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Do we need to keep the "Make X Great Again" meme alive? Even tongue-in-cheek, even with recent use by dead-end white supremacists as a dog whistle, this is a li

by jprd 4y ago

Do we need to keep the "Make X Great Again" meme alive? Even tongue-in-cheek, even with recent use by dead-end white supremacists as a dog whistle, this is a literal Nazi-ism. Can we just put it to bed already?

mdp2021 4y ago
> literal Nazi-ism What do you mean? "Exactly what a countryside simpleton ("Ignaz", at the time and place) would adopt as a stance"?! Somebody takes an innocent expression and tries to taint it, you do your part in deflating the tainted use, you renormalize - that's what you are supposed to do. The article author uses irony.
ARandomerDude 4y ago
> Do we need to keep the "Make X Great Again" meme alive? Agreed. > this is a literal Nazi-ism Uh…what? I’m struggling to recall the locations of the concentration camps in the USA. We also shouldn’t keep the guy I don’t like is Hitler meme alive.
- kenbolton 4y ago
  I can help you remember the locations with the help of Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_America...
  - claytongulick 4y ago
    Are you suggesting that former president Trump was responsible for the internment of Japanese in WW2?
    - kenbolton 4y ago
      > I’m struggling to recall the locations of the concentration camps in the USA. My reply was to the above statement.
- doctor_eval 4y ago
  The concentration camps came later. First, Hitler rose to power by appealing to workers (despite actually being pro business). He broke the law and was put on trial, but this only caused his support to increase. On the basis of his celebrity he was able to raise money and win election to government. He went on to use the Reichstag fire as a pretext for taking over the government he was ostensibly there to serve. So it’s intellectually fine to draw parallels between Nazi Germany and the extreme right in the US because those parallels really do exist. It’s the diminution of these parallels that I find disturbing. Such as the use of a divisive political symbol in a technical article.
actuator 4y ago
Equating everything you dislike to an actual tragedy has the opposite effect, you are making a mockery of that tragedy and using it to further your ideological belief.
claytongulick 4y ago
> Even tongue-in-cheek, even with recent use by dead-end white supremacists as a dog whistle Are you referring to the roughly 50% of the country who voted for, and according to current polls slightly over that who plan on voting for former president Trump? That's a mighty broad brush you're painting with there.
- user982 4y ago
  Fascism being popular doesn't make it not fascism.
- lapcat 4y ago
  > Are you referring to the roughly 50% of the country who voted for To be accurate, ~29% of eligible voters, from ~47% of the vote with ~63% turnout. And of course millions of people in the country are ineligible to vote, the majority of whom are youths. 74 million is a large number nonetheless. Roughly 22% of the population.
stoniejohnson 4y ago
It's a joke. Jokes are fine. Jokes about anything are fine, as along as they are jokes. You didn't think this joke was funny, and that's fine. I thought it was funny, and that's fine. Calling it a "Nazi-ism", is also fine, but if that means he shouldn't be allowed to say it, that is not fine. See the following picture, it kinda captures the point: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FrrVOoFXoAEOWYe?format=jpg&name=large https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FrrVOoFXoAEOWYe?format=jpg&name=...

by jprd 4y ago

mdp2021 4y ago

> literal Nazi-ism What do you mean? "Exactly what a countryside simpleton ("Ignaz", at the time and place) would adopt as a stance"?! Somebody takes an innocent expression and tries to taint it, you do your part in deflating the tainted use, you renormalize - that's what you are supposed to do. The article author uses irony.

ARandomerDude 4y ago

> Do we need to keep the "Make X Great Again" meme alive? Agreed. > this is a literal Nazi-ism Uh…what? I’m struggling to recall the locations of the concentration camps in the USA. We also shouldn’t keep the guy I don’t like is Hitler meme alive.

kenbolton 4y ago
I can help you remember the locations with the help of Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_America...
- claytongulick 4y ago
  Are you suggesting that former president Trump was responsible for the internment of Japanese in WW2?
  - kenbolton 4y ago
    > I’m struggling to recall the locations of the concentration camps in the USA. My reply was to the above statement.
doctor_eval 4y ago
The concentration camps came later. First, Hitler rose to power by appealing to workers (despite actually being pro business). He broke the law and was put on trial, but this only caused his support to increase. On the basis of his celebrity he was able to raise money and win election to government. He went on to use the Reichstag fire as a pretext for taking over the government he was ostensibly there to serve. So it’s intellectually fine to draw parallels between Nazi Germany and the extreme right in the US because those parallels really do exist. It’s the diminution of these parallels that I find disturbing. Such as the use of a divisive political symbol in a technical article.

actuator 4y ago

Equating everything you dislike to an actual tragedy has the opposite effect, you are making a mockery of that tragedy and using it to further your ideological belief.

claytongulick 4y ago

> Even tongue-in-cheek, even with recent use by dead-end white supremacists as a dog whistle Are you referring to the roughly 50% of the country who voted for, and according to current polls slightly over that who plan on voting for former president Trump? That's a mighty broad brush you're painting with there.

user982 4y ago
Fascism being popular doesn't make it not fascism.
lapcat 4y ago
> Are you referring to the roughly 50% of the country who voted for To be accurate, ~29% of eligible voters, from ~47% of the vote with ~63% turnout. And of course millions of people in the country are ineligible to vote, the majority of whom are youths. 74 million is a large number nonetheless. Roughly 22% of the population.

stoniejohnson 4y ago

It's a joke. Jokes are fine. Jokes about anything are fine, as along as they are jokes. You didn't think this joke was funny, and that's fine. I thought it was funny, and that's fine. Calling it a "Nazi-ism", is also fine, but if that means he shouldn't be allowed to say it, that is not fine. See the following picture, it kinda captures the point: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FrrVOoFXoAEOWYe?format=jpg&name=large https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FrrVOoFXoAEOWYe?format=jpg&name=...