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Ooh! This is fun. The "how someone is just like Hitler game." I know this game. Here's my entry: 5 things Barack Obama did that were very similar to Adolf Hitl

Ooh! This is fun. The "how someone is just like Hitler game." I know this game. Here's my entry: 5 things Barack Obama did that were very similar to Adolf Hitler: 1. Assumed a populist mantra of taking back government from corrupt politicians ("change you can believe in" "not beholden to special interests") 2. Employed blitzkrieg tactics against unsuspecting and peaceful nations (Hitler: Poland; Obama: Libya) 3. Armed and funded radical revolutionaries in other nations in hopes of governmental overthrow and replacement by sympathetic new governments (Hitler: Spain; Obama: Ukraine, Syria, Iran; the Arab Spring more generally) 4. Designed a national healthcare system with a close analogue in Hitler's national socialist healthcare 5. Used inspiring rhetoric to distract from policies unpopular among the majority of the electorate (such as Obama's transgender bathroom policies, which almost 2/3 of Americans disliked) Who should we do next? I'm thinking challenge round: either Bono, Hulk Hogan, or the Dalia Lama.

dmode 9y ago
Well, you are really reaching there. Hitler liked Beethoven and so did Obama is not a valid comparison. I gave specific examples of undermining democracy. Building a healthcare system is not undermining democracy nor is bombing Libya. Bombing foreign countries is an American tradition like Football on Sunday
mino 9y ago
> Designed a national healthcare system with a close analogue in Hitler's national socialist healthcare And this is bad... why? As a European that has lived in 3 countries with free public health, I always find this argument baffling.
- inb4dangshitban 9y ago
  It's bad becaus even though it's a step in the right direction it's a horrible, half-assed botchling that no one can afford in the long term anyway? None of the actual issues were fixed, your healthcare cost increases are completely runaway and untenable
mickronome 9y ago
I don't think there is a game to know in this instance. Failing to recognize authoritian leaders and their often zealous followers has killed far to many people through history to be dismissed easily. Hopefully Trump is not either one of them, or paving the way for one, but it's certainly no game. I'm sure Obama did things wrong, but all that has already happened, and I fail to see how it's even remotely relevant to actual current events, and it doesn't in any way refute what the parent poster wrote.
timeu 9y ago
Seriously? 1.) That might be populist opinion but surely is not comparable to what Hitler did. Or do you seriously claim that people like Sanders, Warren use the same rhetoric as Hitler? That's ridiculous. Hitler was blaming Jews and other minorities and the Versailles treaty for the bad economic situation in Germany. Interestingly Trump is doing the same thing (Nafta, China, Mexicans etc) 2.) The overthrow of the Libyen regime was mainly pushed and pursued by us Europeans (France, England, etc). The USA was in the beginning hesitant and eventually participated. Just to make clear: This was a stupid decision and Obama also admitted this as his worst mistake. Hitler never admitted a mistake or defeat (see Leningrad). Guess what Trump also does not admit 3.) Sorry, but that's part of geopolitics (just to make it clear: It's actually the reason why half of the world is fucked up by wars) and almost every powerful nation has done this in the past and will do this in future. So not sure what you are comparing here. 4.) So then almost all of Europe must have a Nazi healthcare system? Hitler was also a fascist and thus more an ally of corporations, banks and companies than of the people. Some of his policies could have been mistaken as socialist but in reality they were part of his plan to please the population (construction of highways, pumping money into the economy for short term gain). His entire ideology was built around a super-race and elites which is quite the opposite what a "socialist" healthcare system is all about. 5.) Citation needed for the fact that 2/3 of Americans dislike transgender bathrooms. Trump's policies (taxes, healthcare) are so unpopular that he can't even pass them with a Republican Senate and House. Apart from that Hitler tapped into a huge antisemitic sentiment that was carried by a wide majority of people. If that hadn't been the case, he would have never be able to create his Nazi regime. I also think this is the main difference to today. The alt-right, KKK and Nazi clowns are a minority - a loud one - but still a minority. So I don't think that we are facing another Nazi regime. Nevertheless you can clearly see similarities between Trump and Hitler behavior. The only difference is that Trump lacks the intellectual capacity (maybe Bannon has it) in order to pull something off that Hitler had done.

dmode 9y ago

Well, you are really reaching there. Hitler liked Beethoven and so did Obama is not a valid comparison. I gave specific examples of undermining democracy. Building a healthcare system is not undermining democracy nor is bombing Libya. Bombing foreign countries is an American tradition like Football on Sunday

mino 9y ago

> Designed a national healthcare system with a close analogue in Hitler's national socialist healthcare And this is bad... why? As a European that has lived in 3 countries with free public health, I always find this argument baffling.

inb4dangshitban 9y ago
It's bad becaus even though it's a step in the right direction it's a horrible, half-assed botchling that no one can afford in the long term anyway? None of the actual issues were fixed, your healthcare cost increases are completely runaway and untenable

mickronome 9y ago

I don't think there is a game to know in this instance. Failing to recognize authoritian leaders and their often zealous followers has killed far to many people through history to be dismissed easily. Hopefully Trump is not either one of them, or paving the way for one, but it's certainly no game. I'm sure Obama did things wrong, but all that has already happened, and I fail to see how it's even remotely relevant to actual current events, and it doesn't in any way refute what the parent poster wrote.

timeu 9y ago

Seriously? 1.) That might be populist opinion but surely is not comparable to what Hitler did. Or do you seriously claim that people like Sanders, Warren use the same rhetoric as Hitler? That's ridiculous. Hitler was blaming Jews and other minorities and the Versailles treaty for the bad economic situation in Germany. Interestingly Trump is doing the same thing (Nafta, China, Mexicans etc) 2.) The overthrow of the Libyen regime was mainly pushed and pursued by us Europeans (France, England, etc). The USA was in the beginning hesitant and eventually participated. Just to make clear: This was a stupid decision and Obama also admitted this as his worst mistake. Hitler never admitted a mistake or defeat (see Leningrad). Guess what Trump also does not admit 3.) Sorry, but that's part of geopolitics (just to make it clear: It's actually the reason why half of the world is fucked up by wars) and almost every powerful nation has done this in the past and will do this in future. So not sure what you are comparing here. 4.) So then almost all of Europe must have a Nazi healthcare system? Hitler was also a fascist and thus more an ally of corporations, banks and companies than of the people. Some of his policies could have been mistaken as socialist but in reality they were part of his plan to please the population (construction of highways, pumping money into the economy for short term gain). His entire ideology was built around a super-race and elites which is quite the opposite what a "socialist" healthcare system is all about. 5.) Citation needed for the fact that 2/3 of Americans dislike transgender bathrooms. Trump's policies (taxes, healthcare) are so unpopular that he can't even pass them with a Republican Senate and House. Apart from that Hitler tapped into a huge antisemitic sentiment that was carried by a wide majority of people. If that hadn't been the case, he would have never be able to create his Nazi regime. I also think this is the main difference to today. The alt-right, KKK and Nazi clowns are a minority - a loud one - but still a minority. So I don't think that we are facing another Nazi regime. Nevertheless you can clearly see similarities between Trump and Hitler behavior. The only difference is that Trump lacks the intellectual capacity (maybe Bannon has it) in order to pull something off that Hitler had done.