# 2020 continues undeterred, as Adolf Hitler rises to power

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-continues-undeterred-as-adolf-hitler-rises-to-power/927187>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [December 4, 2020, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-continues-undeterred-as-adolf-hitler-rises-to-power/927187 "2020-12-04T06:53:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2020, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-continues-undeterred-as-adolf-hitler-rises-to-power/927187/1 "2020-12-04T06:53:53Z")

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In Namibia:

> **[Man named Adolf Hitler Uunona wins election in Namibia, says he isn’t seeking...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/12/03/namibia-election-adolf-hitler-uunona/)**
>
> Uunona has no connection to his unusual namesake — but does have a sense of humor about the situation.

> A man named Adolf Hitler Uunona has won a local election in Namibia with 85 percent of the vote, becoming a councilor in the Ompundja Constituency.

So here’s more evidence for the theory that we’re just an alien reality show whose audience has been dwindling, so the producers just keep coming up with more and more outrageous stuff…

Wonder what happens when we’re canceled?

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**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2020, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-continues-undeterred-as-adolf-hitler-rises-to-power/927187/2 "2020-12-04T06:58:22Z")

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I heard about this on the BBC this evening! They said that Namibia was once a German colony, and Adolf/Adolph is actually a fairly common name there. It sounds like one of those cases where his parents picked that name “because that name was famous.”

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**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2020, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-continues-undeterred-as-adolf-hitler-rises-to-power/927187/3 "2020-12-04T07:12:27Z")

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> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#):
>
> So here’s more evidence for the theory that we’re just an alien reality show whose audience has been dwindling, so the producers just keep coming up with more and more outrageous stuff…
> 
> Wonder what happens when we’re canceled?

We had a pretty great thread back in '12 about [Plot Holes in World War II](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-world-war-ii/616463), followed a couple of years later by [Plot holes in reality](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-reality/681533).

No doubt about it, this series really jumped the shark in the 2016 season, and I think the 2020 season is when the remaining audience is going to just roll their ocular orbs so hard they strain an eyestalk and give up on the whole  
thing as a bad job:

> [@](#):
>
> A global pandemic that’s “the worst since the one from the 1918 season”, a global economic crisis that’s “the worst one since the Great Depression”–didn’t we already have that plot back in the 2008 season?–riots and civil unrest that are…wait for it!..“the most serous since the 1968 season”…and now they’re introducing a “new” character–an elected political leader named _“Adolf Hitler”?!?_
> 
> That’s it—I give up. By Grabthar’s hammer, the writers of _Earth_ have completely run out of new ideas!

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**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2020, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-continues-undeterred-as-adolf-hitler-rises-to-power/927187/4 "2020-12-04T09:14:25Z")

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Well, we’ve also had the Invasion of the Murder Hornets and the Mysterious Misnamed Monoliths. And what about the collapse of Arecibo? Do those count as original ideas?

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**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2020, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-continues-undeterred-as-adolf-hitler-rises-to-power/927187/5 "2020-12-04T10:26:48Z")

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I think giving a live, televised, deranged news conference with hair dye streaming down your face is something we haven’t seen before.

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**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2020, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-continues-undeterred-as-adolf-hitler-rises-to-power/927187/6 "2020-12-04T11:46:03Z")

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Not to mention a Presidential loser who won’t quit.

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**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2020, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-continues-undeterred-as-adolf-hitler-rises-to-power/927187/7 "2020-12-04T11:52:11Z")

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… first as tragedy, then as farce.

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**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2020, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-continues-undeterred-as-adolf-hitler-rises-to-power/927187/8 "2020-12-04T15:16:18Z")

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> [@MEBuckner](#):
>
> We had a pretty great thread back in '12 about [Plot Holes in World War II](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-world-war-ii/616463), followed a couple of years later by [Plot holes in reality](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-reality/681533).

Man, that thread just had a way different standard of plausibility than would be applied today… It almost seems endearingly naive when the OP asks for ‘possibly-small, singular details of reality that stand out against a general background of otherwise-plausibility’, when today, we have \*gestures at everything\*.

I mean, a congressman sending dick pics? Try a New Yorker journalist jerking it on a life videoconference. And that one barely stood out!

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**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2020, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-continues-undeterred-as-adolf-hitler-rises-to-power/927187/9 "2020-12-04T17:49:00Z")

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> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#):
>
> So here’s more evidence for the theory that we’re just an alien reality show whose audience has been dwindling, so the producers just keep coming up with more and more outrageous stuff…

One of my college roomies put it pithily:

> Humanity is God’s idea of a practical joke.

You have to wonder who it’s on besides just us.

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**Author:** ![Steven\_Maven](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steven_maven/32/3272_2.png) [@Steven\_Maven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steven_Maven)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2020, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-continues-undeterred-as-adolf-hitler-rises-to-power/927187/10 "2020-12-05T14:07:15Z")

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> [@nearwildheaven](#):
>
> It sounds like one of those cases where his parents picked that name “because that name was famous.”

According to the article, the candidate said that when his father chose the name, he “probably didn’t understand what Adolf Hitler stood for,” but that he “does have a sense of humor about the situation.”

Yet just like The Boy Named Sue in the Johnny Cash song,\* it never occurred to him that he could solve his problem by simply changing his name.

\*PROPS to Shel Silverstein who wrote it.
