The strategic blunder of ‘Trump-as-Hitler’

[PaulinVA]

Seriously?

A demagogue demonizing the press so that the people stop believing the truth and think that everything the press says is lies, or fake.

The rise of nationalism. The scapegoating of a minority.

 

[exnihilo]

So the press was reporting the truth? I know that isn’t true. The press as always been political. In modern times the corporatization of the press made them especially big liars.

 

[PaulinVA]

So the press was reporting the truth? I know that isn’t true. The press as always been political. In modern times the corporatization of the press made them especially big liars.

Hey, it’s working!

 

[exnihilo]

What is working?

 

[JimG]

It seems paradoxical. Many of those on the left are in a near panic, fearing a looming right wing facism. At the same time, many on the right fear a looming left wing wing persecution of Christians especially Catholics and Evangelicals. And not without reason, if Rod Dreher’s correspondence is to be believed. See for example his column here, warning Christians to be prepared for the worst, because it is coming with a vengeance.

 

[Zzyzx_Road]

Goebbels would proud to hang out with CNN. They’re both cut from the same cloth.

 

[petra22]

Many of those on the left are in a near panic, fearing a looming right wing facism.

But I’m fearing LEFT wing facism while they are yelling RIGHT wing facism…

Fascism is a way of ruling that advocates total control of the people. Your parents’ rule that you must be home by midnight might seem like fascism, but Europeans will tell you that it could be a lot worse.

**The word fascism can be hard to spell, so remember that the c comes after the s. Fascism comes from the Latin fascio, meaning “bundle, or political group.” In fascism, the people are looked at as a bundle — one body that must be controlled by the government with absolute force. There’s no option to vote, no chance to impeach a leader, and no freedom to stand up against the governing body.
So stop with the facism on the right… it’s not there, but it might be growing on the Left…

 

[Zzyzx_Road]

In this country, the left has always been where most violence originated. We had thousands of bombings in the 1960’s and the 1970’s. Think Weather Underground and others of that ilk. All leftists. Now we’re being promised more of the same. Many leftists still refuse to accept the results of the 2016 election and have already committed acts of violence and numerous acts of harassment to express that sentiment. Now in the light of the events of recent days, we’re being promised more of the same.

When Maxine Waters yells “you ain’t seen nothing yet”, gets applauded for it and wins 80% of the vote in her district; when a prominent progressive writer who has written for the New York Times says “this is just the beginning” and goes on to say “The day will come, sooner than you all think, when Trump administration officials will look back fondly on the time when all they had to worry about was getting hollered at at a Mexican restaurant”; yet we still have people here who fear fascism on the right. That’s just plain cognitive dissonance right there.

 

[gracepoole]

You believe white nationalists are liberals?

White supremacists committed most extremist killings in 2017, ADL says

White supremacists and other far-right groups committed the majority of extremist-related murders in the United States last year, according to a new report by the Anti-Defamation League.

www.nbcnews.com

White Nationalism as Much of a Threat as ISIS

The bureau currently has 1,000 open investigations into domestic terrorism, and the same number for groups linked with radical Islamist ideology.

www.newsweek.com

 

[Zzyzx_Road]

The problem there is that the ADL has little credibility for their criteria of what constitutes a white extremist killing is very expansive. Other groups count them in a more reasonable manner and hence actual numbers are generally lower than what the ADL claims. That’s straight from the article you cited, by the way.

The FBI has little credibility as well: this is the organization whose leadership has been out to get Trump by any means necessary and continues to stonewall Congress over just how far they went. Which means they’ll tag white nationalism to a much greater degree than the Antifa even though the Antifa and the BLM did more damage across the country.

Try to read Hamilton Nolan and tell me I’m making a mountain of a molehill with a straight face. He doesn’t come out and threaten Trump backers with violence, but he does hint strongly at it.

 

[Theo520]

If Trump is not acting Hitler like, why do the United States seem like Germany in the 1930s?

From all I read we have little in common with 1930 Germany. Please support that broad generalization.

Our economy is good, we didn’t lose a war and get our ego bruised, or have to pay reparations while experiencing hyper inflation…

I also see no relevance to the dictator comparison. Mostly it seems Trump is calling Congress to do their job, not usurping their power.

In contrast, Obama repeatedly did exceed his constitutional authority with EO’s, though I wouldn’t make the Hitler comparison, just the slight shift towards dictatorship and away from our oft ineffectual rules of the republic. Our democracy is often seen either a blessing or a curse, depending on which side of the aisle you are sitting and whether your party is in power or not.

 

[robertmidwest]

This article is excellent. I wonder if he knew he was writing such a prophecy in 2015?

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/noah-baron/donald-trump-isnt-hitler_b_8751676.html

With increasing frequency, commentators and Facebook philosophers have taken to comparing Donald Trump to Hitler; they should stop. Donald Trump is awful—he’s racist, he’s Islamophobic, he’s a bigot, he’s an idiot—but he isn’t Hitler.
These repeated comparisons are as ignorant of history as they are offensive to those of us who lost ancestors in the Holocaust. Trump’s ideology is substantively different than that espoused by Hitler.

Trump is not Hitler, and this is a bad comparison, and people should stop making it.

 

[Theo520]

This article is excellent.

Yes, an excellent article.

But the comparisons will not stop.
How can the party of Ad Hominem forgoe using such a powerful ad hominem.

They really don’t care that it doesn’t fit, it just sounds too good rolling off the tongue.

 

[dvdjs]

How can the party of Ad Hominem forgoe using such a powerful ad hominem.

Absurd.
Can you provide evidence that justifies your label of the party?
In particular can you show the use of ad hominems by party leadership in a number that is markedly greater than that of the Republican party leader, Trump?
Good luck with that.

Perhaps you really don’t care that it doesn’t fit, it just sounds too good rolling off the tongue.

 

[robertmidwest]

But the comparisons will not stop.
How can the party of Ad Hominem forgoe using such a powerful ad hominem.

They really don’t care that it doesn’t fit, it just sounds too good rolling off the tongue.

Trump milks it. The media is busy covering Maxine Waters and the Red Hen stories while his agenda rolls along.

How does denouncing Trump help Heitkamp or McCaskill will re-election?

 

[Monica83]

Sometimes they switch it up and use Mussolini.

 

[F_Marturana]

I sadly see your point.

If you are interested, look up Umberto Eco’s essay on Ur-Fascism.

In my humble opinion, the two most recent debacles the, “Let’s wine, dine and compliment an evil tyrant, and salute his military officer” debacle and the “Let’s criminally prosecute asylum seekers (even though international law prohibits it) and take their kids away without a receipt” debacle, are bad enough.

The support for these things here by Catholics really have left me shocked and saddened and scandalized.

Thanks for participating still here. God bless.