Godwin’s law revisited
In our previous immigration discussion, Godwin’s Law was invoked.
Was I merely being hysterical with my Nazi analogy? Here’s an interesting look at what some prominent right-wing websites are saying about expelling immigrants:
Not only will it work, but one can easily estimate how long it would take. If it took the Germans less than four years to rid themselves of 6 million Jews, many of whom spoke German and were fully integrated into German society, it couldn’t possibly take more than eight years to deport 12 million illegal aliens, many of whom don’t speak English and are not integrated into American society.
This isn’t a fringe group at this point, they are trying to introduce this idea into the mainstream as acceptable. Citing the policies of Nazi Germany as a guide doesn’t put you in very good company.
May 16th, 2006 at 11:10 am
What a nutjob. Citing the Nazis like this is the rhetorical equivalent of shooting oneself in the head, especially since it comes so perilously close to one interpretation of the progression of events from 1933-1945 that the Nazis’ original intent was to expel the Jews from their territory, and that the systematic killing didn’t begin in earnest until 1941. I don’t know where this stands in terms of plausibility, but it is a fairly mainstream theory and isn’t inconsistent with the timeline. So, his argument inadvertently (I assume) sets up a deportation –> genocide progression.
I believe this person has concocted a new type of rhetorical fallacy. What shall we call it, “Unintentional strawman that strangles its creator?”
May 16th, 2006 at 9:27 pm
If you follow through all of the links, that quote is from an article on World Net Daily, affectionately known as World Nut Daily, by Vox Day, evidently “a novelist and Christian libertarian. He is a member of the SFWA, Mensa and the Southern Baptist church, and has been down with Madden since 1992”. For more fun, here’s the World Net Daily mission statement:
The Vox Day article doesn’t seem to match up with the Mission Statement. Maybe I’m not reading the right things into it.
May 16th, 2006 at 9:35 pm
Yeah, I know it’s World Net Daily — they’ve been around quite a while and they are a right-wing site. They were real big during the Clinton impeachment days. As far as waste, fraud, corruption and abuse of power? Well, IOKIYAR!
May 17th, 2006 at 9:21 am
Jek, FWIW the article is labeled “wnd.commentary.”
Ah, so the days have come when each political persuasion has its own polemical glossary.
May 18th, 2006 at 12:15 pm
Why don’t we just make Mexico a state?….. Then we can replace their corrupt government with a corrupt state government of our own and be done with it…..
May 23rd, 2006 at 9:45 am
Since we’re talking Nazis, how about:
“Iran religious ID law mirrors Nazis” (Boston Herald)
http://news.bostonherald.com/national/view.bg?articleid=140017
“Human rights groups around the globe are sounding alarms over a proposed Iranian law that would impose Holocaust-like identification requirements on the nationâs non-Muslims, but local Jewish and Christian leaders said the move, however sad, is far from shocking.
[snip]
The Iranian parliament passed the law, which if approved by the countryâs leader Ali Khamenei, would require the countryâs Jews, Christians and other non-Muslins to wear colored badges to differentiate them from Muslims.”
Some object to the term Islamofascism (e.g. the lefty DKos glossary that TTop links to above), but it seems literally appropriate here.
May 23rd, 2006 at 9:51 am
This story about Iran appears to be false. More here and here. Quite possibly psy-op propaganda to gin up hatred against Iran since our ridiculous leaders are apparently planning to bomb them, perhaps with nukes (this would be the point where we would undeniably become a rogue nation, nuking a country unprovoked).
May 23rd, 2006 at 10:29 am
Thanks for the correction, Ttop. At least I hope that’s the case. That’s the last time I trust the Boston Herald :). Given how absolutely off the deep end Ahmadinejad is, the story sounds entirely plausible.
I think our own nuke threats are psy-ops. At this point, it would be “completely nuts,” to quote British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
May 24th, 2006 at 11:40 am
Is the Boston Herald a Murdock (sp?) newspaper?????
May 24th, 2006 at 3:24 pm
Not sure, but I thought it was of similar reputability to the NYTimes and Washington Post, for what that’s worth. The story originally came out in what I think is a right-leaning (how far right?) Canadian paper.