I think I've written this post before. And, damnit, I know I'll be writing this post over and over again for the next 4 (or, we hope) 8 years. Here goes.
I had a teacher in High School I didn't much care for, and he didn't much care for me. Once, he read a paper of mine out loud as an example of what not to do, which was quite embarrassing for me. His hobbyhorse was Jesus imagery. Every book--even non-fiction--was full of Jesus imagery.
A friend of mine pointed out the real flaw in all of this: he never took it to its logical end. He just pointed at passages and shouted "Jesus!" But henever actually carried it to its logical end--which makes sense because the text in question just couldn't bear it.
There's a crazy strand right now in America: Political Pentecostalism. It's latest hobbyhorse, well, Here's a taste of the crazy (via digby:
Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) believes that President Obama is bent on turning the United States into a totalitarian state and already has all the tools he needs for the purpose.
“He has the three things that are necessary to establish an authoritarian government,” Broun told a meeting of local Georgia Republicans on Wednesday, citing the creation of a private army, a ban on gun ownership, and complete control of the press.
[...]
Broun referred to the same speech last fall, in a statement a few days after Obama’s election, when he warned direly, “We may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism. … History shows that ‘civilian national security forces’ bode ill for citizens.”
“That’s exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it’s exactly what the Soviet Union did,” Broun’s statement continued. “When he’s proposing to have a national security force that’s answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he’s showing me signs of being Marxist.”
Let's have a little thought experiment. You're a German citizen in the 1930s, right when Hitler's coming to power. You know what he intends to do (Pat Buchannan's protestations notwithstanding). You meet him, alone, in the middle of the countryside somewhere. You have a gun. Here's the question. Are you (1) morally obligated to kill him? (2) morally justified to kill him? (3) neither? or (4) something else?
Of the philosophy classes I've taken, I've stuck mainly with epistemology and philosophy of science. I'm no ethicist, but I think definitely (2) and maybe (1).
This leads me to wonder, what the hell does it mean when someone calls Obama Hitler.
Let me make one thing clear. I don't think it's hate speech. I don't think it should be outlawed. These people aren't calling for Obama's death, they're just providing justification for it--which is dangerous, but not illegal.
But, I'm thinking that, perhaps, Rep. Broun should think a little bit before he makes his wild and unfocused accusations.
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