
Disingenuous Basterds: The oligarchs’ campaign to depict their critics as Nazis - _pius
http://pando.com/2014/01/26/disingenuous-basterds-the-oligarchs-long-campaign-to-depict-their-critics-as-nazis/
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ItendToDisagree
Correct me if I'm wrong... But didn't the Nazi's actively protect their 'rich
leaders of industry' as long as they toed the line (Farben, Krupp, Etc)? They
even provided them with concentration camp victims as slave labor at points.

When did the Nazi's persecute the rich? Or is this just more "something
something Nazi" rhetoric being used blindly?

~~~
rakoo
This has nothing to do with Nazi's riches, just like it has nothing to do with
today's jews. The parallel he draws is simple:

\- Nazi's attacked a minority, the jews

\- Current society attacks a minority, the riches

\- Therefore, current society is literally le hitler.

Whether that theory is valid or not is another topic (I believe his point was
to raise attention, not truth)

~~~
sentenza
In Germany we call what he did a "Nazivergleich". I cannot remember one as bad
as his being uttered by a public figure over here in the last few decades and
quite a few public figures had to apologize/step down because of
Nazivergleiche that were way weaker.

I don't want to reiterate everything I vented in the previous discussion of
this incident[1], but the point is:

You DO NOT invoke the Holocaust to draw attention on something else.

The holocaust is of central importance to the history of the western world. A
Germany that, at the turn of the century, was a beacon of science,
industrialization and even free thought, took only fourty years to transform
into a state where it was possible to conduct industrialized genocide without
much opposition.

This is not to be taken lightly, but to be contemplated and internalized. It
is not to be invoked just to make a conversational point. AND YOU DON'T USE IT
TO DRAW ATTENTION TO YOURSELF.

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7121533](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7121533)

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hirundo
Never forget, the Jews say of the Shoah. It becomes harder to keep that
promise if it's seen as uncivil merely to draw comparisons to that era. And
it's important that the promise be kept. One can accuse someone of an
intolerance akin to Nazi supporters without accusing someone of wanting to re-
enact the Shoah. And it's certainly reasonable to analogize contemporary
attempts to level the 1% with the corollary attempts in Germany in the 1930s.
That analogy is not the same as to depict Occupy sympathizers as Nazis. When
it is taken that way it's likely simply an attempt to divert serious
contemplation of the actual similarity between the motivations driving those
two movements.

~~~
winstonsmith
> _And it 's certainly reasonable to analogize contemporary attempts to level
> the 1% with the corollary attempts in Germany in the 1930s._

It's not reasonable; it's quite perverse -- you seem to be confusing the Nazis
with the opposing parties of the time. The opposing parties were for the
elimination of class differences while the Nazis where explicitly for
preserving them.

From
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism) :

 _This involved the idea of uniting rich and poor Germans for a common
national project without eliminating class differences (a concept known as
"Volksgemeinschaft", or "people's community"),_

Essentially, the Nazis suppressed class based anger and encouraged homicidal
racism and xenophobia. The Nazis were the defenders, not the oppressors, of
the wealthy.

~~~
hirundo
They simply found an alternative richer class to steal from, so found it
convenient to become national socialists instead of communists. It's Willie
Sutton's (apocryphal?) logic that he robbed banks because that's were the
money is. Though the Jews didn't have all the money, they were the ones most
politically convenient to take it from. A bank with fewer guards, so to speak.
The rhetoric is far more fluid than the motivation.

~~~
walshemj
And they had decades of background Antisemitism in both Germany and Austria
Karl Lueger in Vienna is one earlier example.

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anon20140126
The comparison to Kristallnacht, while inflammatory, isn't that absurd.
Tactically their conduct is very similar to the early SA.

The Nazis began as a street gang. They saw themselves as socially and
economically marginalized by the "other". Jewish business owners were cast as
foreign outsiders responsible for German economic suffering. They smashed
store windows and sought to intimidate Jews.

"Die techie scum" "Get the fuck out of Oakland" "Kauf nicht bei Juden!"

Once you identify your opponent as less deserving of rights, to be attacked
with impunity, the barriers to violence slip away.

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walshemj
Well to be contrarian his comments about progressive radicalism echoing the
socialism of fools in pre ww Europe is actually quite strong.

Trouble is he obviously doesn't have enough historical background I wonder if
my comrade Dr Flett might be able to suggest a reading list

[http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/alanjohnson/100255874/nico...](http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/alanjohnson/100255874/nicolas-
anelka-the-quenelle-and-the-history-of-demonising-jews/)

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slurry
Pando.com is making a big play on this kind of class-focused journalism.
Mainstream outlets will do it from time to time, but mostly as a sideshow to
the conventional liberalism of the Red/Blue culture war.

America has a lot of liberal news outlets, but not many left ones.

I am genuinely curious how this experiment will play out.

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pstack
If we keep the guy making $30k outraged at his neighbor earning $150k and we
keep the guy making $150k angry at the hippy kids and then we wrap it all up
in My-Team vs Your-Team two-party politics, we can keep the masses occupied
and distracted.

~~~
walshemj
Yep divide and rule - instead of actually addressing the real issues in SF
poor planing at a to low minimum wage.

Being cynical I wonder if the influx of techies has also interrupted some ones
nice political machine.

