Sunday, October 03, 2010

Glenn Beck loves Hitler, hates Wilson

If you're a conservative, does it seem right to you that Glenn Beck often compares President Obama to Hitler?  Does it seem like a fair comparison and one that advances the critical dialogue between different perspectives in American politics?  Does such an outrageous claim do anything but divide Americans?

If so, read this and see if you feel the same way.
When the subject turns, as it usually does, to President Obama, Beck again sees lessons from history. In particular, he has seized upon two individuals who he believes provide excellent historical parallels to the 44th commander in chief: Woodrow Wilson and Adolf Hitler.
...
At the heart of Beck's technique of amplifying fringe theories is his obsession with Nazism. For much of the past 70 years, there has been an unwritten rule in U.S. political debate: Avoid Hitler accusations. Once you liken your opponent to the Nazis, any form of rational discussion becomes impossible. But Beck, it seems, has a Nazi fetish. In his first 18 months on Fox News, from early 2009 through the middle of this year, he and his guests invoked Hitler 147 times. Nazis, an additional 202 times. Fascism or fascists, 193 times. The Holocaust got 76 mentions, and Joseph Goebbels got 24.
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As silly as it all sounds, there is something deft about Beck's Obama-as-Nazi allegations. In most cases where someone hurls "fascist" allegations, it's usually the left aiming them at the right. Conservatives, meanwhile, throw the "communist" charge at the left. But Beck found a way around this paradigm. Progressives, he figured, are responsible for both fascism and communism. Conservatives, by contrast, are the opponents of both.
Ironically, demonizing your enemies, teaching a fake history and constant fearmongering WERE tools of the Nazis.  Tools that Glenn Beck uses every day.

Just sayin'.

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