October 6, 2018

A retired law professor just unseriously hoped that Vox has hit rock bottom.

Here's what I'm looking at:



Oh, isn't it interesting? There's a new essay that purports to see “troubling similarities” between Hitler's Germany and present-day America. And it's "different" from all the old essays that already claimed to see and be troubled by similarities. It's a choice to highlight similarities when there are also differences. For example I could say that there are similarities between Hitler's gesture in that screenshot and Melania's. There are also differences, and it would be a choice of mine to accuse Vox of juxtaposing those images as a way of saying Melania is like Hitler. I could just as well say those images were juxtaposed as a way to say Melania is different from Hitler. Or maybe there's no juxtaposing at all, and it's pure happenstance that Melania got tucked in over there, to the right of Hitler and underneath "Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation will delegitimize the Supreme Court — and that’s good/It’s time America woke up to the radical right that’s run the Court for years."

That's some hyperventilating by Matt Yglesias, and I don't know where he gets the authority to "wake up" America to what's really going on at the Supreme Court. You know, Vox touted that new essay about America and the Nazis precisely because it is written by "one of America’s most eminent and well-respected historians of the Holocaust." And now here comes Matt Yglesias, who is not an eminent and well-respected Supreme Court scholar, and he's eager to wake us up to the "reality" of the "radical right" that's been "run[ning]" the Supreme Court and to explain why it's good for the Supreme Court to be "delegitimized."

When the Supreme Court gives lefties outcomes lefties like, they want conservatives to stand down and accept that the Court is doing proper, even brilliant, legal work. It's analogous to what I call "civility bullshit." You propound belief in something when it serves your interests, but you violate it without a care when your interests go the other way.

I'm interested in this word "delegitimize." I wonder, is it "delegitimize" or "delegitimatize"? The OED doesn't contain the word "delegitimatize," but "delegitimize" is only a subentry, under the entry for the prefix "de-" and without a definition, just 2 historical examples, the oldest of which is from 1969. What a year, 1969! I can't link to the OED, but let me cut and paste this telling quote:
1969 C. Davidson in A. Cockburn & R. Blackburn Student Power 349 People will not move against institutions of power until the legitimizing authority has been stripped away... And we should be forewarned; it is a tricky job and often can backfire, de-legitimizing us.
It looks like we're seeing the word coined right there! It works because we already know "legitimize." But is it "legitimize" or "legitimatize"? Both "legitimize" and "legitimatize" have been around since the 1600s.

"Legitimatize" is defined as "To make legitimate; to serve as a justification for (something); spec. to make (a child) legitimate by legal enactment or otherwise." The OED tells us it's rare, but John Cheever used it in 1961:
1961 J. Cheever Jrnls. (1991) 152 The most important thing he did for me was to legitimatize manly courage.
Harrumph! Sounds right wing. Let's check "legitimize." The OED refers us to "legitimatize" for the definition but does not warn us that it's rare. I guess people don't like too many syllables.

147 comments:

Jack Klompus said...

Yglesias is, was, and always will be a blithering idiot and the poster child for how overrated a Harvard degree is. He is an utter moron.

mikee said...

Simple solution: stop looking.
Every once in a while, idiocy can be safely ignored, all the time.

rehajm said...

Lefties have another hard day ahead. The dopamine from seeing this will help them get going today.

n.n said...

Deligitimize. Deplatform. Close associations.

clint said...

Well, we do have angry mobs roving the halls of the Senate...

I'm not sure that's specifically a Nazi thing, but it really can't be a sign of anything good.

RK said...

There's a persistent need to keep cranking it to eleven. It's a resistance movement and so they have to keep moving. After the Nazi comparisons get boring, where else is there to go?

Michael said...

Of course those finding "troubling similarities" between pre-Nazi Germany and the US of today always, always, fail to note that the U S did not suffer a crushing defeat in a recent war, followed by the requirement for the payment of outrageous reparations, followed by massive unemployment, folllowed by triple digit inflation, all while humiliated by a world press. But otherwise literally pre Nazi America.

Fernandinande said...

Now, as Browning points out, “Trump is not Hitler and Trumpism is not Nazism.”

That Browning guy sure is knowledgeable and even-handed for a white male!

Skimming the fake-opinion article, "Republican Party’s commitment to extreme tactics in pursuit of its policy goals in particular" are voter-ID and gerrymandering.

Sorry, that's not very scary at all.

Rob said...

What a wonderful clip! Ann, you are a goddam treasure.

Michael K said...

This thing is even radicalizing Andy McCarthy at NeverTrump Central.

The world has changed. People who care nothing about norms can no longer be dismissed as a fringe. For generations, left-wing activists have instructed students and other groups that norms are the building blocks of a rigged system that deprives them of power and denies their “selfless” desires.

We don’t want to acknowledge what this has wrought. We have norms because they safeguard foundational principles, such as due process, the presumption of innocence, and freedom from unreasonable and unwarranted police prying. But the Left is no longer attached to those principles. Far from protecting what we must preserve, norms are seen as the redoubts of adversaries who must be not merely defeated but humiliated. Defeat is fine for the enemy at hand, but humiliation is what suppresses prospective challengers. Would you put your family through what the Kavanaugh family has been put through?


De Gaulle, in 1946, said "I am not going to be Kerensky." How much chance do you think Trump being Kerensky?

Civil War is closer than it has been since 1865.

MadisonMan said...

Althouse: If you say "Harumph" you must Link!.

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
n.n said...

angry mobs roving the halls of the Senate

At the Capitol is one thing. The problem is when they rove in baseball parks, private homes, restaurants, airports, elevators, etc., and where The Constitution permits peaceable assembly in public spaces.

Dave Begley said...

What is weird here that both Scott Adams and Power Line (Steve Hayward) have derided the Left for their insane Hitler comparison. When normal people read that stuff and know it is completely wrong and crazy, the Left's credibility sinks even lower.

Scott Adams has been especially strong on this. I guess Vox doesn't read his blog. Stupid.

Matt Sablan said...

It is a good thing we didn't elect the party using violence on Jewish academics, arresting videographers for bad speech, spying on journalists and wanting to disarm the citizenry while creating action committees to inform on the unwoke then.

The Crack Emcee said...

Is "delegitimized" the hot word now, or is it "weaponized"?

I see it everywhere.

Ann Althouse said...

@Rob

Thanks. I never forgot "How many syllables, Mario?" I've been using that catchphrase for half a century now.

The movie is "Putney Swope" and it came out in that great year mentioned in the post, the year I first went to college: 1969.

"Putney Swope is a 1969 satirical comedy film written and directed by Robert Downey Sr. and starring Arnold Johnson as the title character, a black advertising executive. The film satirizes the advertising world, the portrayal of race in Hollywood films, the white power structure, and the nature of corporate corruption."

That's Robert Downey Sr.

Ralph L said...

I wonder if Julio Yglesias has ever considered what decades of liberal decisions have done to SCOtUS legitimacy on the Right.

Ann Althouse said...

"Is "delegitimized" the hot word now, or is it "weaponized"? "

I ain’t lookin’ to block you up
Shock or knock or lock you up
Analyze you, categorize you
Weaponize or delegitimatize you....

sinz52 said...

When liberals speak of "undermining the legitimacy of the Court," they mean its legitimacy in their eyes. Not once do they ever consider its legitimacy in anyone else's eyes.

When it comes to deciding the legitimacy of anything, they don't believe conservatives should get a voice, much less a vote.

Masscon said...

Putney says you gotta have sooouulll!

rehajm said...

Yglesias just seriously and hopefully employed the most overused meme on the internet in an attempt to provoke and influence. If that's not Rock Bottom you can see Rock Bottom from its house.

Drago said...

For anyone who bothers to read or take seriously anything on Vox, I have a Gaza Bridge to sell to you...

Fernandinande said...

John Cheever used it in 1961

Google "ngram" shows "legitimatize" used in 1804, then almost linearly increasing in popularity until about 1970.

1839: "An act the legitimatize and change the name of Lewis D. Hall, to that of Lewis D. Yancey."

n.n said...

You run the risk of a run-on word with "legitimatize".

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I see similarity between a Rather-Mapes throbbing memo and the Blasey-Ford-Rameriz-Swetnick cabal.

Ralph L said...

Took me a bit to figure out who the retired law professor in the post title is.
Now to figure out why xe's unserious.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Yglasias is an angry radical leftwing totalitarian. The real radicals and extremists are on the left.

Once again- Hitler was a socialist.


Drago said...

The news side of Vox began as an idea amongst staffers at the Washington Post who pitched their $10M idea to Bezos who took about 10 seconds to say "no thanks".

But the already existing Vox org which had a handful of online properties, such as The Verge, bought the idea and the Washington Post crew took a walk down the street and set up their "news" shop there.

There was an attempt to draw "serious" journalists to this effort but it was too risky for any established "name" to join.

Thus, Vox was forced to move forward with a stable of completely ignorant and hacky youngsters.

Vox is the reason the term "juicebox media" was created.

Their mistakes, like the Gaza Bridge fiasco, are legendary!

Gunner said...

Matty is an eminent and well-respected victim of the knockout game who tried to deny it.

CWJ said...

"Deligitimize. Deplatform. Close associations."

Can we expect defenestrate next? It seems the logical next step.

mockturtle said...

You may as well just pick up a copy of National Enquirer at the supermarket check stand. Their headlines only sound more implausible.

rhhardin said...

What does a holocaust historian do.

Henry said...

Just reading the subhead of the Holocaust story, I find that the gravedigger of U.S. democracy is ... wait for it ... Mitch McConnell.

Laugh Out Loud.

What role is Mitch McConnell supposedly playing? Is he Sargent Schultz? Or Colonel Klink?

The word gravedigger is a funny way to frame an accusation. Given a body, a gravedigger is a neutral party. Where did that corpse come from, Mitch must wonder. Last I saw, Democracy was alive in Harry Reid's old office. Oh well, it's stinking up the place. I better bury it.

I don't have faith that this article has a strong argument. I have less faith that the author is capable of successful analogy. The click bait fails!

chickelit said...

Swig Bile!

Swig Bile!

Swig Bile!

Unknown said...

When things don't go their way, just remember the Left's rules:

"What's ours is ours, what's yours is negotiable."

rhhardin said...

All the demonstrations within and outside Congress are meant for TV, which means meant for soap opera women. They've got to be a story that interests them to be a story that displaces other stuff.

rhhardin said...

The right half of the blogosphere lives off of what to do about soap opera women and their influence on decisions.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Menendez(D-NJ) would have made a perfect Hitler cabinet member.

donald said...

The VOX kiddies aren’t old enough to know about Godwin’s Law.

mockturtle said...

People's voting habits are correlated strongly with what they read, hear and watch in the media. Not necessarily cause and effect but more like seeking affirmation and confirmation. Next month should be interesting.

Big Mike said...

I could hope that their antics delegitimized the Senate Democrats, but probably not with their base.

rhhardin said...

Right quarter of the blogosphere: is the education of soap opera women possible.

Hagar said...

Hitler was a one idea man, and his idea was to re-start WWI and win it for Germany. Anything else was just grist for the mill and negotiable as needed to achieve the greater purpose.

P.S.
And and but are not interchangeable words.

Quaestor said...

A retired law professor just unseriously hoped that Vox has hit rock bottom.

The curious thing about rock bottoms is the unplumbed depths beneath.

Ralph L said...

Speaking of gravediggers, There's a cartoon at Powerline and elsewhere:

Hillary calls Trump after RBG dies and asks to replace her.
Trump says sure, if it's OK with the undertaker.

Professional lady said...

I just returned from 2 weeks in Poland. It is a beautiful county. The cities are clean and safe, the old and new architecture is beautiful, the parks and churches are lovely, the food is fantastic, and it's relatively inexpensive. As part of my trip I visited Auschwicz. This is not easy or fun, but I felt I had to do it to honor the victims and a family member who was a survivor who I knew as a child (only 10-15% of the people sent there survived). During the tour, no one said a word as the tour guide took us through and explained what happened. I admit I was holding back tears at a few points. There was one exhibit of women's hair - piles and piles and tons and tons. The women were shorn of their hair before they were murdered so that industrial felt could be made of it. This was one point in the tour where pictures weren't allowed out of respect for the victims. I thought how things haven't changed much. Now, babies can be violently killed up to the moment of birth and their little body parts harvested and sold. I look at the latest beautiful little grandchild in the family and shudder to think that she could have been legally brutally killed only weeks ago.

Bruce Hayden said...

"Civil War is closer than it has been since 1865."

I think that is plausible. The problem for the left is that they only have a fraction of the guns, and those who know how to use them. They are the ones trying to delegitimize America and our traditional values, and they haven't hit bottom yet, because they haven't faced the after effects of the upcoming election. Just wait until they have to deal with an increased Republican majority in the Senate, and maybe a 6-3, or even 7-2 majority in the Supreme Court. At some point the Antifa fascist thugs are going to be rounded up and sent to prison, under the Klan laws (essentially going masked to intimidate using violence). And Soros may follow them, since he was a major source of funding. That is going to be when their movement hits bottom, when the rest of the country gets tired of their violent antics, and starts throwing them in jail for their legal transgressions, instead of giving them a pass for being on the right side with those in their self elected elite.

Quaestor said...

There is certainly, beyond question, one thing America has in common with Nazi Germany. The Germans had the Völkischer Beobachter, and we have Vox.

Michael K said...

While the loonies worried about false abuse allegations and demonstrated, China kidnapped the president of Interpol.

This is what real fascism looks like.

The first Chinese head of Interpol, the international law enforcement agency, is under investigation in China, a source has told the Post, amid mystery surrounding his disappearance after his wife reported to French police he had gone missing.

Meng Hongwei, 64, who is also a vice-minister at China’s Ministry of Public Security, was “taken away” for questioning by discipline authorities “as soon as he landed in China” last week, according to the source.
It is not yet clear why Meng is being investigated or exactly where he is being held.
French police said earlier they had launched a search for Meng after being contacted by his wife, news agencies reported.


Nothing to see here. Just China eating our lunch.

Michael said...

If you think the Supreme Court has been "radical right" for decades, you have no idea where the political center of this country is. Clue: it's not where you and your friends think it is. It's much closer to where Trump is.

Paco Wové said...

"is the education of soap opera women possible"

If they become educated, are they no longer "soap opera women"?

Paco Wové said...

"Nothing to see here. Just China eating our lunch."

Hey, we're busy. Those thoughtcriminal physics professors won't punish themselves, you know?

mockturtle said...

Michael K reports: While the loonies worried about false abuse allegations and demonstrated, China kidnapped the president of Interpol.

Yes. At least Al Jazeera reported it. It's a shame we have to read foreign press to get real news nowadays.

mockturtle said...

If they become educated, are they no longer "soap opera women"?

I don't believe logic is a product of education. There are plenty of educated [not just credentialed] folk with no sense of logic.

Michael K said...

More evidence, as if we needed it, of the Democrats disastrous own goal in the Kavanaugh thing.

Going forward, the salient consideration is that the whole approach to slandering Kavanaugh is being revealed as a setup. There is an actual potential crime to investigate:

A friend of Christine Blasey Ford told FBI investigators that she felt pressured by Dr. Ford’s allies to revisit her initial statement that she knew nothing about an alleged sexual assault by a teenage Brett Kavanaugh, which she later updated to say that she believed but couldn’t corroborate Dr. Ford’s account, according to people familiar with the matter.

Leland Keyser, who Dr. Ford has said was present at the gathering where she was allegedly assaulted in the 1980s, told investigators that Monica McLean, a retired Federal Bureau of Investigation agent and a friend of Dr. Ford’s, had urged her to clarify her statement, the people said.

The statement to the FBI offers a glimpse into how Dr. Ford’s allies were working behind the scenes to lobby old classmates to bolster their versions of the alleged incident, as were Judge Kavanaugh’s.

This would have shown up among the FBI Form 302s that senators would have seen when they reviewed the sole copy of the FBI’s 7th investigation into Kavanaugh. They all know about it, and Chuck Grassley, the Judiciary chairman is another senator who is so outraged that he will not let this drop. If the 302 reports merit it, a criminal referral may be made to the Justice Department for suborning perjury or some other charge.


The tapestry begins to unravel.



Gahrie said...

When the Supreme Court gives lefties outcomes lefties like, they want conservatives to stand down and accept that the Court is doing proper, even brilliant, legal work. It's analogous to what I call "civility bullshit." You propound belief in something when it serves your interests, but you violate it without a care when your interests go the other way.

You almost made it. Yes...the left wants to use the courts as a tool to achieve what it wants but cannot get at the ballot box. Especially the Supreme Court. They write absurd decisions talking about penumbras and twist and distort the words and intent of the Constitution to discover new "rights". The Right bitches and moans, but accepts for the most part. No on the Right talks about packing the Court and the Right never makes a serious effort to block Democratic nominations. In other words, the Right acts with good faith.

The Left however does not act in good faith, does not accept the will of the voters and is hysterical that a new majority on the Court will overturn all of their junk laws.

Yet you insist that you are being "cruelly neutral" when you fail to denounce the bad faith tactics of the Left. Neutrality in this case is actually an endorsement of the Left's actions.

mockturtle said...

The tapestry begins to unravel.

The Left's tapestry has been unraveling for at least two years but somehow the yarn fragments just get swept up and thrown away.

The Crack Emcee said...

Ann Althouse said...

"I ain’t lookin’ to block you up
Shock or knock or lock you up
Analyze you, categorize you
Weaponize or delegitimatize you...."

That's like an Ice Cube lyric.

n.n said...

Can we expect defenestrate next?

That was a Hamas-Fatah thing. The Hutu-Tutsi have their machetes. The neo-South Africans had necklaces. Americans seem to favor tar and feathers.

Darrell said...

They could have used that Putney Swope clip at the Kavanaugh hearings, demonstrating how Squi said "fuck."

n.n said...

The tapestry begins to unravel.

More like a ball of yarns, which threatens to unravel with explosive force.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Nixon is Hitler, Reagan is Hitler, Bush is Hitler, Bush is Hitler, Romney is Hitler, Trump is Hitler...

I'm beginning to see a pattern here.

mockturtle said...

In fairness to CNN, at least their website is covering the Interpol story. Not MSNBC, though.

buwaya said...

You do have to read the foreign press, or at least the back pages of the NYT.

The broadcast and cable news are worthless. They used to, at least, run through what amounted to the wire services feed, but no longer. When I started getting the AP feed through Compuserve I wondered about the future of the MSM. Obviously they found a way.

Way long ago in college, and in my employers' facilities I acquired the habit of hanging out near the telex room and grabbing the AP feed there.

Ralph L said...

That was a Hamas-Fatah thing
Czechs beat them to the window.

narciso said...

Well Hamas and Fatah are ideologically distinct although yassin was more ethnically Palestinian than say Arafat who was a circassian

Darrell said...

Nixon is Hitler, Reagan is Hitler, Bush is Hitler, Bush is Hitler, Romney is Hitler, Trump is Hitler...

I'm beginning to see a pattern here.


Some Democrat tried it with Eisenhower, too, but it didn't fly. It's in that long article about Hitler slurs that the National Review--or some such--did a few years ago.

narciso said...

Both are branches of the ilkwan, yassin was not a student of al azhar.

buwaya said...

I find that Al Jazeera does excellent interviews.

chuck said...

It's a right wing plot, and Vox fell for it.

1. Delegitimize #metoo
2. Deligitimize the Holocaust.
3. Deligitimize Vox.

Quaestor said...

Hagar wrote: Anything else was just grist for the mill and negotiable as needed to achieve the greater purpose.

I'm quite sure that's mistaken. When Hitler planned the invasion and conquest of the Soviet Union in late 1940 he told his generals, "We have only to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down." Hitler was so confident of success that the German army was not even supplied with winter clothing or low-temperature lubricants for its tanks. Hitler fully expected his legions would overrun Russia as they had overrun Western Europe. He learned differently by mid-January 1942. By then the Russian winter had descended in its white fury to freeze the Nazi attack in its tracks, the commander of his largest army group had keed over with a fatal heart attack, and the United States had entered the war. Hitler realized his time was limited. Consequently, he gave the order for the "final solution of the Jewish question". The minutes of the Wannsee Conference clearly shows that Hitler's most influential lieutenants understood his policy of extermination of the Jews was the most important facet of the war. Even when the Allies were over the Rhine and the Red Army was poised to strike at Nazi capital the trains that could have delivered troops and munitions to the fighting fronts were busy carry Jews to the camps. In 1942 Hitler faced a choice, and he chose his hatred of the Jews over winning the war.

Ray - SoCal said...

The Interpol arrest seems counter productive.

Same with the tax evasion of Fan BingBing. Basically the fine was designed so she could not pay it,

rhhardin said...

If they become educated, are they no longer "soap opera women"?

The education would be to recognize where what interests them make sense as policy, namely in non-domestic situations. Their interests are for local stuff.

If it's big, think like a man.

They'd still watch soap opera but not vote that way.

Quaestor said...

I'm beginning to see a pattern here.

McCain was Hitler, too. But he got better. It was a case of the newt complex.

chuck said...

> It's a shame we have to read foreign press to get real news nowadays.

I had to read the foreign news during the Kosovo War, and that was 20 years ago. Ah, it was a golden age, no paywalls, Matt at the Telegraph, and the Guardian wasn't insane.

buwaya said...

As for the Vox article, your problem is not in the medium (Vox, or Iglesias) but the origin, the article by the distinguished professor. This is that old academic problem, where the universities breed a hatred of your society and its traditional culture, or at least of that part of it to which the volk is still devoted.

It is, all of it, in a state of caste-war, and as educational institutions, their role in the war is to create that enemy caste, through totalitarian means, to the degree possible. The trouble is that this enemy caste constitutes most of your elite.

No political victories will pull you out of this crisis unless this stops.

Ambrose said...

It goes all the way back to FDR. In 1940, Willkie - that's right Willkie - was literally Hitler:


[VP nominee] Henry Wallace, the designated brawler on the Democratic ticket, came within an inch of saying that a vote for Willkie would be a vote for Hitler. “The Republican candidate is not an appeaser and not a friend of Hitler,” the vice presidential nominee said in a speech in rural Nebraska. “But you can be sure that every Nazi, every Hitlerite, and every appeaser is a Republican.”

Olson, Lynne. Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America's Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941 (Kindle Locations 4495-4497). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Dang. I left McCain out. He was totally Hitler.

tcrosse said...

In the 1932 elections, they said of Hitler that he was literally Herbert Hoover.

Howard said...

Vox = Pravda

Joe said...

It's called projection.

jaydub said...

I am curious about the “Nazi” charges and Hitler comparisons vis-a-vis Trump. Is that because he:

- Confiscated all the weapons from the populace so as to leave them unable to defend themselves against his totalitarian government just like Hitler did? No, that can't be it because he supports the 2nd amendment and there are more guns in circulation than ever before.
- Is it because he has banned the political opposition like Hitler? No, the opposition seems to be more alive, more vocal and more threatening to him than when he came into office.
- Is it because he has disbanded the congress and declared himself the supreme leader like Hitler? No, he has the slimmest majority in congress and even his own party doesn't listen to him all the time.
- Is it because he has cancelled elections to cement his control of the government like Hitler? No, there's one next month that is completely up in the air and he may even lose both houses of congress.
- Is it because he has wrested control of the courts from the people like Hitler did? No, federal judges negate his executive orders without consequence, and he seems to have had an extremely hard time getting a confirmation from the senate for his current court nominee even though the nominee was considered to be well qualified by every entity other than the political opposition.
- Is it because he sent the Gestapo into the streets to intimidate the people and suppress their voices like Hitler did? No, there seems to be a demonstration against him and his policies nearly every day, including today. In fact, federal law enforcement agencies and the intelligence agencies are investigating and trying to intimidate him.
- Is it because he has bludgeoned the press into submission and turned their enterprises into state propaganda organs like Hitler did? No, rather than being cowed, it seems the press is openly hostile to him and his government.
- Is it because he established concentration camps to dispose of his political enemies like Hitler did? No, his enemies seem to be totally free to do as they please, when they please and without consequence from the government.
- Is it because he co-opted the universities and destroyed academic freedom like Hitler did? No, the universities and their faculties seem to be the single most vocal elements of his opposition.

Can somebody help me here? Is there any evidence that Trump is really Hitler and that the Republican Party is really the National Socialist Party? Or is this one of those “you-have-to-believe-me-because-I-say-it's-true” things like a rape accusation from a random female? Specifically, should I be getting ready for him to invade the Sudetenland and Poland in the near future, or is all this Nazi talk just rhetorical posturing by a disloyal opposition who has no shame?

Asking for a Nazi friend who wants to join Der Führer but needs to be sure Trump is the right guy.

rcocean said...

Can the first lady bring back the pith helmet?

She looks great in it, but then she looks great in everything.

JaimeRoberto said...

I should buy stock in the manufacturer of Depends with all the bedwetting going on.

Quaestor said...

The trouble is that this enemy caste constitutes most of your elite.

Isn't that always the case in revolutionary times?

Personally, I am looking forward to the coming Blue Terror. I least it will be more interesting than yet another zombie apocalypse.

rcocean said...

Yglesis is a dishonest and hate filled lefty, who hides behind a smokescreen of concern trolling and intellectual verbiage.

Everything he writes is insincere bullshit. However, I've noticed he's reduced the name calling and doesn't call everyone on the Right "racist" every day -as he used to.

rcocean said...

Why isn't anyone "Just like Stalin"?

Why isn't the US just like 1917, Kerensky led Russia?

We never see those comparisons. Or what about 1936 Spain, when the Socialist Government declared open season on Right wing politicians, resulting in Franco and the civil war?

rcocean said...

One of the humorous aspects of 21st Century America, is you can't state any objective historical truth that makes Hitler or Nazi Germany look good, because then some Left wing bozo will call you a "Nazi Lover".

Its like WW 2 just ended yesterday, instead of 73 years ago.

readering said...

Good to know that if Collins and Manchin had voted against cloture folks here would have responded, "well, maybe next time."

Guildofcannonballs said...

Someone can post lyrics to Eminem's Rock Bottom but I ain't.

Ain't nobody can make me neither.

My prerogative.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The left weaponized McCain-Hitler against Trump-Hitler.

It was glorious.
Like Godzilla v. Mothra.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

And he wasn't the only one. He was also joined in this opinion by the last surviving prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials.

But what would they know compared to all that you've accomplished in the way of legal history. Which is.... what, exactly?

Anyway, nice to see you come out of retirement to regale us with your skills in consulting the dictionary and complaining.

There's a little bit of Hitler in everyone. That's the lesson of Hannah Arendt's observation. Right-wing kooks need to stop pretending that comparisons to the uber-ethno conservative nationalist are off-limit. They're not ideologically policing themselves so obviously that will have to be done for them.

Original Mike said...

”I'm interested in this word "delegitimize." I wonder, is it "delegitimize" or "delegitimatize"?”

I have a pet peeve over the “word” “digitilize”. It’s digitize, people!

Gahrie said...

Good to know that if Collins and Manchin had voted against cloture folks here would have responded, "well, maybe next time."

No we wouldn't have of course. But neither would we have started swinging bike locks and breaking store windows. We wouldn't have hounded Leftwingers out of restaurants. We wouldn't have screamed at the sky in rage. We would have nominated someone else, probably even more conservative and then worked to elect Republican senators that could be relied on.

Molly said...

Instead of delegitimitize use delegitimate.

The word legitimate "can also be a verb, legitimated or legitimating, and it means the action of making something or someone legitimate according to the definition above. It has two noun forms, legitimation and legitimator.

Legitimize is simply another verb form of legitimate, a more popular and accepted form. It has two noun forms, legitimization and legitimizer."

In speaking the word legitimate as an adjective is pronounced to rhyme with "mitt" as in a catcher's mitt, the word legitimate as a verb is pronounced to rhyme with "mate" as in check mate.

Francisco D said...

There's a little bit of Hitler in everyone. That's the lesson of Hannah Arendt's observation.

Hannah Arendt talked about the banality of evil men, suggesting that there is a little bit of the ordinary in these monsters.

That is the lesson of her observation. You have made the completely opposite conclusion.

Molly said...

What I put in quotes in my 11:34 comment is from: http://grammarist.com/spelling/legitimate-vs-legitimitize/

Gahrie said...

The trouble is that this enemy caste constitutes most of your elite.

Isn't that always the case in revolutionary times?


Usually to be fair. But the American Revolution was lead by the elites. The Glorious Revolution (Glorious because there was almost no fighting) was also lead by elites.

gilbar said...

Henry Wallace, the designated brawler on the Democratic ticket, came within an inch of saying that a vote for Willkie would be a vote for Hitler.

If any iowan ever needs to be ashamed of their state, let them think of iowan Henry Wallace.
If any american ever needs to be glad of harry truman, let them think of VP Henry Wallace.
If any american needs a good fright, let them think of post WWII with President Wallace

Kevin said...


The dark cloud of fascism is always descending upon Republicans but it always turns out to be composed of progressives and Democrats.


He brought an American flag to protest fascism in Portland. Then antifa attacked him

https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2018/08/he_brought_an_american_flag_to.html


Quote:
Paul Welch came to the downtown protest Aug. 4 to let his political leanings be known.

With pride he clutched his U.S. flag as he moved among the crowd of like-thinking demonstrators.

Soon a group of black-clad anti-fascist protesters, also known as antifa, demanded he lose the flag, calling it a fascist symbol. Welch refused, and a tug-of-war ensued.

Video captured by Mike Bivins, a freelance journalist, shows what happened next.

As Welch and the counter-protesters wrangle over the flag, another masked counter-protester begins to strike Welch's body from behind using a weapon concealed in black fabric.

That person then uses the weapon to club Welch on the back of the head, causing him to collapse instantly. The demonstrator with the weapon wanders off.
--- End quote ---

rehajm said...

I just saw Melania on Fox and she’s traded in the puth helmet for Belloq’s suit and fedora. Voxbait.

rehajm said...

pith.

glenn said...

Nazi Germany? Naaaaa. More like the Weimar Republic.

chickelit said...

jaydub asks: Can somebody help me here? Is there any evidence that Trump is really Hitler and that the Republican Party is really the National Socialist Party?
_______________

I'll help you along a bit and save you some time: Don't forget the Father Coughlin/Rush Limbaugh analogy. Also, it helps to imagine every earnest reporter today in DC imagining him/herself to be William Shirer, especially when they go to Trump rallies:

'I was a little shocked at the faces,' Shirer wrote in his diary, 'when Hitler finally appeared on the balcony for a moment. They reminded me of the crazed expressions I once saw in the back country of Louisiana on the faces of some Holy Rollers...they looked up at him as if he were a Messiah, their faces transformed into something positively inhuman.'

How long before we hear something similar?

3/6/16, 12:46 PM

Achilles said...

The leftists are running the nazi playbook.

That is where the similarities end.

In the US the nazis are being defeated and will not get a chance to murder their enemies.

Yancey Ward said...

I have always thought that Matty Yglesias and Little Ezra Klein were put on this Earth to make the other look smart by comparison, and it doesn't work.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Nazi Germany? Naaaaa. More like the Weimar Republic.

And we know what that gave way to.

All it took was a simple economic collapse. Just like the ones Republicrazies brought us in 1929, in 2008... etc.

One thing you can always count on is for Republicrazies to jerk themselves off to their gilding of the aristocratic segment of the economy as they pave the way for the next economic collapse. It's really all they know how to do.

Well, that and suppressing the vote. No sane republic would vote in the majority for their plans, once they reveal them anyway.

They're used to doublespeak. They have to ram through this horrible nominee, but with social security and Medicare they can happily destroy that bit by bit over time.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

In the US the nazis are being defeated and will not get a chance to murder their enemies.

That's surely not what Trump's supporters and lovers in Charlottesville Virginia thought.

You can tell a politician's goals by his supporters and admirers - like this one, for instance. Loves President Trump. Says he's doing the job he always wished a president could do.

And then there's blog fixtures Screeching Thomas and Michael K., who love Steve Sailer and probably the slightly more benign Steven Molyneux, too.

And then there's this one.

And of course, Pat Buchanan.

Long-term lifelong Republican'ts. We were always told, "Don't worry. They don't control the party."

But now we know that they do. How could they not? Did you actually think the COC Republicans were going to be in charge for ever?

Now that the empty Koch oligarch Republicans no longer run the show, it's fallen away to its nativist core. That's all Republicriminals are: The bigots and the fat cats.

Trump is a crypto-Nazi who openly courts the Nazis while being a secret fat cat. One who massively inflates his personal wealth statement and pretend that he didn't just get it from his daddy.

Your kind of guy.

elkh1 said...

Didn't Pelosi say that the Supremes were like gods when they decided against Kelo in Kelo vs City of New London?

It is the will of the gods that drives the Dems batshit.

Michael K said...

Blogger readering said...
Good to know that if Collins and Manchin had voted against cloture folks here would have responded, "well, maybe next time."


But they didn't, did they ? And Flake voted yes. Even he can sense a trend.

The Democrats went crazy and trashed a decent man who would probably have been a swing vote.

You guys really need to calm down.

Achilles said...

jaydub said...

Can somebody help me here? Is there any evidence that Trump is really Hitler and that the Republican Party is really the National Socialist Party?

It is projection.

The brownshirts need justification for their violence and the best way to do that is call their victims nazis.

chickelit said...

@Ritmo: Now listen, you queer, stop calling Trump a crypto-Nazi or I’ll sock you in your goddam face, and you’ll stay plastered...

Anonymous said...

Vox started at the bottom and has been rolling sideways ever since.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Trump is a self-made charlatan.

ALP said...

I am irritated that Amazon is using PKD's "Man in the High Castle" as the service's answer to "The Handmaid's Tale". Normally, I don't mind TV building on a story/novel, but in this case, PKD had a perfect ending to that story. The ads seem to suggest this season will be an anlogy to the current US climate - big slab 'o red meat to the US = Nazi Germany crowd. I believe history can repeat itself but I also believe 'evil' adapts and will certainly not look like Nazis, as that has already been tried.

Michael S. Kochin said...

In Weimar America, Trump is Rathenau

Achilles said...

Ritmo.

You are a parody. A joke.

You take 100 words to say one thing when 5 would convey more meaning.

You are no longer an addition to this board.

You just post really stupid shit to scroll past.


Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Check this out!

If you Google: "why do right wingers think nazis were socialists", you find two interesting (and troubling for right-wingers, true) results.

https://www.snopes.com/news/2017/09/05/were-nazis-socialists/

http://www.abc.net.au/religion/nazism-socialism-and-the-falsification-of-history/10214302

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Far be it from me to presume that Achilles' vocabulary consists of anything more than 5 words.

Those extra words provided something called "evidence" for why what I believe is true.

If Achilles didn't believe so many untrue things, he probably wouldn't resent that.

Paco Wové said...

"[educational institutions'] role in the war is to create that enemy caste, through totalitarian means, to the degree possible."

Coincidentally, I saw somebody on the Internet just the other day tossing around the idea of "Dissolution of the Universities", a la Henry the Eighth.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Long story short: Right-wingers think Nazis were socialists because they think that Hitler was an honest, stand-up guy and that his organization never lied about its goals.

Hahahah. Explains their faith in Trump.

Achilles said...

readering said...
Good to know that if Collins and Manchin had voted against cloture folks here would have responded, "well, maybe next time."

No.

We knew who you are and we were angry at the quislings like bush and Romney and McCain who would have caved to your depraved assault on due process.

That is why we elected Trump.

We are no longer humoring your violence and intimidation.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Hitler was an "anti-Judeo/Bolshevist" socialist.

Or so he claimed.

Lol!!

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

There goes Achilles devolving into his usual drooling self. Soon he'll be threatening to mass murder his way to a lawful republic, as he usually does.

chickelit said...

Speaking of Charlottesville, why is the trial taking so long to start? Now that the Kavanazi story is receding, doesn’t the media need something new/old to whip up? What’s the holdup?

Leora said...

Hadn't thought of "Putney Swope" in many years. Wonder how it holds up - I think the 'thrown another Jew on the fire" scene in the White House would be considered beyond the pale now and the jive talk would be perfectly comprehensible. You could probably run some of the ads on the Super Bowl now.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I hope Nancy Pelosi takes away our crumbs.

The peasants cannot be trusted with crumbs.
Death to the economy - up with corruptocrats!

Drago said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Drago said...

PPPat: "Long story short: Right-wingers think Nazis were socialists because they think that Hitler was an honest, stand-up guy and that his organization never lied about its goals."

Actually its due to an objective policy-based analysis which aligns with Hitlers rhetoric.

I am sorry that flummoxes you.

But then again, having aligned ypurself completely with those who attack jews and openly root for the destruction of Israel has done something to you that is difficult to characterize.

I would recommend additional therapy for you (cuz we all know it wouldnt be your first time!) But I fear the self-hypnosis and additional fake "recovered memories" would not serve you well.

Drago said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Drago said...

Next up for PPPT, why the mensheviks could not be leftists because, gee whiz, they fought the bolsheviks!

Plus, more on how midwestern corporate farms are partially responsible for human feces on San Francisco sidewalks!



Francisco D said...

Long story short: Right-wingers think Nazis were socialists because they think that Hitler was an honest, stand-up guy and that his organization never lied about its goals.

Does "National Socialist German Workers Party" sound like a right wing party?

Nazis were labelled right wing fascists because it was convenient for the Communist totalitarians.

The MSM labeled the Democrats "blue" because they were scared of the consequences of naming them "red."

The Left has to create its own artificial reality.

Michael K said...

The Left has to create its own artificial reality.

I am puzzled by what is going on with the left. Some of them are reasonable people. A couple are my kids.

We just don't talk about politics and they don't seem to want to either.

Surprising people I know, a woman who is divorced and an artist plus real estate saleslady. She paints paintings that look very feminist. One is a version of the famous Da Vinci ceiling fresco of God and Adam but the God figure is a woman.

She is a big Trump fan and passes out MAGA hats.

Jim at said...

You know, if we were really Nazi Germany, those leftist assholes would've been rounded up long ago.

tcrosse said...

You know, if we were really Nazi Germany, those leftist assholes would've been rounded up long ago

You know, if we were really Nazi Germany, those leftist assholes would've rounded us up long ago

Achilles said...

Soros made good money helping the Nazi's find Jews.

Now Soros is funding a bunch of people who shout and scream and harass people the left disagrees with.

They only actually physically assault them or shoot at them every now and then which the republicans should be grateful for in their eyes.

Just replace white male with Jew in the rantings you see all over twitter and at anti-Kavanaugh rallies.

Quaestor said...

Gahrie wrote: But the American Revolution was [led] by the elites.

We consider them elites now, but then... From the perspective of the elites in 1774, by that I mean the landed aristocracy of England, the guys who made the laws in Parliament, Washington was a failed provincial militia colonel. Adams was an obscure but competent Boston barrister, i.e. a large fish in a small pond, and Jefferson was a nonentity. The only American with any claim to elite status by European standards in 1774 was Franklin, and the Privy Council treated him with disgustingly open contempt when he traveled to London to argue against the "Intolerable Acts". It was that personal humiliation he suffered which transformed Franklin from a conciliator into a revolutionary.

Michael K said...

the Privy Council treated him with disgustingly open contempt when he traveled to London to argue against the "Intolerable Acts".

Yes, that foolishness cost them the American colonies.

Franklin went from England to France where he was a sensation.

Not only did that bring the American Revolution but it was a proximate cause of the French Revolution.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Actually its due to an objective policy-based analysis which aligns with Hitlers rhetoric.

BZZZT! Wrong!

What a surprise. A right-winger caught in a self-serving lie/bout of ignorance.

Drago knows more than the historians. He just does.

And so do the Holocaust deniers. Yep, their superior knowledge is all just self-evident. Mystical. Transcendental.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Does "National Socialist German Workers Party" sound like a right wing party?

Does Hitler sound like a guy who believed in truth in advertising?

I mean, I know he's your hero and all. The pinnacle for how you conceive of integrity.

But take it from anyone who knows more than you... (and everyone does). He was a liar and a propagandist.

Hard for you to believe, right?

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Soros made good money helping the Nazi's find Jews.

Well, since he was Jewish you obviously preferred that he would have just volunteered to exterminate himself instead.

There are so many pretend-Holocaust survivors in Achilles' family. He knows all about this stuff.

Just ask them about the pretend-white-people's extermination and the pretend genocide of the white people that they hid out from and escaped to the Palouse Hills for in, well, whatever year it was.

Probably the year that the movie Braveheart was filmed.

Achilles' family died for Mel Gibson's sins. They died so that Mel could live.

Sam L. said...

"...and without a definition, just 2 historical examples, the oldest of which is from 1969." Correct grammar says that's "older", not "oldest".

Guildofcannonballs said...

I think of Rock Bottom as the Beastie's She's Crafty.

Guildofcannonballs said...

"That's like an Ice Cube lyric."

"And I ain't never did a crime I ain't have to do
But now I'm back with the blacks givin' it back to you
Don't let 'em jack you up, back you up,
Crack you up and pimp smack you up
You gotta learn to hold ya own
They get jealous when they see ya with ya mobile phone
But tell the cops they can't touch this
I don't trust this when they try to rush I bust this
That's the sound of my tool you say it ain't cool
My mama didn't raise no fool
And as long as I stay black I gotta stay strapped
And I never get to lay back
'Cause I always got to worry 'bout the pay backs
Some buck that I roughed up way back
Comin' back after all these years
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat that's the way it is uhh" -Pac

Guildofcannonballs said...

Lyrics
Well this girl came up to me, she says she's new in town
But the crew been said they seen her around
I thought they were right but I didn't want to know
The girlie was Def and she wanted to go
I think her name is Lucy but they all call Loose
I think I thought I seen her on eighth and forty-deuce
The next think she said, my place or yours?
Let's kick some bass behind closed doors!
We got into the cab, the cab driver said
He recognized my girlie from the back of her head
He said a little something about tip to base
So I made him stop the cab to get out of the place
I shouldn't have looked back man I'll always regret it
Something's going on and I'll probably never get it
She was crying like a baby, stupid dumb
It's just too bad that girl's a bum
She's crafty, she's gets around
She's crafty, she's always down
She's crafty, she's got a gripe
She's crafty, and she's just my type
She's crafty
I spent my last dollar to buy a Sabrett
When I seen this girl I could never forget
Now I like nothing better than a pretty girl smile
And I haven't seen a smile that pretty in a while
The girl came up to me she said she loved the show
Asked her to come home and she couldn't say, no
We got the crib, there's Adam and D.
We didn't say a word, they just stared at me
I said, I don't know her just met her tonight
And Adrock started hiding everything in sight
D. pulled me over said, hide your gold,
The girl is crafty like ice is cold!
The girl is crafty, she knows all the moves
I started playing records, she knew all the grooves
He thought she was a thief and D. was right
But I just figured she'd spend the night
When I woke up later in the afternoon
She had taken all the things from inside his room
I found myself naked in the middle of the floor
She had taken the bed and the chest of drawers
The mirror, the TV, the new guitar cord
My remote control and my old skateboard
She robbed us blind, she took all we owned
And the boys blamed me for bringing her home
She's crafty, she's gets around
She's crafty, she's always down
She's crafty, she's got a gripe
She's crafty, and she's just my type
She's crafty
She's crafty, she's gets around
She's crafty, she's always down
She's crafty, she's got a gripe
She's crafty, and she's just my type
She's crafty
She's gets around
She's crafty, and she's always down
She's crafty, she's got a gripe
She's crafty, and she's just my type
She's crafty
Songwriters: Rick Rubin / Adam Horowitz / Adam Yauch

PackerBronco said...

I see a great many similarities between the Nazi's and the American Left today, starting with the fact that they're both socialists ...