That tweet is really odd. Erwin Rommel was almost as ethical as von Thoma (Rommel was forced to commit suicide by Hitler, but von Thoma decided that Hitler was mad and surrendered to Montgomery.)
I am becoming disappointed at all this citing of Nazis. Where we are now is the English speaking world in 2017. “Othering” Trumpists and Bannonites by calling them Nazis (which, mea culpa, I have done myself in the past) is not helping in my view, any more than calling them “Neanderthals” or “Cave dwellers”. It’s deflection from admitting that this is what part of our own society has become as a result of choices we have made in electing politicians, reading and viewing media, and listening to propaganda.
Auden wrote “Accurate scholarship can unearth the whole offence from Luther until now that has driven a culture mad”. He’s hinting there that Protestantism may be a factor and from what I remember of theology, he may well have a point. Protestantism encourages nationalism, exclusion and othering in a way that Catholicism since the counter-Reformation usually doesn’t. But, continuing Auden, we need to ask “What huge imago made a psychopathic god.”
Spicer may be despicable. Colbert may be despicable for playing along with him. But in the light of burning buildings in Yemen and West Mosul, the support for a far-right government in Israel, the almost casual shooting of black men and women, the apparent provocation of war on the Korean peninsula, and the creation of asset bubbles that extract money from mostly poor people, it’s pretty small stuff. It’s like being in a room full of poison gas shells and complaining about the colour of the hazard labels.
(rant over for now)
