Jan 09 2010
Christians, He’s Not OUR Hitler
Many Fundy Christians point their fingers (and their guns) at non-believers, calling us “socialists” and “Nazi-lovers”. This happens even more if you’re a self-proclaimed hippie, tree-hugging, pantheistic pagan, like I am.
Well, the next time somebody accosts you with a naughty word like “fascist“, here’s a spiffy article you can send them. It’s longer than a sing-along set on American Idol, which means they may lose the forest through the trees somewhere around paragraph two, so I’ve included a snip to share.
Only thing I take issue with in the article - it fails to go beyond the “Christian” insanity, which, to be fair, is probably largely due to the fact that one article can’t unearth every worthwhile topic under the sun. But, for the record, if a person can open his / her eyes and perceive with a modicum of rationality, that the Nazi tactics are very much alive and well in our corporatacy, most notably by way of the media. TV, newspapers, radio.
Do yourself a favor and read / watch / listen to the BBC News Broadcast for a month. See how much differently they spin the stories we hear on this side of the pond. Then ask yourself, “Who has something to gain from the disparity, and why?” If you can stand it, for every hour of BBC News, ingest an hour of FOX News. Then ask yourself another question. “Which broadcasting team sounds rational and which sounds stupider than shit?”
I cannot stomach another hour of FOX News ever (either can my sweetheart, who leaves the room while waiting for his car to be serviced rather than subject his brain to FOX Spew), so if you’re like us, try it with CNN. It’s only mildly better than FOX.
Which reminds me, yesterday I was without my satellite radio and was treated to local broadcasts - the news slant they use is equally twisted as FOX News.
If you value your own intellect, do it a favor and treat it to thought food. It’s like the difference between filet mignon and hamburger helper. People who ingest high quality food get fewer colds and flus. People who ingest high quality information get fewer distortions and lies.
To blame Hitler on the Left, to conjure up images of a Left-wing secular-atheist Hitler today (Mr. Obama or otherwise) is not only the height of hypocrisy but it is in complete contradiction of the historical record.Yet from the Nazi Era on, we have been told by Christians that the Nazis were Heathens or Neo-Pagans, despite Hitler’s clear words to the contrary, and despite the fact that the population of Germany, excepting the Jews, was entirely and overwhelmingly Christian. The use of Heathen sacred symbols does not make Nazism Heathen, as even the Anti-Defamation League recognizes...there is no reason to suppose that Sinclair Lewis was wrong when he said, “when fascism comes to America, it will be draped in the flag and carrying a cross.” After all, when fascism came to Germany, it was identically clothed.
.
One response so far
I know I sound like a broken record sometimes… but I can’t help it.
Historical perspective here…
When the Kaiser abdicated the throne of the German Empire, Germany became a democracy. It’s Chancellor, their equivalent of our President, was an old General, weak and past his prime. He could not make the moderate political center hold.
By the late 20’s, Germany’s most active political groups were the Communists and the National Socialists (nicknamed the Nazis). The Nazis proclaimed their Christian faith loudly, countering the ‘faithless, anti-Christian’ Commies, and both parties slugged it out, and shot it out, all over in the streets of Germany and Austria for almost 10 years.
Hitler was losing the political battle on all fronts until the Reichstag, their equivalent of our Capitol, was set on fire, an act of arson. By then, Hitler was newly elected as Chancellor by a very narrow margin, but had rapidly lost his popularity, even in the party he created.
He used the arson, which may have been set by a Nazi, as an excuse to declare martial law. The vote to allow it was done in the smoking rubble of the fire. As soon as he got the power, he used it, and everything else went to hell from there.
As a matter of historical fact, neither Hitler or the Nazis ever gave up their religiosity. The German Catholic faith was intertwined with German’s love of their old pagan rituals, but all of the worst atrocities were cloaked in terms of God’s Will is the Nation’s Will.
Since the German army was comprised mostly of faithful Catholics, the SS went to extreme lengths to cover up the Holocaust in bureaucratic double-speak. It worked only because Germans love high governmental structure, but even then, there was a lot of opposition from members of the high German command.
Hitler had his opposition killed. Without good Generals, their military was doomed to fail, and it did.
Anything the extreme right in the U.S. says that is counter to this in any way is simply ignorant bullshit. But, hey- if pinko, lib, and Commie don’t stick, why not try Nazi? It worked for Hitler, didn’t it?