of Hitler,” Taylor told a reporter on Feb. 15, 2011, “in 1933, he abolished unions, and that’s what our governor’s doing today.”
As Ed Morrissey at HotAir wrote:
[I]t’s a fallacious argument. Hitler was also a vegetarian who owned a dog. Are all vegetarians Nazis? All dog owners? The Nazis aren’t history’s great villains because Hitler opposed public-sector unions. To equate that with Naziism isn’t just reprehensible, it’s downright ignorant and minimizes the actualhorrors of Naziism.
The comparison of legitimate policy debate and legislative action with the Nazi regime (along with all of Hitler’s horrendous atrocities) led the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Milwaukee Jewish Federationto condemn "the hyperbolic use of Nazi and Holocaust references” by protesters in the debate.
But the bigger issue remains: does calling someone a Nazi or comparing them to Hitler mean anything anymore? Or has it become like calling someone a racist? Something that identifies the political proclivities of the personmaking the remark rather than the person receiving it?
Are we so far removed from World War II that we no longer have any clear picture of exactly what the Nazis did to those they opposed? Is our teaching of history (excuse me, social studies) so weak and superficial that students can actually think that the duly-elected governor of the state, along with the duly-elected legislative branch, campaigning on the issue of reining in the public-sector unions, is somehow reminiscent of Hitler being appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and then making himself Führer in 1934 as he destroyed any group or person that opposed him?
It cheapens any and every argument made on this issue when Hitler analogies are used. I recommend that all Wisconsin teachers (well, all teachers actually) take a remedial course in Western Civ, with particular emphasis on early 20th-century history and the rise of fascism in Europe, before they ever again compare any U.S. politician with Hitler.
Wahrheit über alles.
Truth. Above. All.
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Comments :
Re: Hitler Jumps the Shark
Great post, thanks for this.
Jan '11
Re: Hitler Jumps the Shark
Because "Thou shalt demonize thine opponent" is a commandment, if not the primary commandment, of leftist/progressive/socialist politics and debate. Hitler just happens to be the most-recognizable of demons in the nation's collective conscience, so they just go for the lowest-hanging fruit.
Jun '10
Re: Hitler Jumps the Shark
Great post. Most leftist protesters don't bother to read history (they merely react to caricature). I'm re-reading Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism, and his premise that fascism is a phenomenon of the left is unassailable. To the best of my knowledge, lot's of leftists have attacked his book but haven't dented his historical and political analysis.
As to why leftist protesters use Nazi references whenever anyone to the right of Joe Lieberman (including, ironically, Lieberman, who is an orthodox Jew) does anything they don't like, it's pure intellectual laziness. In fact it's pure laziness--all you need is picture and a black marker to do the little Hitler moustache.
I hope they keep doing it. I can't help but believe that the vast majority of Wisconsin voters know that their governor is not anything like Hitler (the protesters keep forgetting to notice that the bill passed by majorities in both houses and was signed by the Governor--yes, Hitler was democratically elected, but that was the last democratic act in Germany during his reign).
It's so over-the-top, I can't believe they believe it helps them.
Edited on Mar 23, 2011 at 10:59amMay '10
Re: Hitler Jumps the Shark
Anne Coletta
But the bigger issue remains: does calling someone a Nazi or comparing them to Hitler mean anything anymore?
You're absolutely right. The real tragedy is that Hitler has become off-limits in reasonable debate due to frequent misuse by hysterics and propogandists. Consequently, the worst evils of the past century are dismissed as flukes, rather than predictable events which are relevant to our own time.
"Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it."
Much of modern life reflects the 1930s. Certainly, much as changed, but not so much as to protect us from a similar social catastrophes. Jonah's book should be read alongside Steyn's America Alone. Current demographics, economics and reigning ideologies do not paint a pretty picture.
There are national leaders in the Middle East who publicly praise Hitler. Abbas did so, and American politicians treated him like a peacemaker.
May '10
Re: Hitler Jumps the Shark
Hitler outlawed unions. Therefore, what? Anyone who outlaws unions is akin to Hitler? Non-sequitor. The infamous Nazi Party's 25 points were conceived by Hitler himself. In it, Hitler expresses his support for government schools, government control of the healthcare industry, and increasing pensions for the elderly. This would make liberals bona fide fascists if we take the woman's insinuation seriously.
Feb '11
Re: Hitler Jumps the Shark
I recommend that all Wisconsin teachers (well, all teachers actually) take a remedial course in Western Civ,
No point. Half the remedial course would be about women's studies. Maybe more than half, to make up for what was not taught first time around. Most of the other half would be about Europeans' oppressing everyone else.
Feb '11
Re: Hitler Jumps the Shark
The Nazi rise to power had a great deal to do with the prevalence of political violence in Germany during the inter-war years: there were Brownshirt organizations long before there was official Nazi control of the means of violence. The kind of thuggishness that is being promoted by teachers-union supporters in Wisconsin, and by "progressives" throughout the country, bears more than a little resemblence to this phenomenon.
Jul '10
Re: Hitler Jumps the Shark
I worry about the increasing insinuation of crypto-Nazi symbolism on Wheel of Fortune.
Aug '10
Re: Hitler Jumps the Shark
Israel P.: I recommend that all Wisconsin teachers (well, all teachers actually) take a remedial course in Western Civ,
No point. Half the remedial course would be about women's studies. Maybe more than half, to make up for what was not taught first time around. Most of the other half would be about Europeans' oppressing everyone else. · Mar 23 at 1:10pm
These are the creeps teaching trash. Who said that any course description that ends in "studies" isn't really a course to impart knowledge ?
Are these same screeches that coined the phrase "Holocaust of Stonewall " ?
Jul '10
Re: Hitler Jumps the Shark
The comparison has become such a farce that when I meet someone I immediately say,"Hi, Hitler." It gets the eventual issue out of the way and it keeps them from using it against Me since I used it first.
Jun '10
Re: Hitler Jumps the Shark
I wanted to write a post on this theme but am glad I didn't get to it. You did a much better job than I would have. The Hitler reference is getting so ridiculously old and stupid, that it's pointless. Meanwhile, Labeit's comment ought to be paraded around everywhere libs protest. Thanks for the great post Anne.
Re: Hitler Jumps the Shark
Why not something even more banal?
"Hitler drank water too."
Hey, don't those Wisconsin union bosses also ingest that H2O stuff?
Feb '11
Re: Hitler Jumps the Shark
Naziism and Communism...Sebastian Haffner, who grew up in Germany between the wars, drew an interesting portrait of two acquaintances, one a committed Nazi and the other an equally committed Communist:
“They both came from the ‘youth movement’ and both thought in terms of leagues. They were both anti-bourgeois and anti-individualistic. Both had an ideal of ‘community’ and ‘community spirit’. For both, jazz music, fashion magazines…in other words the world of glamour and ‘easy come, easy go’, were a red rag. Both had a secret liking for terror, in a more humanistic garb for the one, more nationalistic for the other. As similar views make for similar faces, they both had a certain stiff, thin-lipped, humourless expression and, incidentally, the greatest respect for each other.”
Haffner's memoir is an invaluable source for anyone interested in understanding what happened in Germany. My review is <a href="http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/11181.html">here</a>.
Feb '11
Re: Hitler Jumps the Shark
Sorry for bad link...review of Haffner's book here.
Mar '11
Re: Hitler Jumps the Shark
Thanks for all your comments. It seems to me, after watching numerous videos of the protesters (thanks, Ann Althouse and Meade), that most of those making the Hitler comparisons really had very little sense of what they were saying - they just picked up the meme of the day and repeated it. Very sad, actually, when you realize that most of those protesting were either teachers or students.
Feb '11
Re: Hitler Jumps the Shark
When anyone does something of which a liberal disapproves they did it because they are "evil". If the liberal really disapproves then it must be really evil. Hitler is a placeholder for "as evil as it can get", which in turn is a placeholder for "I could not approve less".
If it weren't such serious business much of the time, it would be fun to add up all the many things that the most tolerant among us do not approve of.