The Tragic Irony Of The Right Wing's Paranoia and Repeated References To Hitler and Fascism

[TomCADem]

There is a great irony to the right wing's repeated references to Hitler, as well as their casual willingness to lie and accuse liberals of conspiring to engage in the genocide of seniors. The irony is that in condemning President Obama and liberals, and using such over the top lies and imagery to demonize them by comparing them to the Nazis, they are actually engaging in the very same type of propaganda that they allegedly are trying to condemn. The heavy reliance on xenophobia (birthers), accusations that opponents hate them (Limbaugh accusing Obama/Sotomayor of being racists and hating white people) and fear (genocide of the elderly) has disturbing parallels.

My take is that the decision to specifically compare President Obama to Hitler is actually designed to obscure the fact that the right wing's propaganda techniques of accusing their enemies of atrocities to alienate their followers from their political opponents was actually a frequently used technique by Nazi propagandists. It is similar to the technique of accusing the media of having a liberal bias, which actually obscures the pro-corporate sponsor bias of modern media. Indeed, with the images of Hitler now being adopted and carried by members of the right wing, you have to wonder whether they got these materials from this archive of propaganda:

http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/ww2era.htm

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Solving the "Jewish Question": Two April 1933 articles by Nazi leaders.
Neues Volk: Material from the party's racial policy office (1934-1941).
"National Socialist Racial Policy": A 1934 speech on racial doctrine.
A German Catechism: 1934 anti-Semitic material for the schools.
"Why the Aryan Law": A 1934 Nazi pamphlet on racial laws.
Advice for Nazi speakers on anti-Semitic propaganda: What to say in Fall 1935.
Ten Anti-Semitic Arguments: Advice to propagandists in 1936.
Zionism: Zionism as part of the Jewish conspiracy (1936).
"The Eternal Jew": Photographs from a 1937 Nazi anti-Semitic book.
Hitler Youth Material: What HJ leaders said about race in 1937.
Genetics and Racial Science for teachers (1937).
"The 'Decent' Jew": A 1939 essay denouncing the Jews.
"The Panic Party": A 1939 satirical article on Jewish emigration.
The Jewish World Plague: A chapter from Hermann Esser's 1939 book.
Ahasver: A section from a book on the fall of France.
The Jewish Problem: From a citizen's handbook to the Third Reich.
Jud Süß: An ad for the 1940 anti-Semitic film.
Jud Süß: The program for an anti-Semitic film (1940).
A review of the film The Eternal Jew (1940).
People and Race: Material from a Nazi racial monthly.
"When you see this symbol...": A 1941 anti-Semitic flyer.
"The Jews in World Politics": Part of a 1942 pamphlet on the Jews.
Racial Policy: Parts of a 1943 SS booklet on racial theory.
The Jewish World Parasite: A pamphlet from 1943.
Pestilential Miasma of the World: A 1944 book by Robert Ley.
1944 discussion material: A call to annihilate the Jews.
Material from Julius Streicher's Der Stürmer
Cartoons from Der Stürmer, 1933-1944
"The Guilty": A March 1933 article on the Reichstag fire.
"Secret Plans Against Germany": A 1933 call to exterminate Jews.
"The End": A 1935 story alleging Jewish seduction.
"Mailbox": Stürmer readers denounce fellow citizens in 1935.
The Stürmer's Readers: A 1935 article on those who read it.
"Madagascar": A 1938 article on sending Jews to Madagascar.
"The Way to Slavery": An August 1939 editorial by Julius Streicher.
"Bolshevism and Synagogue": A call for annihilating the Jews in 1941.
"The Battle with the Devil": Jews want to destroy Germany (1941).
"When Will the Jewish Danger be Over": A 1942 call for annihilation.
"The Way to Action": A 1943 editorial by Julius Streicher.
"The Death Blow": A 1943 editorial by Julus Streicher.
"The Holy Hate": A 1943 article by Ernst Hiemer.
"What is Americanism?": A 1944 editorial by Julius Streicher.
"The Horror in the East": Streicher's last article in February 1945.
Other Material from Streicher's Stürmer Verlag
"The Jew and Healing": From Streicher's "medical journal" (1934).
The Stürmer's Battle: A 1937 promotional pamphlet.
Trust No Fox...: The first of Streicher's anti-Semitic children's books.
The Toadstool: One of the nastier anti-Semitic productions.
Der Pudelmopsdackelpinscher: Chapters from a 1940 children's book.
The Jewish Question in Education: A guidebook for Nazi teachers.
Photographs of Julius Streicher: The Gauleiter from various angles.

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[Lasher]

1. Blatant projection.

But it's pretty clear who the fascists are.

http://www.oldamericancentury.org/14pts.htm

[subcomhd]

2. Maybe, Probably

but I have, over the years, noticed thatr they always accuse the left of exactly what they are doing just to muddy the waters. Limpballs does it all the time.

[TomCADem]

6. Projection? As Noted In The Archive Documenting Events Leading To The Holocaust...

The Nazis repeatedly accused the Jews of secret plans to kill Germans. So, my worry is that the repeated and casual use of Nazi imagery by the right wing to demonize Democrats and liberals is helping to set the stage for right wing extremists to engage in violent acts. Just think, "They will take away your guns! They will kill your grand parents! They hate white people!" What I wonder, seriously, is whether the similarities in these propaganda techniques and their heavy reliance on fear and violent imagery is an accident, or whether it is by design.

http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/ds6.htm

###

Secret Plans against Germany Revealed

The "Rotterdam Courant," a Dutch news service, released the following interesting item to the world press on 19 June 1933. The so-called world economic conference is still in session in London. It is a conference with a lot of talk and little action. The Jews however have decided to use the conference for their purposes. They announced on 15 July a

Jewish World Conference.

The purpose of the conference is to make decisions and provide guidelines directed against National Socialist Germany. These decisions and guidelines are to be brought to the world economic conference. At the same time, the Jewish conference is to agree on international Jewish policies. The organizers are the Jewish finance lords of England, the Anglo-Jewish Industry and Trade Federation. The conference will be organized by the Jewish attorney Samuel Volkmeyer from America and the Jewish big industrialist Lord Melchett of England.

###

[TomCADem]

3. You Mean Like Beck/Limbaugh Accusing Obama and Sotomayor Of Being Racists and Hating White People?

Yup. I have to agree. The louder the right wing accuses liberals of engaging in a certain type of conduct, the greater the likelihood that the right wing is engaging in the complained of conduct. It is the volume to likelihood ratio.

[Lasher]

5. Right, it's a basic part of Republican genre.

Take their 'class warfare' slogan for example. They throw it out there everywhere, to pre-emptively discourage any progressive response to the actual 30 year 'class warfare' by them and their affluent benefactors against all the rest of us.

[TomCADem]

7. Good one - I Missed The Most Prevalent Form Of Projection, Accusations of Class Warfare

The most notable example was Ronald Reagan attacking "welfare queens." Under Dubya, you had the Bankruptcy Reform, which was touted as a means of going after deadbeat borrowers who were living high on the hog when the reality is that many invidual bankruptcies are caused in part by health related issues.

[subcomhd]

8. Karem Hughes

always accused congressional Dems who opposed Bush's tax cuts of "class warfare."

[subcomhd]

9. oops

meant to respond to you

see: Karen Hughes. Bush tax give-away debate.

[TomCADem]

14. My Question Is Whether Its Projection (Inadvertent) Of Obfuscation (Intentional)?

In other words, is the right wing subconsciously projecting their prejudices, fears and hates on liberals OR does the right wing really know what it is doing, understand that it is being hateful and racist, therefore it tries to obscure this fact by preemptively accusing liberals of being hateful and racist?

[subcomhd]

16. it depends on the individual

the weak minded followers are subconsciously projecting and the leaders like Limbaugh, Beck, etc. are obfuscating - another form of projection as lasher pointed out so eloquently.

[bleever]

4. True. And projection has two forms,

one of them unconscious, a reflex that is beyond control, and we see so very much of that.

But also, the strategic, which is basically people like Rove and Hannity and Limbaugh boldly just standing up and saying, "I know you are, but what am I?" in the most primal schoolyard way, knowing that it gives them leadership over that 27% always willing to hate.

The first reveals the nature of the weak. The second reveals the nature of the evil.

[subcomhd]

10. good post

yep, I was thinking of the first as "projection" and the other as PR. But they are both projection.

"The first reveals the nature of the weak. The second reveals the nature of the evil"

Spot fucking on!

[DefenseLawyer]

11. "Hitler was good in the beginning"

"but he went too far." - Marge Schott, Republican, May 1996.

[yodoobo]

13. I hope she isn't still in office

How people can elect idiots like that is beyond me.

[DefenseLawyer]

15. Thankfully she never held office

She was the owner of the Cincinnati Reds from 1984 to 1999, and a major Republican donor.

[subcomhd]

12. UNION THUGS ARE PREVENTING FREE SPEACH

another one.

[TomCADem]

18. Worse, They Are Now Being Accused Of Racism

Its right wing projection running on hyperdrive.

[texastoast]

17. And the Limpballians just drink that Kool-Aid not smart enough

to know how much they are manipulated. The Reich-wing think tanks can count on them every time.