Achtung Bubba
Refugee
DrTeeth said:I think I finally see where you're coming from Bubba. You thought I meant that Bush is doing a 100% copy of what Hitler did? That wasn't what I meant at all. I was only using it as an introduction to my next sentence: "Hitler gained popularity by focussing on a common enemy (especially on the jews) and giving the Germans a sense of unity".
Didn't everything I wrote after the sentence "Bush is playing the propaganda thing just like Hitler did." didn't provide you with enough clues to understand my point of view?
Well, I now see what you're saying, and I agree that what you say is technically true, but it's still a very emotionally loaded observation.
It's close, I think, to saying something like "Bush is acting just like Hitler" in that Hitler got up every morning and had breakfast, and Bush gets up every morning and has breakfast. So do MOST people, so raising the spectre of Hitler seems inappropriate.
Yes, Bush may be gaining popularity by focusing on a common enemy and giving the nation a sense of unity. Yes, Hitler did the same thing. But so has almost EVERY other successful political leader in a time of a military crisis.
What Hitler did that was quite uncommon is that he focused on a common enemy and created a sense of unity IN ORDER to gain popularity; increased popularity was the intended goal, not just a secondary consequence. Further, Hitler likely arranged many of the crises (the burning of the Reichstag, specifically) to have the opportunity to create a common enemy to focus on.
To say that Bush is like Hitler in these respects is to suggest that either the response to 9/11 was cynically driven by poll numbers, or that 9/11 was planned or at least allowed by the White House. Both of those claims are serious enough to require a heavy burden of proof which has, thus far, NOT been met.
And to say that Bush is like Hitler in the way he's like almost every other successful political leader begs the question, why single out the comparison to Hitler?
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