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Republican candidate doing Nazi "reenactments"
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Anonymous
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hmpwK766mMpDLwq92EnFQ8qDx_LAD9IPOG281?docId=D9IPOG281
So far I've heard people say "it's no different than a Civil War reenactment" and "it's good to remember that the Nazis were just humans like you and me; and that all humans are capable of such atrocities". Can anyone articulate WHY it is NOT OK to dress up in a Nazi uniform to hang out with your friends in the History club? |
Anonymous
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! What sane person wants to dress up as a subhuman sadist who crafted human Jewish skin into lampshades and wallets, who raped countless men, women, and children, who injected blue dye into the irises of Jewish kids to see if they could change their eye color permanently? I could go on and on.
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Anonymous
| So true,,Nazi's...communists...abortionists...human stem cell tinkerer's....slaveholders....nasty, nasty human failures. |
Anonymous
| Because dressing up like them is honoring them. They deserve no honor. |
Anonymous
I hesitate to say this, being a Jew, but I find it easier to accept Iott's explanation of using the reenactment as a way of remembering so we can avoid recurrence than to accept someone using this as an excuse to compare doctors helping a woman choose what to do with her body or scientists working on a cure for paralysis and other conditions to Nazis. I accept that you see cells as potential human beings, but even so, you trivialize Nazism far more than Iott does! |
Anonymous
PP, I completely agree here. Hitler is a figure for complete ridicule and scorn. Further, through humor and ridicule the true horror of Hitler keeps him front and center in the public consciousness. I also would be at a loss to loop a woman's choice to control her own body and the potential use of stem cells, with glorification of Hitler. Sorry, I find that logic facile. Any glorification of Hitler (wearing SS uniforms in a club! without context OR irony) however, is a furtherance of his evil. But to forget him or allow the true extent of his insanity to fade from public memory is an order of magnitude worse. |
Anonymous
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I am a lefty but I do not see the problem. Reenactment is about understanding history and war. It is no different to me from the many movies about WWIi that did the same. In both situations, somebody has to play the bad guy. We did not boycott Saving Private Ryan or Das Boot.
So unless this guy was traipsing around his neighborhood giving Salutes to the neighbors as he picked the paper off the lawn, both his party and the press should give him a break. Lastly I hate these questions that say "I know this is wrong but I can't say why so help mr explain why I am right". If you don't know, you should be asking for both points of view. |
Anonymous
I disagree with this. People who do reenactments do it for fun, it's a hobby. So to choose to be a Nazi for entertainment purposes is, to me, really sick. It's not like an actor who chooses to play a Nazi in any particular movie, because that actor will probably only choose to be a Nazi character once in his career. These reenactors do it all the time. It's their thing. It's disgusting. |
Anonymous
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To me the concern is that this group glorifies the Nazis.
Some of the pictures Bill Maher showed - before the Wiking reenactment group took them down - show the members, arm in arm, smiling, drinking beer. I think dressing up in SS uniforms and drinking beer with your friends trivializes the genocide committed by the Nazis. I think it's laughable to say this club is about "historical reenactment". Do they have some members who dress up as their victims? People compare this to Civil War reenactments. The Civil War wasn't about world domination. It wasn't about genocide. It was about a fundamental, philosophical disagreement between the North and South over the degree to which the Federal Government could dictate the laws of the land. I don't think there's much of a comparison there. One person I know compared this to kids dressing up and playing Cowboys and Indians. Kids (a generation ago anyway) grew up seeing this glorified in Westerns on TV. They couldn't be expected to stop and ask themselves, "hmm, am I showing good judgement by pretending to slaughter these Native Americans?". I expect more thoughtfulness from someone who wants to be elected to public office. If Iott had dresssed up in KKK regalia because it is "educational, and just a reenactment" would people be arguing that that's OK? If he held a cross burning and got a circle of his friends in white sheets to stand around and "pretend" to be KKK with him, would it just be "historical"? |
Anonymous
| I also can't understand why any sane person would do this. But then again, we are about to have a whole bunch of nutters in Congress, so amidst the tea-baggers, witches, Christian fundamentalists, libertarians etc. I am not sure a couple of nazi-sympathizers will stand out too much. |
Anonymous
 depressing
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Anonymous
| Let's put it in current perspective. What if they were reenacting a whole bunch of Taliban and terrorist beheadings? Would that be OK? Let's pretend we are beheading Daniel Pearl all over again to make sure we "teach" people history. Have you seen those before? Al Jazeera plays them online when they happen and they were somehow taped. I am literally scarred for life after watching just the beginning of one of those. I get sick just thinking about it now. The very thought that grownups are playing Nazi makes me just as sick. |
Anonymous
| Beheadings aren't the same thing as battles. If they were, we would all be pacifists. |
Anonymous
IN Williamsburg and other historical plantations in the south when dressed in clothes of that era are they honoring slavery? Your argument doesn't hold water. |
Anonymous
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There are all sorts of embarrassing acts that come to light. Some politicians handle them well, others blow it. The reaction is generally more important, and gives an indication of political skill.
For example, Iott's reaction to Eric Cantor could have been something like "I understand now that what I did may have offended people, especially Jews. The offense was unintended, and I apologize for it. My interest in World War II does not imply any sympathy for Hitler or the Nazi Party." Instead, he got defensive, and then attacked Cantor for acting like a Democrat. Attacking an important member of your own party is hardly the way to win friends. |