Hitler Round-Up (Rhetorically Speaking)

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11 responses to “Hitler Round-Up (Rhetorically Speaking)”

1. 

   Zaid

   August 20, 2009

   The video of the woman with the IDF tshirt calling the Israeli a nazi never gets old

2. 

   J.M. Prince

   August 20, 2009

   Profoundly wrong & nonsensical for any number of reasons. But their ‘monster’/fear & hate rhetoric has never matched reality. Not even close.

   What Nazi Medicine looked like from Huff Post here:

   [Concludes]:

   “At the Nuremberg Doctors trial of medical personnel, the judges realized the need to enunciate ethical principles for physicians that would prevent them from ever engaging in such practices. The first principle articulated the universal right of individuals to make their own medical decisions, free from coercion. “The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential,” it reads.

   President Obama’s health plan honors that very principle by entitling the patients to be reimbursed for consultations with their physicians to discuss end-of-life issues. That measure is the essence of humane and moral medical policy–the antithesis of Nazi medicine and Nazi practice.

   (We should also consult with clergy to ensure that decisions are compatible with both science and faith.)

   That is not to say there is no place for a Nazi analogy in this debate. The Nazis rose to power by mastering the art of propaganda, repeating lies so frequently and so widely that eventually people took them as truth. Hence the importance of seeking out the truth, and exposing those who would engage in such deceit.

   Freud taught us about projection: Those who would compare Obama to Hitler or his policies to Nazism ought to look in the mirror.

   [Authors Michael Berenbaum is Professor of Jewish Studies and Director of the Sigi Ziering Institute: Exploring the Ethical and Religious Implications of the Holocaust at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles. He was the project director of the creation of the U.S. Holocaust Museum and is the former director of its Research Institute.]

   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-berenbaum/nazi-medicine_b_258640.html

   For an extended treatise see also the masterful and through treatment by Dr. Robert J. Lifton of Yale on the topic, something he’s studied for more than 20 years.

   “The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide” by Robert Jay Lifton, Paperback, Basic Books, 2000

   http://www.amazon.com/Nazi-Doctors-Medical-Psychology-Genocide/dp/0465049052

   JMP

3. 

   Drew

   August 19, 2009

   I wouldn’t say it’s never appropriate to draw a comparison between a policy and fascism.

   But it’s difficult to see, after a decade in which the government endorsed rendition, torture, and a war waged on the strength of an enormous lie, how a health care bill – whose most oppressive provision is a requirement to buy health insurance – could prompt a comparison to Hitler’s Germany.

   It boggles the mind.

4. 

   Rubyduby

   August 19, 2009

   What was really mature was her response to “8,000 dollars!” Biting my lip hard here, screw these people!

5. 

   Jen B.

   August 19, 2009

   I wish someone would just say it, “Are you really comparing socialized health care to rounding up innocent citizens and their children and gassing them to death? Really?” Because frankly, all of this, “Are you insane?” is not cutting it.

6. 

   Zaid

   August 19, 2009

   It’s not the Republicans’ fault all this is happening, it’s Max Baucus’s.

7. 

   MelGX

   August 19, 2009

   This is so out of control. I’m ready to just ram this down their throats. The Republicans have made a strategic decision to put their political fortunes before the American people, and by so doing have lost the right to any consideration. Let’s get this done before it’s too late.

8. 

   Tom Crawford

   August 19, 2009

   When you are reduced to calling the other side in a debate “Hitler,” you are acknowledging that you’ve lost the debate.

9. 

   Rubyduby

   August 19, 2009

   I wish we could pick our reps and senators from a multiple choice ballot – Barney Frank and Bernie Sanders would definitely be speaking for me then.

   I’m also quite pleased to see that labor is dropping the not so subtle hint that if there is no public option, there will be no 2010 help.

   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/18/labor-warns-dems-well-sit_n_262232.html

10. 

    Jules

    August 19, 2009

    Yeah, you really don’t want to get Barney in a flap, he will fo’sure let it fly!

    What I “love” about the Hitler spewing crew is; they seem to be the very type that would have easily turned their backs and kept silent during the rounding up and shipping off of Hitlers hated targeted populations, Jews, Catholics, gay people, gypsies…. is some kind of delayed “never again” acting out? Doubtful.

11. 

    Rusty Tanton

    August 19, 2009

    That Barney Frank video is so awesome.