"Hitler's only kidding about the antisemitism" New York Times, 1922

(I was alluding, clumsily, to “First they came…” Niemöller’s version doesn’t mention Muslims or undocumented immigrants, of course, but uh, yeah.)

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Um… she actually is Jewish? She converted when she married her husband. That doesn’t make Trump’s antisemitism any less odious, but she is indeed Jewish.

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@bibliophile20 that was kind of a big part of my point in specifically referring to Americans. Scary right wing people in Europe are a bit different (though some of them fit the aphorism too)

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I was wondering if Drumpf will tap Clyde Lott to head the USDA so that they can concentrate their research into developing red heifers?

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Yep; I wasn’t critiquing your response; I was contextualizing mine by corroborating yours :slight_smile:

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Newsflash folks:

It doesn’t matter which group is first on the list for extermination/subjugation/exploitation; no matter who they come for first, anyone who considers themselves a decent human being that cares about more than just themselves must stand up and oppose it.

For many years, I utterly loathed Glenn Beck for diluting the potency of the infamous Martin Niemöller quote on the Nazi’s, now I take the liberty of amending it:

###When they come for the Socialists, I WILL speak out - regardless that I am not a Socialist.

###When they come for the Trade Unionists, I WILL speak out - regardless that I am not a Trade Unionist.

###When they come for the Jews, I WILL speak out - regardless that I am not a Jew.

###And when they come for me - hopefully there will still be enough of us standing in opposition left to speak out for me.

No matter who’s “first,” defend them, in any viable way you can.

(I made this into a meme.)

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is that real?

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I assume so, it came from here:
http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2013/1/17/how-the-press-soft-pedaled-hitler.html

and a different image of the cartoon’s presented here:
http://mideastcartoonhistory.com/1933.html

don’t have access to a library with archives of the NOLA Times-Picayune to verify with certainty though.

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I found a copy at the Jewish News Service, sourced to the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies. Attributed to cartoonist Keith Temple.

Edit: appears to be the same source you found, @nemomen

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Perhaps the cartoonist was scoffing at the notion.

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I don’t know… he thought the point wouldn’t come across without his labeling Hitler’s tie “Hitler.”

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The cartoonist was Dr Seuss himself, and he had a lot of strong opinions on the subject.

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Maybe so. Is is a stretch to you to think an American at the beginning of '33 could sincerely consider Hitler a childish figure whose dangerous theories would be managed by Hindenburg and the conservatives? This was published before the Reichstag fire and March elections that put the Nazis in full control.

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Words are actions. But so are actions:

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I believe from what I read that in the US Christianity is, at last, showing the same pattern of decline that it has in Europe - and I’m sure that the reason for the utterly batshit crazy ideas like you cite is related; cults that feel under threat tend to become more extreme as their leaders try to control the faithful. But, you know, Christian extreme cults tend to self-destruct. (The Jehovah’s Witnesses schism even faster than the various liberation fronts in The Life of Brian, for instance.)
The question is whether a cult like the Rapturists would ever gain real traction. Trump might consider them to be useful idiots - but I suspect that what the Republicans are after now is stability. Stability can be pretty awful - being in shit up to your neck is not pleasant even if it isn’t going up and down very much - but if you read up on equivalent cults from, say, about 900 AD on you will find that the authorities quickly suppress them or transform them.

I appreciate that an awful lot of people are extremely worried - I am extremely worried myself - and I don’t know how far Trump, and the even worse Republicans like Cruz, Ribio, Priebus et al, will actually go. As I say in a post above, I am actually slightly optimistic that Israel’s Dolphin class submarines and nuclear IRBMs will make the new Administration think very hard about who to attack. It’s the Mexicans, I feel, who have most to worry about.

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I’m pretty sure you don’t live in the US and probably haven’t spent much time hanging out with typical Americans off the beaten path. ~83% of Americans are Christians, 42% are Young Earth creationists, 37% are Evangelicals. Rapturists are common, normal, and not only don’t see their ideas as utterly batshit crazy, but aren’t treated or considered utterly batshit crazy by the general populace and rarely have their beliefs challenged anywhere. The Premillennial Dispensationalists (“Rapturists”) have been around for around a century and a half, and are one of the most dominant forces in US politics. While you and I think they’re batshit crazy, they don’t think their views are extreme, aren’t treated as though their views are extreme, they are more common than people who think they’re batshit crazy, and they control the school boards and work to ensure the populace stays poorly educated in any domain where a modern scientific view of the world threatens their dogma. People who think Rapturists are nuts in the US - we are in the minority and those people aren’t the fits of a dying religion - they’re been a consistent presence for ~150 years.

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Something like 41% of evangelicals voted FOR trump while 50% voted against HRC so something like 85% of evangelicals ended up voted for trump. There’s some wonderful values on display there. Seriously though, their vote has nothing to do with morals but everything to do with abortion, purging America of undesirables, and keeping things lined up for the Rapture.

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Everyone needs to watch the film “Look Who’s Back.” The premise is that Hitler is inexplicably transported into the present and goes around in his old uniform trying to revive the Nazi movement. The media assume he’s a comedian and keep giving him a wider and wider platform, until finally people start to listen. You know — like we just did with Donald Trump.

The actor who plays Hitler is phenomenal. The filmmakers truly get Hitler’s personality, diabolical genius and charisma, and the parallels to current events are downright chilling.

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To add to what nemomen said, although not all our standard Biblical literalists believe that the Bible describes a rapture, a large number of them do. (They disagree about the timing, though. Some believe in a pre-tribulation rapture, others in a post-tribulation rapture. They don’t seem to care enough about that to fight over it, though.) Beyond that, basically all literalists (including pretty much anyone who would identify as a Fundamentalist and including many Evangelicals) accept the story of the 144,000 Jewish virgins being taken into heaven as part of the events of the Second Coming.

All those Evangelical politicians who are big on the State of Israel are hoping that Israeli Jews will go rebuild the Temple and hasten the return of Jesus. I lack words.

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Most evangelicals believe this, apart from the weird 144,000 JWs thing. The thinking is that the end times will come after the Battle of Armageddon, which is (was) in Israel. Therefore, Israel must exist as a Jewish state so the end times prophecies can come true and all good Christians can ascend to Heaven. For most evangelicals, whether all Jews return to Israel is not really relevant, though I suspect many would prefer that. It is entirely possible for them to hate Jews and still support the state of Israel with equal fervor.

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