MKTBUZZ, you're considering booting Sylvestor for his post. Sylvestor said, "Soros lived though and saw first hand Hitler's Nazis and so Soros can see very well the similarities of the Bush neoNAZIs to Hitler's. You supporters of fascist lying Bush are no different than the German cheerleaders of Hitler. YOU DISGUST ME!"
In my view Sylvestor is often over the top in terms of the tone of his posts and sometimes with respect to the content, however many of us share the view that the same dangerous emotions and manipulations that allowed the Nazis to take control and gain more and more power in Germany are in play in this country. The same appeal to nationalism, patriotism and a propensity to demonize all who counsel a more moderate view are present. The leaders there, as here, were dogmatic thinkers with a black and white view of the world. They, like the U.S. today, were led by an anti-intellectual who saw himself as a great protector of morality and as being obligated to use force to disseminate the "pure" values that he held. Their followers were outnumbered by those that took counter views but their followers were so vocal and so committed in their views that others were cowed into silence. Their message was one that played on the fears of their people and they played that fear effectively to win over the majority.
Sylvetor's suggestion of similarities is one that SHOULD be discussed and should not be buried under the rubric of political correctness. This is especially true at a time when our young men and women are exposed targets in an environment where all of our efforts cannot protect them from those that choose the times and places to kill and maim them.
On this board we sometimes actually ask what are we trying to accomplish, what can we realistically expect to accomplish, what got us here and what lessons in history should we have learned from.
I think the best method of dealing with wrong headed and offensive posts is to reply and debunk the thinking of the poster. You address things differently and that's valid, however I wonder about your evident acceptance of comments from the ultra conservatives that lend no legitimacy to the conversation. I'm referring to the numerous "purge them" and "subhuman" comments of Cyberken, or some of the posts of Johannes Pilch that point out the benefits of slaughtering Muslim men, women and children. Or don't you find that as offensive as posts that find similarities between the Nazis rise to power and the neocons?
If you're going to boot Sylvestor, you might want to boot a few more of us as well. |
