Germans Drawn to Hitler Again

[Zebra 3]

(IMDb) More than 100,000 Germans packed theaters throughout the country Thursday night to see The Downfall, starring Bruno Ganz in the role of Adolf Hitler. Critics were deeply divided over the film, particularly because some of the scenes depict the wartime German leader sympathetically. However, British historian Ian Kershaw, who has written a respected book about Hitler, told the BBC. "Of all the portrayals of Hitler, this is the first which I found convincing."

[FS]

I can't really understand this knee-jerk reaction that seems to have been programmed almost instinctually into most of the world. All you have to do is not portray Hitler as a pants-wetting, satanic lunatic, and people whose parents weren't even born during his part of history are ready to jump down your throat and call you a nazi.

Keeping people like Hitler at arm's length with words like evil and madman, in my opinion, only hampers your ability to understand how he could rise to power.

I caught a fragment of this movie on TV yesterday, where near the end of the war, Hitler and his closest boys were hiding out in their bunker, and they decided mass suicide would be better than getting caught. The scene where they force the kids to drink poison is truly chilling. :/

[conus]

Keeping people like Hitler at arm's length with words like evil and madman, in my opinion, only hampers your ability to understand how he could rise to power.

Couldn't agree more. It perpetuates "it could never happen here" sentiment. Hitler was a madman, whereas FOX news anchors, for example, are regular Americans simply telling the plain truth for once.

[Ant10708]

?

Fox news anchors are the present day equals to Hitler?

[Preechr]

Well, we wouldn't want people to look too far into it now, would we? It's much better for everyone involved if we just assume He and all the people of Germany went a bit nuts for little while than it would be to start pointing fingers at, say, those that sanctioned the Hell out of Germany post WWI...

That would be non-productive... in a history is written by the winners sort of way...

[conus]

Fox news anchors are the present day equals to Hitler?

No. But Hitler and crew were able to divert public attention, channeling fear and anger toward a scapegoat. The American right wing does this all the time and people eat it up. "If it weren't for all them god-damn Mexicans, I'd be a brain surgeon by now."

[Preechr]

The "left" is just as bad as the "right" at that, just in a different way. For every Republican racist there's a Democrat that can only identify people by their classification, ie: African-American-Lesbian, Handicapable-Native-American or Mentally-Challenged-Urban-Outdoorsperson. For each class of American, there is an anti-that-class oppressor, even though usually it's just the same fat, evil, white guy with a sicko laugh. ...and a cigar. ...and a top-hat. ...that doesn't pay his fair share of taxes.

To the left, we are each nothing without some sort of group identity, and there's so many of those we each are members of a minority. Add to that each minority has some sort of oppressor, and thus an excuse for everything that we do wrong... To live outside a neatly labeled box is impossible to the left, just as those on the right... the top-hat wearing evil landlords... can't help but see the world in the simplest black and white terms. ...Sometimes literally.

Both sides define most other people primarily by their perceived deficiencies. In the end, most of us are all the same.

[Big McLargehuge]

Originally Posted by Preechr

Mentally-Challenged-Urban-Outdoorsperson.

i know when you said this you were talking about homeless people but for some reason i imagined a yeti living in New York

[Preechr]

LOL

[El Blanco]

Originally Posted by Big McLargehuge

i know when you said this you were talking about homeless people but for some reason i imagined a yeti living in New York

Ya, I thought he meant my neighbor, too.

[conus]

For each class of American, there is an anti-that-class oppressor, even though usually it's just the same fat, evil, white guy with a sicko laugh. ...and a cigar. ...and a top-hat. ...that doesn't pay his fair share of taxes.

But that's not quite the same thing. What I meant was that Republicans, in 1980, 1988, and during the more recent Newt Gingrich "revolution," were able to play on the fears, ignorance and prejudices of the predominantly white middle class, convicing them that their hard-earned money was being thrown away-- given to lazy welfare cheats. Unspoken, of course, was the incorrect notion that most welfare recipients were non-white or of foreign extraction. Nor did it matter that in reality very little of their money went toward welfare. Nevertheless, in much the way it was done in 1930's Germany, they effectively created scapegoats.

[Preechr]

Well, I wasn't so much arguing with your "some people suck" theory as much as I was attempting to build upon it... expand it to an "everybody sucks" theory. I'll give you credit when we win the Nobbel Prize. I heard they were going to take that Pelstinian guy's back... Maybe we'll get that one.

[AChimp]

[Preechr]

*buys shirt*

[Emu]

18 dollars? Fuck no.

[EisigerBiskuit]

I buy my shirts anywhere but a Wal-mart, so $18 isn't so bad

[Emu]

Since this thread is now about shirts, you can get 3 shirts for 18 dollars from Family Dollar that are more comfortable than any shit you could get from Wal-Mart.

[Zebra 3]

Originally Posted by AChimp

- Yeah!

[thebiggameover]

websatan prevents me from seeing achimps pic...

[Ant10708]

It reads the words "What about all the GOOD things Hitler did?" and a picture of Hitler holding flowers in a raised hand.

[Jeanette X]

Originally Posted by Ant10708

It reads the words "What about all the GOOD things Hitler did?" and a picture of Hitler holding flowers in a raised hand.

I thought it was a feather duster. :/

[Zhukov]

I'd like to know what you thought he was dusting. Panzers, no doubt.

[Zebra 3]

[center:27ac07e204]- Hitler's Art: Flowers -[/center:27ac07e204]

[Preechr]

F-ing creepy.

"Before amassing his fortune with the enormous royalties from the publication of his hugely popular Mein Kampf, Hitler earned a living by using his artistic skills to produce paintings that were sold to the public or used for postcards. Hitler was a great student of the fine arts and studied music, opera, painting, sculpture, and architecture. While living in Vienna under conditions of poverty, he read voraciously and still managed to spend whatever meager income he had to attend lectures, concerts, opera, and the theater. Even when he barely had enough money to survive he refused to compromise and always purchased the best paints, brushes, paper, and canvas. As a remarkably prolific artist, he is estimated to have created between 2000 and 3000 drawings, watercolors, and oil paintings. His artistic talent revealed itself at an early age and continued painting and drawing throughout his life. Even while behind the front lines in World War 1, he continued to paint in his spare time and contributed instructional drawings and cartoons to the military newspaper..."

[Ant10708]

Doesn't the U.N. own most of his paintings now? :/