Home  >  The War on Terror  >  The "No Nazi" Rule of Journalism

The "No Nazi" Rule of Journalism

Added: June 14, 2007

It is a common rule among lefty writers who want to maintain their credibility to avoid comparing contemporary American politics to Nazi Germany. The reason is that, really truly, there is no comparison between the two things. The worst thing any American politician in history ever imagined doing is only 1/10th as bad as what the average Nazi did before lunchtime. Seriously.

Whenever lefty folks start calling people "Nazi" or the local police "the Gestapo" I pretty much tune out. I mean, c'mon people. The Nazis enslaved Europe, implemented a huge system of state sponsored terror and murder unrivaled in all of human history and were directly responsible for the deaths at least 15 million people.

Thus, "Nazi" is a big word to use, and unless you are talking about someone who has implemented a system of terror and murder unrivaled in all of human history, or someone who has enslaved Europe, or someone responsible for the deaths of 15 million people, you are using the wrong word. Particularly if you are talking about some local police who got a little nervous at a demonstration and arrested some people, or a judge who interrupted your tirade in traffic court. If they were really a "Nazi" you would not be writing a strident article about your experience in the local lefty rag, you would be face down in the mud at the outskirts of town.

Dead.

So, that is why I avoid comparing anyone to Nazis, regardless of how bad they appear to be. People can do really stupendously amazingly bad things and still not even approach Nazi-grade bad.

Most of the time.

I often refer to the now infamous Rebuilding America's Defenses document produced by the neocons in the late 1990's. This thing is spooky to read, and contains an eerie reference to "a new Pearl Harbor" as being the optimal way to put the American people in the right mood to accept their insane plan for world domination by military force. Read my previous article about it here.

Here is another quote from p. 60 of Rebuilding America's Defenses that I did not follow up on in the first article:

        "...advanced forms of biological warfare
        that can "target" specific genotypes may
        transform biological warfare from the realm
        of terror to a politically useful tool".

Now, just as a stand-alone statement, this is a crazy, crazy thing to put into a public document signed by people who want to be involved in government. Along with the Pearl Harbor musing, this is 100% iron-clad proof that these guys were dangerous, insane, and should have been immediately escorted to the D.C. city limits and barred from government forever.

But - there's more.

As it turns out, the concept genetically targeted weaponry did not start with our home grown maniacs, it goes back to scientists on the payroll of the Apartheid government in South Africa, and - that's right - the Nazis!

Its not all the surprising when you think about it...I mean, of course the Nazis would want a racially specific weapon - that kind of thinking was their bread and butter.

However, this brings me to a spot where I have never been before - a direct parallel between modern politicians (in this case Dubya and his boys), and the Nazis. Not something "similar" to the Nazis, or "reminiscent" of the Nazis, or something "distantly related to a mild version of a side-project briefly explored by the Nazis".

Nope.

This was a really nasty mainstream Nazi project that was a clear manifestation of their oh-so-profound badness. They really wanted it, and they worked really hard on it until the allies succeeded in destroying all of their cities and killing all of their soldiers. Hitler was a big fan of the project - a big fan.

So, readers, for the first time in 20 years of writing and thinking about politics, I can write the following paragraph with the full knowledge that it is accurate, and without the slightest bit of exaggeration:

"In September of 2000, the leading neoonservative think tank "Project for a New American Century" published their landmark blueprint for America's foreign policy future entitled "Rebuilding America's Defenses". The document was signed by a significant number of prominent neoconservatives who later became high ranking members of the Bush administration, including Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Armitage and John Bolton. Along with other projects and ideas that have become official policy since 9/11, there is a wistful reference to the possibility that we might develop biological weapons that would only target a specific genotype, presumably for use on the various brown and yellow skinned peoples who might dare oppose us. Interestingly enough, the concept for this type of weapon is identical to the "ethnic biological weapon" that the Nazis unsuccessfully worked so hard to perfect during WWII".

So there you go...Nazis and Dubya equated in the same sentence, on something substantive, with the hyperbole meter sitting dead still at "zero".

Yikes.

There is a first time for everything I guess eh?


The War on Terror Index

Home  >  The War on Terror  >  The "No Nazi" Rule of Journalism