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June 27, 2005
Unacceptable behaviour
Glenn Reynolds points us to this article in the Augusta Free Press:
Potty-mouth politics
I'll wait while you go and read Bruce Kessler's piece.
Done?
I agree with everything in the article.
I would go farther. When 'leaders' such as Howard Dean, Ted Kennedy, Dick Durbin and people with too much influence like Michael Moore, compare the Bush Administration to the Third Reich and get away with it, that same name-calling habit trickles down to the naive, thoughtless, liberal followers. Pretty soon, they are calling all Republicans Nazis, and unless they are called out on the use of that term, they walk away feeling smug and superior.
I ran into this personally last week. I was talking to my lovely sister-in-law on the phone, attempting to steer clear of politics, as she is quite the liberal, and John and I are, well, quite the opposite.
Her husband is the head of the teacher's union in their town, and she was very upset that the teachers got a very small raise in starting pay - $300. I agreed that seemed miserly (but after doing some research, she didn't tell me the whole story - the average pay increase was closer to 4% according to their local newspaper- not too shabby).
She then called the Governor of her state "a Nazi".
I said, "A Nazi? What makes Governor XXXXX a Nazi?"
My sister-in-law (with a master's degree) said, "Well, he just is".
So I brought her up on this - I asked her what exactly the state government was doing that made her think it was Nazi-like. She, of course, could not answer. But she did go on and on:"Well, it will be like a Nazi state pretty soon, he's signing laws!".
Well, that of course makes all the sense in the world, eh?
I finally told her that calling someone a Nazi because she doesn't like the pay raise her husband got is pretty irresponsible. I told her that I knew a lot of Jews who might disagree with her comparison of the governor to a Nazi.
Finally, after a heated argument, she backed down.
She said, "Well, my choice of words might not have been the best."
Sound familiar?
Posted by Beth at June 27, 2005 6:34 AM
Comments
That tactical hyperbole may well have something to do with anyone who is not a supporter of the war or who is left of center being called a traitor.... or right of center a crazed right-wing religious fanatic... (none of this is meant personally, just trying to make a point, however feeble)
hyperbole:
(n) exaggeration for effect and not meant to be taken literally (Ex: He's as strong as an ox.)
Granted, hyperbole appears to happen on both ends of the aisle or stick... when most people prefer the carrot to the stick... so basically, getting the stick all the time really sucks, for everyone... then, no one can be right, and no one can express their opinion without fear of condemnation and then no one talks to each other in order to find common ground...
Just a thought...I personally haven't ever called Bush/et al a Hitlerite much less a Nazi, but I do believe we are 'heading toward' a form of Fascism...is semi-Fascist better? Although, I haven't said that either. But, it is always easy to take words out of context to make them sound much worse than they are or were in reality.
Just a thought mind you.
Posted by: Sinequanon at July 4, 2005 4:09 PM