Of PARTY X and THE SCARY THING

[mylaptopisevil.livejournal.com]

One of the things I've noticed in certain areas of the blogoland is the general fear and panic that OTHER SIDE is going to take YOUR SIDE and put them into NAZI CAMP ANALOGY.

So, I feel the best way to resolve this is to just have everyone be honest and just admit things.

[Poll #1639565]

Do you believe that these kinds of claims should be treated as legitimate discussion? Personally, I don't. I think it's beyond foolish to make far-crazed claims like this, and then retreat into a shell of insanity when people try to point out how foolish those claims are. It seems to be a self-fulfilling prophecy, where someone says something batshit, then gets angered when people point out you are acting in a batshit manner.

Of course, that relies on the mindset that believing OTHER SIDE is going to take YOUR SIDE and send them to NAZI CAMP ANALOGY is a foolish one. And I'm hoping everyone recognizes how crazy that kind of statement is.

What do [general] you think the best way to handle that kind of situation is? Ignore it? Address it? Personally, I'm on the fence about it. I don't believe for a moment that someone convinced that OTHER SIDE is going to take YOUR SIDE and send them to NAZI CAMP ANALOGY is going to really listen to reason, because after all look at how far off the reservation they've gone as it is. On the other hand, I think it's important to address it, because the last thing I would want are people susceptible to that kind of messaging (for whatever reason) falling for it and becoming just as nervous and panicked about their fellow human beings.

Thoughts?

Comments

[usekh.livejournal.com]

It is possible I have missed it, but I would love to see you stand up and say that to some of your fellow conservatives.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Why not start with responding to your own fellow partisans first, then move on to your opponents.

Clean our own yard before peeking over the fence, shall we?

[mylaptopisevil.livejournal.com]

I agree completely. We shouldn't just allow people who peddle in misinformation and panic a pedestal to preach from. Being able to respond is the best way to go.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Having an open forum that doesn't ban you for disagreeing with the golden calf would be a good start.

[paft.livejournal.com]

Well you could actually try debating me -- starting with something specific I've said that you think warrants comparing me to Beck.

[sealwhiskers.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I've seen anyone in this community talking about nazi-like camps. It would be pretty bizarre in an adult conversation.

[existentme.livejournal.com]

Well, there is the OP, amirite?

[eracerhead.livejournal.com]

They don't call them nazi camps, they call them death panels.

[mylaptopisevil.livejournal.com]

I'm not explicitly talking about this community, but the general web as a whole does have very paranoid corners. After all, we have a half term governor who declared that grandma was going to be killed by the government

[spaz-own-joo.livejournal.com]

What a wonderfully old-fashioned thing to think! Do you typically converse with non-American adults?

[usekh.livejournal.com]

Honestly if someone believes that anyone aside from a tiny group of the far, far paranoid insane fringes of any political spectrum would willing round up people into 'camps' or 'gas them' or whatever it is a sign they are seriously deranged and can safely be ignored.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

While I admit that I like to idly imagine some sort of re-education camps for career liars like politicians and right wing radio hosts, I can't really go with making crimes out of things that annoy me.

How about just limiting it to say, polygraph testing accompanying platform positions?

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine believes politicians should be under oath from the time they announce they're running for office, with lies punishable as perjury.

[rasilio.livejournal.com]

Here is the thing though.

No one starts out with the goal of rounding up those who disagree with them and putting them in camps, at least not the normal people.

In 1930 your average German was not sitting around wishing he could gas a few hundred Jews and if he could have he would likely have been horrified at the result, yet a decade later "average Germans" were in fact standing guard rifles at the ready forcing Jews into the ovens.

The kinds of changes in a society which can turn ordinary sane individuals into cold blooded killers do not happen overnight but rather are gradual and require the lunatic fringe of some wing of a movement to gain control over the general population.

And for the Democans in the group, no the Tea Party is no where near even approaching this right now and your own ideological allies are no further from it than the Republicrats are. Neither wing of the ruling party has a monopoly on crazy or violent tendencies.

[sealwhiskers.livejournal.com]

well now, that's pretty basic history trivia, the post was actually about batshit crazy notions and how to handle them in a discussion, if at all. The poll I took as mostly tongue in cheek.

[kinvore.livejournal.com]

I'd put you all in camps, but they'd be Happy Camps of Awesomeness.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

Isn't that what they called Abu Ghraib?

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Very Americacentric. I'm social-democrat and I can't find myself in this poll.

[mylaptopisevil.livejournal.com]

I thought it went without saying that Americans would be rounding up nonAmericans, and no one cares about their view anyway.

[light-over-me.livejournal.com]

Well, as I've said before last time this came up... I don't think it'd be "camps" in this day in age. That said, given unopposed power, one side might very well attempt to pass legislation against everything it doesn't like....which is a lot more subtle then rounding people up in camps, but dangerous nonetheless. But as long as we continue to maintain at least two or more strong opposition parties to challenge whoever is in power, then this is less likely to happen.

[mylaptopisevil.livejournal.com]

I don't think it'd be "camps" in this day in age.

So what kind of NAZI CAMP ANALOGY do you think OTHER SIDE is going to be doing to YOUR SIDE?

That said, given unopposed power, one side might very well attempt to pass legislation against everything it doesn't like....which is a lot more subtle then rounding people up in camps, but dangerous nonetheless.

So bills like DOMA/DADT?

[mybodymycoffin.livejournal.com]

Hm, can I switch out NAZI CAMP for MAOIST RE-EDUCATION CAMP?

[mylaptopisevil.livejournal.com]

only if you believe that MAOIST REEDUCATION CAMP properly fits within the scope of NAZI CAMP ANALOGY.

Personally, I think it could work!

[chron-job.livejournal.com]

The idea of rounding up political opponents and putting them in camps is so ludicrous!!!

Except... aren't prisons, kind of sort of like camps?

And aren't certain victim-less crimes, partially POLITICAL acts?

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

I'm a Democrat and I SAID that I wouldn't put everyone else into camps.

But I've read in certain very reliable blogs that I am really a DEMONcrat and a lying hyena vermin cheerleading scum who will do everything that I do for power power power since I am, after all, a Democrat. And a liberal one too.

So maybe I only SAID that I won't put everyone in camps when I am really just dying to do so....

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

Even if you don't know it, someday eventually that's what you'll do, so we need to treat you like you're dangerous!

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

I would simply note here that the people who yelp loudest for liberty are the descendants of those who have done the most in US history to hurt it for everyone else regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation. And who look like they've forgotten nothing and learned nothing, to boot.

[oportet.livejournal.com]

It doesn't have to be the bad kind of camp.

Some cabins by the lake, campfires, no contact/influence with the rest of the world - we can send the R's and D's there for a few months. They could learn to get along better AND they could take a break from fucking things up - not so bad is it?

[3fgburner.livejournal.com]

I work in downtown DC. On 9/11, our building (and just about everybody else in DC) got the evacuation order around 1030. Took 3 hours to get to the Beltway, with my carload of stranded carpoolers / coworkers.

On 9/12, I went to the food court in Union Station, and got sushi. I then went to this spot to eat it, and think on what had happened, and might happen:



[Kicking back, to see how many people get the "joke"]