Double Godwin With a Backflip.

[elfs]

Michelle Goldberg's new book, Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, documents the rise of a dream among a certain segment of the population: the use of facist language and aesthetics among those who would convert America into Jesusland. The Nazis and the Christian Nationalists both had/have the same idea: that someday the nation will rise up, Phoenix-like, after a period of decadance that all but destroyed it.

The Christian Nationalist movement has drawn a lot of attention, and a lot of kooks. In her excerpt on Salon (it's Salon, you know the drill), Goldberg documents how the CN has as part of its support groups that openly advocate the position that "Jews hold too much power in America, in Hollywood in particular, and they're doing so to maintain power at the expense of godly people." She also outlines the Coalition on Revival, a collection of position papers with such statements as "blasphemy and pornography can never be free speech; freedom can only be defined in the context of living a Christian life," and so on.

What seems to be the overriding relationship here between Christian Nationalism and National Socialism is that the latter may have been "evil," but only because their objective was not a Christianized world. The tools and techniques they used were not evil, only the ends to which they were put. Some of the mid-term objectives, such as getting rid of elments of "national impurity," such as foreigners, homosexuals, and so forth, are already part of Christian Nationalism's program, and they openly say so.

What makes this a Double Godwin with a Backflip is little snot-nosed Vox Day. Vox (whose name is a pun on the latin phrase "Voice of God") got his start as a World Net Daily commentator when he was fourteen years old and defending his beloved Boy Scouts' right to discriminate against homosexuals and atheists (and pagans, it seems). Yesterday, in preparation for George Bush's speech on immigration, Vox dropped this shining little turd:

[Bush] lied when he said: "Massive deportation of the people here is unrealistic - it's just not going to work."

Not only will it work, but one can easily estimate how long it would take. If it took the Germans less than four years to rid themselves of 6 million Jews, many of whom spoke German and were fully integrated into German society, it couldn't possibly take more than eight years to deport 12 million illegal aliens, many of whom don't speak English and are not integrated into American society.

Vox has come back and basically said that he was misquoted or misunderstood or something, but I think the point is clear: in Vox's mind, like that of too many Christian Nationalists, what the German National Socialists accomplished comes to mind readily, easily, and is to be admired and emulated.

Comments

[amythis.livejournal.com]

Scary!

Very nice.

[solarbird]

Yeah, they've been quoting Stalin without irony for a while now, and even the big hitters are invoking National Socialist rhetoric - Focus on the Family's "The Truth Project" takes Joseph Goebbels line an art, for example. (That post is an addendum to this larger piece I wrote on the same topic.) And when you realise that "secularists" is a word containing many groups, but the biggest group is "Jews," well...

[bikerwalla.livejournal.com]

My friend cargoweasel said it best: "All we have to do to appease the right wing on immigration is a government program ONLY TWICE THE SIZE OF THE HOLOCAUST."

[shunra.livejournal.com]

Heading deep into the territory of creepiness, it seems that the successful segments of the Nazis' program is copied by other entities, as well.

My particular favorite was when the Israeli army issued a statement in 2002 that it had studied the tactics used in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and used them on (and in) Jenin. (Second favorite, also from Israel: the ONLY country which still maintains that the deposits made by people killed under the Nazi regime belong to "unknown victims" and therefore should not be returned to their rightful heirs. The argument is based, among others, on an agreement which the Third Reich made with the Jewish Agency, making *the JA* the heir of any German national who dies intestate. It's being argued in courts in Israel, still to this day. The Israeli banks REALLY don't want to return that money. How's that for a double Godwin?)

But it's concerning, indeed, that these tactics are being used, because they were nefariously effective: there are always people ready to blame Those Other People (for any value of Other) for whatever doesn't work out in their lives. Look at the current state of the U.S. (jobs fleeing, housing bubble popping, healthcare disaster, bankruptcies, excessive use of credit, wholesale educational failure, et depressing cetera) and you'll see a place ripe for takeover.

Damn it, I love the U.S.
I don't want to se it go down that path.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Damn it, I love the U.S.
I don't want to se it go down that path.

Well, it's up to us to jump up and down and scream and vote and sit on juries and if necessary (I hope not, but if it comes down to it), take up arms, and oppose this bullshit. Nobody else is going to do it.

[shunra.livejournal.com]

I am. I do. Actively, frequently, and to the best of my ability.

But I'm not sure that there are enough of us to oppose it, that there is enough political will to oppose it.

See you on the barricades?

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

But I'm not sure that there are enough of us to oppose it, that there is enough political will to oppose it.

Ain't but one way to find out.

See you on the barricades?

I'll be the one passing the ammo and otherwise helping folks out.

[shunra.livejournal.com]

Good.

Because if it comes to needing barricades to defend liberty and humanness, we'll need every pair of willing hands we can get. (Yeah, I'll be there.)

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

I know.

Stay sharp, and make sure you have a bolt hole with a back door.

[gromm.livejournal.com]

I'll be the one passing the ammo and otherwise helping folks out.

What, are you some kind of pacifist or something? ;)

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Only as much as you Canadians are. Prefers not to get nasty.... but when I (and you-collectively) has/have to... look out.

Same sh*t, new wrapper...

[(Anonymous)]

I'm afraid that the US are becoming both increasingly fascist and increasingly fundementalist, something that has been going on for years. Most noticably after 9/11 there has been a lot of rhetoric with a hauntingly familiar ring to it. Criticism (political, social, any criticism at all) of God's Own Country was especially in the post 9/11 period considered unpatriotic and tantamount to betrayal. You're probably familiar with the following:

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."

As said by Nazi Reichsmarshall an Luftwaffe Chief Hermann Goering, during the Neurenberg trials.

Are you worried? I am.

// Frank

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

N.B. the reason that VD has been a WND commentator since he was 14 is that his actual name is Theodore Beale, and he's the son of Robert Beale, who is one of WND's executive board members.

Further background here (http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2006/05/immigration_solved_the_christi.php).

[yesthattom.livejournal.com]

Did you hear Michelle's interview on NPR?

It's some scary shit! (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5398604)

Hi

[(Anonymous)]

Et ecce baroonis - Elf

Equus Pallidus

[gromm.livejournal.com]

that someday the nation will rise up, Phoenix-like, after a period of decadance that all but destroyed it.

Oh gee, and I thought it was the far-right baptist nutbars in the current administration that were destroying America, not decadence. Unless you count massive greed and corruption in the billions of dollars as decadence.

No, I think that after these guys utterly auger the country into the ground, the voters will swing the opposite direction: they'll vote in the Communists.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_candide_/]

Interesting that you blog about this today, Elf, when I just got around to posting this entry today.

"Jews control Hollywood" my ass.