I've never hidden the fact that I enjoy lurking around rightist websites, gauging the measure of wingnut resolve, trying to grok the depths of teabagger anger, and marveling at the neocon capacity for irony denial. They're mad (mad, I tell you!) on several different levels, but perhaps nothing makes them madder than being called Nazis by eggheaded intellectuals. As reported last night on MediaITE.com, Noam Chomsky, egghead extraordinaire, did exactly that a couple of weeks ago - and the comments attached to the article represent a treasure trove of bumper-sticker sized, neo-fascist intellectualism.
A thousands pardons if this has already been diaried; just let me know, and I shall delete. Fwiw, I did run a search on what I figured were the predictable tags for this story, but then again, I never was all that good with the search engine. – u.m.
The rather (insert your own adverb)-titled article, Oy! Noam Chomsky Compares Right-Wing Media To "Nazis", written by Robert Quigley and posted October 16, embeds this three-minute clip from an October 6 Chomsky address to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco:
Chomsky, ever the linguistic gymnast, opts for a Full Godwin, tempered by a couple of half-walkbacks:
The memory that comes to my mind — I don’t want to press the analogy too hard, but I think it’s worth thinking about — is late Weimar Germany. There were people with real grievances, and the Nazis gave them an answer. ‘It’s the fault of the Jews and the Bolsheviks and we’ve got to protect ourselves from them, and that will take care of them.’ And you know what happened...
...Germany in the 1920s was at the peak of Western civilization. In the arts, in the sciences, highly functioning democratic institutions...a decade later, it was at the pits of human history.
Chomsky's argument has a lot of merit: during tumultuous times, people (for whatever reasons) will demand answers for what they perceive to be the problems afflicting their nation. To these people, these are very real concerns, and they will turn to leaders and information sources that promise to address them. In 1920s Germany, it was the Nazis who stepped in with a propaganda machine and started laying the blame for the destruction of their country on anyone who wasn't a member of their target demographic or favored an economic system different from the one to which they were accustomed. In our case, it's the rightist media that does...well, exactly the same thing. That's the point of analogy.
Neither Chomsky nor his comments are the point of this diary, however. I'm not a student of Chomsky, nor especially learned on the rules pertaining to the invocation of Godwin – like I mentioned above, I'm a connoisseur of nutpicked morsels of historiography, and this is the sort of article that evokes a veritable smorgasbord of high-end (in their context) comments. To wit (all emphases, misspellings, and grammatical errors courtesy of the cited authors):
Hey Noam, the Nazi’s were left wing!!! What’s this brain dead little commie referring to? Who’s trying to silence who, you dope? The Dems are going after Fox News because they dare to dig into what the government’s doing on encroaching into our freedoms. What Naomy should be saying is that he’s proud that the Democrats are doing a great job trying to silence opposition via their attempts to restore the "Fairness" (what a joke) Doctrine. Or the back door way of using "fairness" at the community level. Noamy would rather that his red friends run roughshod over us without any resistence. Kinda like his hero’s, Castro and Lenin.
Timmeh, October 16, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Yes, Timmeh, the Nazis were left wing, comprised as they were of embittered ex-soldiers, virulent racists, conservative farmers, and small businessmen who had something to lose. Or – I can never remember – was it because they rejected the idea of laissez-faire capitalism, and held that democracy was failed system, worthy of contempt? Put in historical terms, Timmeh, the Nazis were leftists in the same way that Lenin faced no resistence (sic).
Discarding the "if-it-walks-like-duck" logic the right uses to prove President Obama is a Marxist, several commenters opted for a "this-is-old-news" justification, in this case bolstered by a passionate defense of the right to free speech:
noam chomsky is the # 1 America hater in the world. No one should be listening to this creep unless they also hate America and need to get their talking points from him. Calling George W. Bush/ so called Right Wingers Nazis is getting pretty old. If chomsky and/or any other person really knew what the Nazis were all about, he wouldn’t call Bush/Conservatives Nazis and expect to have any credibility. chomsky is someone I would expect to line up on the side of our enemies. The less I hear from him, the better. Don’t like it? Too bad.
NotFondOfLibs, October 16, 2009 at 2:01 pm
NFOL is correct: there no credible evidence to prove the Bush family ever had links to actual Nazis, and no reason at all to think that at least some allusions to modern conservatives are justifiable, if not appropriate.
Some of the knuckledraggers presume to instruct the ignorant Dr. Chomsky on the way news channels operate here in the early 21st century. This one augments his/her argument with classic "We ain't speakin' German and wearin' jackboots, are we?" rhetoric:
...See, there are 2 main divisions of Fox News — 1 is a NEWS department, the other is a COMMENTARY/OPINION department. GET IT NOAM?!?!?!?!
The only beer halls in America are those water coolers in the office corner, your local barber, or the local watering hole... and no ONE SINGLE PERSON (ahem, Hitler) is driving the discourse with the quasi Socialist/Communist based executive and congressional wingnuts in DC. SOCIALISM, right Noam? That’s what your all about, right? NAZI’s WERE A SOCIALIST PARTY!!!!
Ahhh Noam, you ol’ wingnut.
Babblerouser, October 16, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Regarding Fox News: How do you tell the difference? Regarding beer halls: just how do you think the average Johannes-on-the-street in Munich would have described his "local watering hole?" Regarding the use: of the word "socialist" in the Nazi Party's name: you weren't thinking that things in politics are honestly named, were you, you ol' Republican?
This one's got it all, from a whiff of the Illuminati to a list of socialist anti-Christs, topped off with a sinister threat:
Note to Chomsky: Which political party is funded by a Nazi Collaborator named Soros? Which party is the party whose programs most closely resemble National Socialism? Which party embraces the worlds socialist murderers, Mao, Stalin, Che, Castro, Chavez, Pol Pot, Khomeni, who have murdered nigh onto 200 million people in the last century? Mr. Chomsky, for someone who claims to be an intellectual and linguist. Well Mr. Chomsky, words have meanings and your words will come back to haunt you. If this country ever decides to rise up and take back power, you will be known and noted, and action shall be taken.
mac691, October 16, 2009 at 1:50 pm
I got nothin'.
Stuff like the one above is why I try to limit my commentary to matters of history (and perceptions thereof), and why I was gratified to see some good ole' wingnut revisionism just a few comments down:
"Germany in the 1920s was at the peak of Western civilization. A decade later, it was at the pits of human history" WWWWHHHHAAAATTTTT? NOAM, go read some of that good old history.
Germany just got their asses handed to them after WWI and were in a pit of despair IN THE 1920s, with very low patriotism/national pride/etc. It was this that Hitler used as a foothold to gain power over the Kaiser, and not the "blame it on the jews" rhetoric. that came later when he was already in power.
How much does MIT pay this idiot?
Babblerouser, October 16, 2009 at 2:16 pm
In fairness to babblerouser, that is how the speech is blockquoted in Quigley's article; my transcription includes the same quote as Quigley's, with the addition of the sentence that he left out and failed to replace with ellipses. That being the case, babblerouser would have missed Chomsky's accurate depiction of 1920s Germany as a leader in arts and sciences, and so might be forgiven for regarding post-Dawes Plan Germany as a pit of economic despair. That came at the beginning and end of the decade; the middle years were relatively stable, economically if not socio-politically.
"...a foothold to gain power over the Kaiser"? You didn't really just say that, did you?
Contrary to your claims, "'Blame it on the jews' rhetoric" was an integral part of the Nazi rise to power in the first place. The most cursory search turned up this essay by Joseph Goebbels from 1927; there are plenty of similar examples from even earlier:
While the front soldier was fighting in the trenches to defend his fatherland, some Eastern Jewish profiteer robbed him of hearth and home. The Jew lives in the palaces and the proletarian, the front soldier, lives in holes that do not deserve to be called "homes." That is neither necessary nor unavoidable, but rather an injustice that cries out to the heavens. A government that stands by and does nothing is useless and must vanish, the sooner the better.
"Wir fordern," (We Demand) Der Angriff, Aufsätze aus der Kampfzeit, July 25, 1927
Which brings us to the topic of irony, and the modern conservative's insensitivity to its very existence. Behold:
Well Noam,
Who’s party has the mantra that means nothing? Change you can believe in. Sounds nice, means NOTHING.
Who’s party has tuned the letter "O" into an icon by cramming it down our throats? It has literally replaced the presidential seal.
Who’s party relies on subversive political organizations to carry out their agenda?
Who’s party has dozens of unaccountable czars making policy decisions, circumventing the legislator, giving their "chairman" unprecedented powers?
Who’s party marginalizes those who disagree with it?
Who’s party makes vicious character assainations based on lies and misrepresentations?
Who’s party plasters posters and images of a glowing "dear leader" alll over the place for everyone to see?
Who’s party wants to control every aspect of my life?
Who’s party sounds more like nazi’s?
Dart, October 16, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Well, Dart, I guess you got me there.