Posts
since Wed, 26 Dec 2007 20:04:17.
The New All-Purpose Right-wing Accusation
Glenn Greenwald wrote an interesting article for Monday's Salon on the use of Hitler and Nazi as political slurs.
Glenn Greenwald wrote an interesting article for Monday's Salon on the use of Hitler and Nazi as political slurs.
Here is a brief excerpt.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/10/01/nazi_insult/index.html?source=newsletter
UPDATE: I sent the following e-mail to the ADL, and will post a response if I receive one. The Simon Wisenethal Center does not seem to have a contact e-mail for media requests, so I intend to call them with the same inquiries:
I've written a piece today in Salon (which can be found here) on the virtually daily use of "Nazis" and "Hitler" as a political insult by Fox News and right-wing talk radio, particularly directed against liberal and anti-war groups such as Daily Kos, Media Matters and MoveOn.org.
In the piece, I examine the ADL's silence in the face of this constant, trivializing use of these terms on Fox News, and contrast that silence to past denunciations from the ADL and Abraham Foxman when such terms have been used (in much less significant contexts) by the Left.
I would like to include a reaction from the ADL and Mr. Foxman in this story. I also intend to write a follow-up article and would like to interview Mr. Foxman and include the ADL's formal position there. Does the ADL plan to denounce and condemn the casual use of these terms as a political insult from the likes of Bill O'Reilly, Mark Levin and Fox? Just a fraction of them are documented in my story.
If I could interview someone at the ADL, or if you would like to send a written response, please let me know and I will include it.
Thank you -Glenn Greenwald
I remember a history rather different from Greenwald's description in his article. Until recently, the US right simply was not very much interested in accusing its opponents of similarities to Hitler or to the Nazis. The all-purpose right-wing slur was something like "commie-pinko."
The Nazi or Hitler charge was much more common on the political left. Some of Nixon's crtics on the left accused him of Nazi sympathies during the 70s.
During the first Bush administration, Buchanan was occasionally depicted as a crypto-Nazi. Buchanan's critics may have claimed to criticize him on liberal or leftist grounds, but the real issue was his hostility toward the Israel Lobby, whose Neocon wing was competing with Paleocons like Buchanan for ideological dominance in the Republican Party.
During the 90s as more information became available to the public about Soviet mass murder, ethnic cleansing and genocide and about the ethnic Ashkenazi role in such atrocities, the organized Jewish community became more insistent on controlling genocide discourse in the USA as an aspect of anti-anti-Semitism. The new prevalence of Hitler and Nazi slurs on the right just indicates the dominance that Neocons have achieved over the Republican party.
If we had rational political and academic discussions with regard to Hitler and the German Nazis, it would make far more sense to compare the primary German Nazi ideological writings with common modern political programs. In that scenario the American public would learn that modern Jabotinskian Zionism, whose American face is Neoconservatism, is the most similar to German Nazism of all living political ideologies.
Sphere: Related Content
The Nazi or Hitler charge was much more common on the political left. Some of Nixon's crtics on the left accused him of Nazi sympathies during the 70s.
During the first Bush administration, Buchanan was occasionally depicted as a crypto-Nazi. Buchanan's critics may have claimed to criticize him on liberal or leftist grounds, but the real issue was his hostility toward the Israel Lobby, whose Neocon wing was competing with Paleocons like Buchanan for ideological dominance in the Republican Party.
During the 90s as more information became available to the public about Soviet mass murder, ethnic cleansing and genocide and about the ethnic Ashkenazi role in such atrocities, the organized Jewish community became more insistent on controlling genocide discourse in the USA as an aspect of anti-anti-Semitism. The new prevalence of Hitler and Nazi slurs on the right just indicates the dominance that Neocons have achieved over the Republican party.
If we had rational political and academic discussions with regard to Hitler and the German Nazis, it would make far more sense to compare the primary German Nazi ideological writings with common modern political programs. In that scenario the American public would learn that modern Jabotinskian Zionism, whose American face is Neoconservatism, is the most similar to German Nazism of all living political ideologies.
5 comments:
Neocons may use the Hitler and Nazi slurs not so much because of new knowledge about the Soviets but as a way to deflect criticism of Israeli policies that have become much more obviously genocidal since the middle 90s.
There is a simple slogan that should apply across the board in political debate: the first one to mention Hitler loses.
Speaking of "Soviet mass murder, ethnic cleansing and genocide and about the ethnic Ashkenazi role in such atrocities," was the Zionist movement tied in with the Russian Revolution? I have read that the Talmud text was altered in the 19th century so that the Amalek - ultimate enemy became the Arabs and Muslims (absurd considering that Islam rose about 1200 years after the Talmud was written.) This of course was the perfect propaganda tool to position Ashkenazi attack dogs as they filtered into Palestine prepping for the ultimate take-over.
Also, regarding the Armenian genocide by the Young Turks, I had read that Armenian intellectuals living in Turkey and influenced by Russia planned an uprising in Turkey where they were slaughtering village Turks etc believing that the Ottoman Empire was ripe for the plucking. The so-called genocide (box cars to Syrian prisons was it?) was a direct reaction to the Armenian attempted take-over. Was that tied in with the Zionists too? Or am I screwing the whole thing up.
Generally Lenin considered the General Jewish Workers' League (the Bund) and the Zionist movement competitors for Jewish hearts and minds.
While Soviet Ashkenazi and Zionist Ashkenazi genocidalism have strong similarities, in general Soviet Ashkenazim and Zionist Ashkenazim did not work together until recognition of the State of Israel became an issue.
In point of fact the final redaction of the Babylonian Talmud and Muhammad's apostleship take place at about the same time. Medieval Rabbinic and Karaite Judaism crystallize after Islam and at least in part in response to Islam.
Interpretations of Talmudic and Biblical text can respond to current events, and no one should be surprised that Jews might associate Amalek with their current perceived enemy du jour.
Some conspiracy theorists propose that Thessalonican Sabbatians allied with Russian Ashkenazi Zionists created the Young Turk movement.
It is an entertaining story that seems to have arisen because Atatürk was born in Selanik (Thessalonica) and at one point is supposed to have attended an Alliance Israelite Universelle school.
Sometimes coincidences are just coincidences. The Selanik Sabbatians were the remnant of another failed Jewish Messianic movement and did not have much connection to Russian expansionsionism, Zionism or the Young Turk movement. Because Sabbatians tended to have higher incomes and more education, they may possibly have had a larger tendency in the late 19th and early 20th century to involve themselves in Ottoman reformist politics than other Ottoman subjects.
Glenn Greenwald has posted a follow-up to his discussion of the Hitler/Nazi slurs at Follow-up to the silence from the ADL regarding Fox News and right-wing talk radio.
Post a Comment
Comments are moderated.