Reductio ad-Hitlerum

Anyone who ever seeks to tie me or anyone else here to the Nazis will be banned from SST forever.  pl

Comments

[Harper]

Col. Lang,

I wholeheartedly agree with your announcement. It is the ultimate postwar cheap shot smear to equate people with the Nazis on the basis of a disagreement that is a matter of principle and reason. Just as Islamphobia is a sickness of our age, so too is the use by some radical Islamist defenders of the Nazi epithet to simply shut down dialogue, or demonize a very legitimate point. There are enough people running around out there who do seek to replicate actual Nazi actions (the Right Sector in Ukraine comes to mind as open advocates of some outright Nazi ideas and practices) that it is a further disservice to honorable people to use that loaded language. The blog has become a venue for genuine socratic dialogue among thoughtful people who often disagree seriously, but who go back and forth in a manner that always leads to better thinking and outcomes.

[F5F5F5]

Anyone who ever seeks to tie Col. Lang or anyone else here to the Nazis is a silly bunt. Period.

I'm afraid I have a speech impediment. I can't pronounce the letter B. It's all due to a trauma I suffered when I was a sboolboy.

[William R. Cumming]

A welcome proscription by P.L.!

[alba etie]

Harper
This may also be a good time to 'repost ' for any lurking DOJ attorneys or others that SST will often have wide variety of opinions on important subject matter. And that these opinions should never be 'interpreted " as Col Lang's 'expert opinion " on any given matter at hand -- that simply stated would be lazy lawyering ...

[LeaNder]

I had one really central disagreement with Pat Lang, I was also wondering about his sensitivity to dissenters before that occasionally. On thing is pretty certain Pat Lang, whoever he is in all his human complexity, he isn't anything even close to a Neo-Nazi. Quite the opposite, with some matters that for me from my limited perspective don't seem to quite fit.

But to pick up Harper's description of Sic Semper Tyrannis as a place that--at least tries to attempts--something like a forum of "Socratic discourse"--I am deeply thankful for the help he gave in times of "intellectual" needs.

I came here from the "opposite camp", politically, ... whatever that may be, if you are really trying to understand how the history around you unfolds into the future.

I had the pleasure to be forwarded an article by Bernard Schlink recently:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernhard_Schlink

Titled: The culture of the denunciatory.

He made me aware of something, and strictly I would need to reread his article that seemed to contain something of a revelation in its own meditative way: that the idea/another myth(?) that we can learn from studying history what to do in the present unfolding around us, or the future for that matter, may be a myth too. Basically: since the world around us changes. And to apply "the lessons of history" to present actions may well be not be that easy.

What exactly explains the hype of studies of WWI post WOT or post 911?

One of the core ideas my own philogical studies left me with, is, that the present is much less easy to grasp, Plato's veil, than the past.

No doubt post 911 events may well have been at it's core an idealist enterprise. Trying to do something the way it wasn't done post Nazi reign. Based on necessarily simplistic categories in post WWII German chaos. It also may have been an enterprise in applying perceived past mistakes to the present.

[JM Gavin]

Since 1945, there really have been no other groups of people like the Nazis. Even self-proclaimed "Neo-Nazis" have little in common with Hitler's National Socialist Party. Accusing others of being "Nazis" is generally a sign of a weak or lazy intellect.

DOL

JMG

[turcopolier]

LeAnder

"I had one really central disagreement with Pat Lang, I was also wondering about his sensitivity to dissenters before that occasionally."

Many years ago an army major whom I had taught at West Point came into my Pentagon office deep in the bowels of the building, and windowless as usual, to speak to me. I had not seen him in 15 years. After fumbling about a bit he said he had come to apologize because he and his friend Frank (also my student) had decided to snub me while cadets for doing something they did not like. as a result they had not spoken to me for the last year I was there except to answer questions and this major said that was unfair of them and that he was sorry. I said that I was sorry too because at the time I had not noticed.

LeAnder - I have no idea what you are talking about as an issue between us. But! It is not true that I am sensitive to dissenters. Sadly, I do not tolerate fools well. pl

[The Moar You Know]

"Sadly, I do not tolerate fools well."

I'm still here, proof you tolerate 'em well enough.

Did somebody "go Godwin" on you or one of the commentariat here? How utterly ridiculous. This is the most sane site that discusses politics on the entire internet, even if I sometimes vehemently disagree with the conclusions.

Yeah, the site leans conservative politically, no question, but even this flaming liberal has never felt attacked or disrespected here. Nazis? Please. I'd laugh but the slur is still one of those things one really should not joke about. Nor is it something to be used against your "ideological opponents" - even though a lot of people do these days, it's still not OK. Cheapens the discourse and cheapens the one delivering the slur.