About fifteen years ago, I made a big mistake in feeling that there were comparisons to be made between Hitler and George W. Bush. What I saw was a leader who was frustrating me and manipulating the masses, gearing them up for an illegal and immoral invasion of another nation. That felt a bit like Hitler. This man was beginning to juggle with the possibility of allowing forms of torture, and he had opened up some concentration camps, and again, this felt to me a bit like Hitler. Bush had passed the PATRIOT Act, which reduced American freedoms, and he wanted to pass the PATRIOT Act 2, which would have attacked freedoms even more, even making it lawful for the government to revoke citizenship from Americans that it deemed criticized the government too much (and this really was one of the clauses in the proposed but never passed PATRIOT Act 2), and Bush also suggested that Americans had too much freedom. All of these things felt to me a bit like what Hitler had done.
However, Hitler was a maniac on an epic scale, so much so that he is still not only remembered today, but held up as probably the standard for just how much damage truly awful leaders can do. And the things that Hitler did went much, much farther than what Bush had done. This was a man who outright vilified Jews, and eventually set up literally death camps to kill them by the millions. He literally tried to exterminate an entire race of people, he took over a whole bunch of countries so that the master race Germans might have more "Lebensraum" (German for living space), and subjugated millions of people to de facto slavery, because they were not privileged members of his master race. Tens of millions of people on all sides, as well as civilians, died in Europe as a result of the war that Hitler started. The Nazis made a point of torturing innocent people, as well as political opponents, and he even allowed doctors to experiment on some of these people in truly sickening ways.
So no, there was no real comparison between Hitler and Bush, and I found myself disgusted at my own knee jerk comparison, vowing never to make such easy and unthinking assumptions like that again. It was one thing to disagree, even strongly disagree, with Bush and company's policies. It is quite another to label them literally as Nazis. As bad as they were, they were not quite on that level.
Now, I try to proceed with more caution.
The utter absurdity of making Hitler comparisons became even clearer to me a few years later, when President Obama took over. He tried to make healthcare reforms, of course, and also of course, there were protests. I remember seeing on the news on image of a protester who had slapped a Hitler mustache on an image of Obama, and that felt just utterly outrageous! I mean, think what you will, but here's the thing: Hitler and the Nazis main focus was on racial purity. I mean, do you seriously think that Barack Obama, who many conservatives made such a point of reminding everyone was not white, would subscribe to Hitler's viewpoints on anything?
Yet, it is not only conservative anti-Obama activists who are guilty these days of making comparisons to Hitler. In an article that felt almost like a parody of everyone's worst fears of the excesses of humorless political correctness, there is an article out that appears to be suggesting that people (presumably white males in particular, such as myself) who really did not like the new Star Wars movie are, for all intents and purposes, sympathetic to Nazis!
Honestly, you can't make this stuff up!
There are six reasons stated by this author. Seriously, this is how the first sentence for Reason number 1 begins:
TLJ is not as Nazi-friendly as the original trilogy, which had an all-white team of good guys.
Now, I try to proceed with more caution.
The utter absurdity of making Hitler comparisons became even clearer to me a few years later, when President Obama took over. He tried to make healthcare reforms, of course, and also of course, there were protests. I remember seeing on the news on image of a protester who had slapped a Hitler mustache on an image of Obama, and that felt just utterly outrageous! I mean, think what you will, but here's the thing: Hitler and the Nazis main focus was on racial purity. I mean, do you seriously think that Barack Obama, who many conservatives made such a point of reminding everyone was not white, would subscribe to Hitler's viewpoints on anything?
Yet, it is not only conservative anti-Obama activists who are guilty these days of making comparisons to Hitler. In an article that felt almost like a parody of everyone's worst fears of the excesses of humorless political correctness, there is an article out that appears to be suggesting that people (presumably white males in particular, such as myself) who really did not like the new Star Wars movie are, for all intents and purposes, sympathetic to Nazis!
Honestly, you can't make this stuff up!
There are six reasons stated by this author. Seriously, this is how the first sentence for Reason number 1 begins:
TLJ is not as Nazi-friendly as the original trilogy, which had an all-white team of good guys.
Almost as an afterthought, at the very end of the article, after five very lengthy and highly politically and racially charged reasons as to why I might not have liked this Star Wars movie, it finally suggests that maybe, I just was not into it.
Of course, even the author of this article admits that the depiction of the bad guys in these new movies tends to be "very nazi-esque," Yet, the author has an answer for this, suggesting that "you can’t deny that Hitler would have preferred to break bread with the rebels of the original series than with any of the good guys in The Last Jedi."
So, I did something rare, and left a comment with this article (which is still under review at the moment, as I write this). Here is what I wrote (all in one paragraph):
I used to compare George W. Bush to Hitler back during the whole Iraq invasion chapter, until the realization dawned on me that Hitler went to extraordinary lengths to literally try and exterminate a whole race of people, and killed millions of other people because of the European war that he started, which far surpasses what Bush did. Don't get me wrong, I still view Bush and his administration as war criminals. However, since then, I saw anti-Obama protesters slap a Hitler mustache on an image of Obama, which seemed utterly absurd to me. And as horrible as Trump is, he has not (at least not yet) done anything remotely comparable to what Hitler was responsible for. So, for the author of this article, who's name I could not find anywhere (don’t want to attach your name to such nonsense, I suppose) to literally suggest that Nazi sympathies are the reasons that you don’t like the new Star Wars, with almost an aside (Reason # 6 – the last reason stated) being simply that you just might not be into this movie? This is the kind of divisiveness that is the problem in this country. Yes, obviously racist attitudes linger, and it is a huge problem, and I understand that racism surely helped get Trump into the Oval Office. Since then, he has pushed his racist views on the country, and racism seems to have thrived under Trump. But to compare racist leanings with fanatical beliefs in racial purity, to the point that death camps were set up to kill literally millions of people? Such drivel! Who the hell are you to suggest that people who don’t like the latest science fiction box office smash basically only dislike it because they sympathize with Nazi war criminals? Really? I have written for publications before and know that they usually do not pay much, if anything. But if you make any money at all on this article (which hopefully, you won’t, because it would be totally undeserved), then maybe you should use that money and go buy yourself some perspective! What a piece of trash this article is!
Of course, even the author of this article admits that the depiction of the bad guys in these new movies tends to be "very nazi-esque," Yet, the author has an answer for this, suggesting that "you can’t deny that Hitler would have preferred to break bread with the rebels of the original series than with any of the good guys in The Last Jedi."
So, I did something rare, and left a comment with this article (which is still under review at the moment, as I write this). Here is what I wrote (all in one paragraph):
I used to compare George W. Bush to Hitler back during the whole Iraq invasion chapter, until the realization dawned on me that Hitler went to extraordinary lengths to literally try and exterminate a whole race of people, and killed millions of other people because of the European war that he started, which far surpasses what Bush did. Don't get me wrong, I still view Bush and his administration as war criminals. However, since then, I saw anti-Obama protesters slap a Hitler mustache on an image of Obama, which seemed utterly absurd to me. And as horrible as Trump is, he has not (at least not yet) done anything remotely comparable to what Hitler was responsible for. So, for the author of this article, who's name I could not find anywhere (don’t want to attach your name to such nonsense, I suppose) to literally suggest that Nazi sympathies are the reasons that you don’t like the new Star Wars, with almost an aside (Reason # 6 – the last reason stated) being simply that you just might not be into this movie? This is the kind of divisiveness that is the problem in this country. Yes, obviously racist attitudes linger, and it is a huge problem, and I understand that racism surely helped get Trump into the Oval Office. Since then, he has pushed his racist views on the country, and racism seems to have thrived under Trump. But to compare racist leanings with fanatical beliefs in racial purity, to the point that death camps were set up to kill literally millions of people? Such drivel! Who the hell are you to suggest that people who don’t like the latest science fiction box office smash basically only dislike it because they sympathize with Nazi war criminals? Really? I have written for publications before and know that they usually do not pay much, if anything. But if you make any money at all on this article (which hopefully, you won’t, because it would be totally undeserved), then maybe you should use that money and go buy yourself some perspective! What a piece of trash this article is!
The real reasons you hated The Last Jedi
Hey, Sir. You can see your comment and my response below the article. I approved it as soon as I could.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your participation, and your response indicates that I failed to deliver my intended message. Part of my hope was to cast light on how TLJ did a remarkable job in some areas in which the original trilogy was quite weak (e.g. inclusiveness). Are you comfortable with our iconic stories being cast entirely by white actors? Or the "strong female character" portrayed as damsel in distress or sex object?
As a father of three non-white daughters, I am not ok with how the original films are idealized. It's good for people to notice how they don't represent equality in form, even the content delivers some positive messages.
I was intentionally exaggerating with the Hitler reference. But I think it's important for us to remember what led to, and allowed the holocaust. Pre-war Germany had Jews in government, academia and entertainment, but enough intolerance lingered to allow them to be scapegoated vehemently enough for a large enough portion of the population to condone their slaughter.
Thanks for commenting here. Would have responded sooner, but we got hit with that snowstorm and arctic blast.
ReplyDeleteI am writing this response with the working presumption that you are the author of the article that I took exception to. Since there is a limit to the size of these responses, I am forced to break this response up, so there may be several layers to them. Apologies, but there is little that I know of that can be done about that.
Your frustration with almost exclusively white casts is understandable, and the move away from that, in Star Wars and elsewhere, is indeed probably a positive step forward.
Yes, I agree that the original trilogy's all-white cast (Lando excepted) was problematic, although a couple of things with that. First of all, it was a different time, and Star Wars has evolved a bit in that regard. Secondly, there would be no new Star Wars movies, and no Star Wars universe, without those original movies. Why? Because there was a lot to be said about those original movies, a lot to be appreciated, if you get past your hang ups with the all-white cast. I am a white male (with a Jewish background, which perhaps might explain why I took exception to your Nazi analogies), and perhaps it is easier for me to have overlooked that. But those three actors - Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill - seem actually like decent people. Yes, they all happen to be white. However, suggesting that the original series is "Nazi-friendly" and that Hitler might have enjoyed breaking bread with them seemed way, way over the top, though.
Maybe you feel uncomfortable with how those original movies have been idealized. Here’s the thing: those movies were the first Star Wars movies, and they particularly appealed to young people. I was a child myself, and they were very excited. I can still remember crying when my parents refused to take me to see Empire Strikes Back in the movie theaters (I was too young to have seen the original Star Wars in the theaters). I did see Return of the Jedi in the theaters, and it felt so cool, so modern. It transcended many of the other cartoonish things that kids liked at the time (Transformers, GI Joe, or Marvel superheroes, among others), and I suspect that is largely because it also dealt with mythological roots. Part of the reason that I still like Star Wars so much is that it seems almost like modern mythology, blending modern technology with mystic, almost Far Eastern style philosophies, mixed with inner conflicts worthy of Greek mythology. Plus, let’s face it: lightsabers were just really awesome. Nothing like Star Wars had existed before, and these were the first of the movies to come out. For kids like me, all we saw was how awesome those movies were, how exciting, and how they were so different than anything that had come before. It inspired many, set our imaginations to the stars, quite literally. That was part of the magic. Likening that innocent childhood infatuation with the ugly realities of this world, particularly something as detestable as Nazism, seemed to be completely out of place. If anything, the Empire reminded me a bit of a futuristic Nazi-style state, with the rebels fighting that kind of absolutism and conformity, that kind of evil. If anything, the Nazi influence on the bad guys had increased with the First Order of these new movies. So, it seemed strange that you almost literally suggested that the rebels were “Nazi-friendly,” if you will. To me, such comparisons should not be made lightly.
You stress the importance of remembering how Hitler and the Nazis came into power in the first place. Trust me, as a student of history, I am aware of how they came into power, and Trump’s rise to power was more than a little alarming and depressing to me. However, Trump is not Hitler (his wife is Jewish, for God’s sake!), and for all of it’s faults and imperfections, the United States today is not Germany of the 1930’s. Wherever Trump and company might be leading the country (or dividing it), another important thing to remember – I would dare suggest more important and relevant to these times than Hitler’s rise – is how easily and efficiently inconvenient facts and exaggerations could be used to manipulate people. It seems ridiculous to me when I encounter many arguments and memes and such online suggesting that untruthful “facts” about Trump, or quotes that are easily disproved with a five-second search on Google. Yet, these persist. And for the most part, I felt that your use of Nazi sentiments I this article were equally disingenuous and intellectually dishonest. When we use the same methods that dangerous minds use to manipulate people and take over, in a sense, we legitimize their methods. When people vehemently opposed to Trump attribute false quotes and false facts about Trump that can easily and quickly de disproven, we legitimize not only Trump’s own dishonest approach, but we confirm his easy dismissal of opponents as spreading “fake news.”
ReplyDeleteWhat I was trying to say is that you might not want to make such easy associations with Nazism. Maybe I am saying this as a privileged white man, but there are various degrees of racism. There certainly are plenty of bigots, and in fact, we have one of the worst in the White House right now. There are others who hold racist attitudes, yet would not define themselves as racist, or even believe themselves to be racist. Trust me, I know, because being a white male, a lot of others (mostly, but not exclusively, white males) share these thoughts with me, often assuming that I will go along with it, or agree with them. That includes anti-Semitic sentiments. And there are some people who do not hold very racist views, yet they are not (yet) aware of how huge a role race has played in world history, and American history (Star Wars is mostly American, after all). Some of these people I have described are truly terrible people, people who should indeed be demonized. Some of them, however, are not bad people, but just need to understand, and suggesting that they might just be Nazis if they did not like this movie (or hated it, as you suggested) will almost assuredly not only not open their minds, but might push them the other way, might widen the gap of understanding.
Again, let me reiterate that Hitler had absolutely NO tolerance for anyone who he deemed undesirable. He hated Jews, obviously, and wanted to exterminate all of them. He hated the Slavs, and wanted to enslave them, take their land and make them servants of them. He was even clear about that in "Mein Kampf," which was published well before he ever actually got power. He quickly eliminated liberties and rights, and established the most extremist totalitarian state that the world has ever seen. He geared up for war, and then wound up basically attacking over one dozen countries. He and the Nazis came up with the "Final Solution" to kill all Jews, setting up literal killing factories to kill millions of Jews in the gas chambers, and burn their remains in the crematoriums. Millions of other Jews were exterminated when invading German armies took over new towns to the east of Germany. Hitler was a monster probably beyond anything that humanity has seen, and he defined people exclusively through race.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the lesson that we should learn is not to take his example. Yet, I sense that your viewpoint seems to lump all whites in the same category, and that will not be helpful, and certainly is not constructive. After all, you surely were not suggesting that black fans who disliked the movie might have Nazi leanings, which means that your article was specific to whites. Yet, I had some discussions with some black friends about the movie, and they had some of the same complaints about it that I had. Are those complaints more legitimate when it comes from them, even though we have many of the same arguments, because they do not have racist leanings? And would mine necessarily be tinged with racism? And is this kind of thinking not itself starting to feel a bit too racial, which is, in a sense, actually subscribing to Hitler’s all-encompassing racial views of the world?
That a white man can only really not like this movie because he has Nazi leanings really seems a bit absurd to me. I did not hate the movie, but there were certain aspects that I did not like, such as Leia basically coming back from the dead and floating/flying through space, and then having the rebels in that ship open the door for her, even though she was in space (no oxygen!). There were issues with pacing, and other issues, as well, which I was not thrilled with. Yet, you stated five reasons why I secretly did not like the movie. They can be summed up as being racist, being sexist, being against any and all changes, being unable to get past hero worship, or the cult of personality, and being unable to get past heroic notions or plans that might not work. Almost as an aside, you mention the sixth reason (though the title clearly implies only the first five are relevant), where I might have the freedom not to like the movie on it's own merits, or lack thereof.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I was a bit on the fence with the movie upon first viewing, and liked it a lot better after the second viewing. But Star Wars, at it's core, is escapism. Always has been, and always will be. It might have some mythological roots, which is one of the main reasons that I personally like it, as modern day mythology. And it might incorporate politics, which again, you may or may not agree with. But at the end of the day, it is a movie. It is entertainment. That is why likening people who did not like this particular form of entertainment as virtual Nazis seemed, to me, to do a disservice to your own line of thinking right from the start. Unless, of course, you truly feel that whites, or perhaps white males in particular, really all are different from everyone else in the world, and can only view things through a racist/Nazi lense. In that case, far from fighting Hitler’s strictly racial viewpoint, you are in fact confirming it – it’s a catch-22. But if you do not believe that, if it truly was hyperbole, as you suggested, then you might want to try and word it a little better, and take a less transparently accusatory, high and mighty tone. Yes, shock value can have an effect, but it can also backfire quickly. I have been to Auschwitz on a visit, and have gone to lectures featuring Holocaust survivors, and making comparisons to the horrors of Nazism and Hitler based exclusively on the skin tone of the actors, really seems to undermine the validity of any arguments and points you might make. And you make some valid points and concerns, many of which I share. Worded slightly differently, your article might have a much stronger effect.