# Are the teabaggers really so dumb as to not know the difference between Nazis and Communists? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 16, 2009, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312 "2009-09-16T12:47:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/21 "2009-09-16T17:11:32Z")
> [@C3](#): > > My favorite is when they put little [hammer & sickle](http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/2673/slide_2673_37542_large.jpg) symbols on their “Down with Czars!” signs. > > (shouldn’t this thread be in the Pit?) Well, “down with the Czars” and hammers and sickles are (entirely coincidentaly in this case) a good match. I’ve had communist and nazist friends, and the first where always going on about the fascist pigs and the other wouldn’t shut the fuck up about the bolsheviks this or that. Put a raving communist and a frothing nazi in a room and you’ll have to pick up a team from CERN to analyse the aftermath. So this people really are moronic simpletons with much more anger than anything resembling an actual idea of what the heck is going around outside and inside their brains. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/22 "2009-09-16T17:12:14Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > But don’t these people know anything about history and the titanic clash between Nazism and Communism that was the Eastern front during World War II? Or for that matter the irony of linking Obama to a white suprmacist movement? No. Look, you’re not going to win any points unless you recognize where these people are coming from and address the point they _ **think** _ they’re making. The idea is that differences between Nazism and Communism were just so much sloganeering for the same basic mindset: consolidate power in the state by stripping rights from the people, so that an untrammeled ruling party – which doesn’t bother with free elections any more than it tolerates dissent – can regulate industries and distribute wealth as it pleases, with no _ **actual** _ regard to the citizenry regardless of which _ **pretense** _ happens to get claimed. So if I’m a budding totalitarian, the idea is that I’ll use whatever pitch is most convenient; I’d appeal to white supremacists if I’m seeking power in '20s-era Germany, sure as I’d talk up Marxist ideals if I were ostensibly pushing a dictatorship of the proletariat – but I’d only ever _ **really** _ be pushing a dictatorship of, y’know, me and mine. And so, they reason, in present-day America – well, you’d pitch it as sensible gun-control legislation and health-care reform or whatever, and you’d start cracking down on free expression by talking up diversity or railing against hate speech or whatever, but it’d always be about pushing the same goal: I don’t care _ **how** _ we get there, you’d say; all I ultimately _ **want** _ is my own secret police knocking on doors at midnight when a nation of informants keep turning each other in – and since I need the support of gullible locals to get there in the first place, I’ll use whichever sweet-sounding promises mark the path of least resistance. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/23 "2009-09-16T17:21:02Z")
The ignorance about Hitler is absolutely impressive considering the amount of freely available and reliable information on the man. Things everybody affiliated with the tea parties and the Rabid Right seem to know about Hitler (and, coincidentally, things that they also know to be “true” about Obama): 1- Hitler was an incredible orator. (Fact: most historians believe his oratory was overrated, and it usually degenerated into screams and tirades more like an out-of-control Pentecostal than an intellectual speech.) 2- Hitler came to power in a free election. (Fact: He never received a majority of votes and the Nazis used violence and intimidation and bribery against their political rivals from day one.) 3- Hitler was pro gun-control. (Fact: Hitler had a private militia that he used to kill members of his own party before he ever became chancellor.) 4- Hitler was a socialist. (Fact: The National Socialists were, by the time of Hitler [who was not their founder], socialist in much the same way that Creation Science is science; they were fascists. If Universal Healthcare makes one socialist and socialism makes one Hitler then it’s odd that England, France, and Denmark are all Nazi nations now.) 5- Hitler was alright and preached tolerance… at first! (Fact: even other antisemitic politicians thought he was a rabid fanatic on the subject from Day 1; while _Mein Kampf_ did not mention genocide, he clearly stated that if he came to power he wanted Jews to lose their citizenship and businesses and all non German born Jews to be immediately expelled.) 6- Hitler was pro-choice. (Fact: while Hitler legalized and later mandated abortion for those he deemed “undesirables” he _outlawed_ abortion for German Christians; forcing it on some and denying it to others is about as far from pro-_choice_ as you can get.) And then the notions of Nazism=Communism as noted in the OP- almost too stupid to address. Hitler hated Communists almost as much as he hated Jews and many of his top echelon (especially Göring) hated them much moreso. THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS WERE BEGUN FOR COMMUNISTS! Göring was loudly calling for the immediate arrests of all Communists and the execution without trial of their leaders in retaliation for the Reichstag fire before it was even proven they were responsible (IF they were responsible). I can only assume the fact that both communism and Nazism are evil means that they’re the same thing, roughly like serial killers are evil and child molesters are evil and thus serial killers are child molesters (or what a logic professor I had called the “God is love/love is blind/Stevie Wonder is blind, thus Stevie Wonder is God, q.e.d.” school of logic. Of course I’ve heard several Republican pundits state with a straight face on interviews that the picture of Obama dressed as a witch doctor aren’t racist. The biggest irony is that Obama is about as far from Hitler as you can get ideologically and yet- as much as I hate to Godwinize- Fox News (and Glenn Beck in particular) and the rabid right are pulling stunts and making claims that would give Goebbels an erection from pure jealousy. > [@](#): > > K from Men in Black: > A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Though I can think of many exceptions to the “a person is smart” bit. And I’ve often wondered why the only things everybody seems to know about history are invariably wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/24 "2009-09-16T17:33:14Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > Nobody doesn’t like Denmark. No, that’s [Sara Lee.](http://www.ezyshop.com.au/documents/photosmall/S061180-3D.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/25 "2009-09-16T17:34:55Z")
Or [Yogi.](http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=9C03E0D91430F932A05753C1A9659C8B63) ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/26 "2009-09-16T17:38:30Z")
They chose to call themselves “teabaggers”? I think that, right there, answers your questions about their intelligence. ---
**Author:** ![kingpengvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9dc877/32.png) [@kingpengvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingpengvin)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/27 "2009-09-16T17:43:45Z")
> [@MrBerious](#): > > Didn’t you see McBain fighting those CommieNazis? could be worse they could be [Space Commie Nazis](http://www.tmunderground.com/watch/73f3f8dc8b4be867a9a0/It's-Not-as-bad-as-it-looks) That aside.. it is really weird to see how fear has bred such lunacy. I mean a rational person can be against the reforms suggested and might have good valid points, but the loudest arguments coming out from the opposition seem to be chicken littles hysterically wailing about the death of America. Do they not know that what makes America great is not its economic or military might but that it is an unending experiment in representative Free Democracy valuing the rights of the individual and adapting to the times to changes itself to become a better nation for its people. (This is from a furriner so take what you will from that) ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/28 "2009-09-16T17:59:54Z")
For the sake of completeness, I’m going to assume that everyone here has seen [this enlightening little video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUPMjC9mq5Y). A must-see, if not. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/29 "2009-09-16T18:12:30Z")
I do recall a professor of mine saying that living under them wasn’t much different, that their methods of oppression and torture were pretty much the same. It was just the ideology that was different. That’s the only justification I can think of. But when when it comes to protesting against a hypothetical fascist or commie threat, your methods have to be different. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/30 "2009-09-16T18:17:06Z")
Free Dumb! Free Dumb! Free Dumb! ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/31 "2009-09-16T18:17:37Z")
It never ceases to amuse me that, despite their claims that they are the party that speaks for the ordinary Joe in the street, as opposed to Republicans who speak for the rich and big business, it’s the Democrats who show most contempt for those ordinary Joes, sneering at their ignorance and gullibility. Why don’t you just cut to the chase, guys, and disqualify the ‘ignorant’ from voting. After all, you know what’s best for them, why bother their little heads with politics? ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/32 "2009-09-16T18:19:23Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > It never ceases to amuse me that, despite their claims that they are the party that speaks for the ordinary Joe in the street, as opposed to Republicans who speak for the rich and big business, it’s the Democrats who show most contempt for those ordinary Joes, sneering at their ignorance and gullibility. > > Why don’t you just cut to the chase, guys, and disqualify the ‘ignorant’ from voting. After all, you know what’s best for them, why bother their little heads with politics? Wait. Are you really saying that people who believe that Barack Obama’s name is in the bible, and that it translates to “Antichrist”, or who literally believe that Obama is a Nazi, deserve anything but contempt? Really? ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/33 "2009-09-16T18:23:33Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > Wait. Are you really saying that people who believe that Barack Obama’s name is in the bible, and that it translates to “Antichrist”, or who literally believe that Obama is a Nazi, deserve anything but contempt? Really? Of course they don’t deserve to be treated with contempt. They deserve to be _exploited_. And you can’t exploit someone if you try to educate them. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/34 "2009-09-16T18:25:01Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > No. > > They also don’t know about the history of the Democratic and Republican parties and how they have basically switched positions over the years . . . Don’t know, or are determined to rewrite. A few years ago I heard Andrew Schlafly, founder of the [Conservapedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservapedia) interviewed on NPR. He came across as a moron. One thing he said was that the Conservapedia’s entry on the Democratic Party did not identify it with Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicans because they did not want to so “legitimize” it – as if age conferred “legitimacy” on a political party, and ignoring the fact that, whenever you date the Democratic Party’s origins, it was definitely in existence before the Republican Party was founded in 1854. Or maybe it’s just the association with Jefferson that would “legitimize” it in their eyes. Damned silly either way. The [Conservapedia page on the Democratic Party](http://www.conservapedia.com/Democratic_Party) states: > [@](#): > > **First Party System** > > Democrats claim the Thomas Jefferson founded their party in 1793 at the start of the First Party System. The Democratic-Republican Party was a political party established during the 1790’s under the leadership of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. It was generally called the Republican Party, but it had no relation to today’s Republican Party, founded in 1854. By about 1816, the Federalist Party had broken up as a national organization. With its decline, the Democratic-Republican Party split into several groups. Andrew Jackson emerged as the candidate of one of these groups and was elected President in 1828. > > **Origins** > > Most historians regard Jackson’s 1832 campaign organization as the beginning of today’s Democratic Party. The Democratic Party itself traces its origin to Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican Party.[13] A few Democratic-Republicans, such as John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay, created the National Republican Party. Adams supporters called themselves National Republicans, antecedents of the Whig and later the Republican parties.[14] > > The modern Democratic party was formed during 1828-34, under the national leadership of Jackson and Van Buren, with organizations in all the states comprised of local political leaders. This became the era of Jacksonian Democracy. The Jacksonians resembled the Jeffersonians especially in terms of anti-elite rhetoric of opposition to “aristocracy” (that is, wealthy old families), distrust of banks (and paper money), and faith in “the people.” By his extensive use of federal patronage, President Jackson removed old office-holders to make way for party loyalists. With the emergence of the Whig Party, the nation now had a new party system, the Second Party System, which lasted until 1854. > > The party held its first national convention in 1832 to choose a new running mate for Jackson; it nominated Martin Van Buren for vice president and endorsed the reelection of Jackson. Jackson easily defeated Clay in 1832. In the political realignment of 1828-32, some of Jackson’s supporters from the election of 1828, especially businessmen and bankers, switched to the opposition Whig Party as Jackson crusaded against the Second Bank of the United States. The name “Democratic Party” became common by the mid-1830s. All of which is at least arguable in historical terms; but insistence on the point remains damned silly. I also, on other boards, have seen conservatives harping and harping on the Democratic Party’s history of racism and Klan associations and the Republican Party’s history of support for emancipation and civil rights – as if any of that still mattered at all today, after the massive exchange of constituencies and regional power bases between the parties that came in the wake of Nixon’s [Southern Strategy.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/35 "2009-09-16T18:26:08Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > Of course they don’t deserve to be treated with contempt. They deserve to be _exploited_. And you can’t exploit someone if you try to educate them. Glen Beck, et al., seem to have that exact same idea. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/36 "2009-09-16T18:27:23Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > Why don’t you just cut to the chase, guys, and disqualify the ‘ignorant’ from voting. After all, you know what’s best for them, why bother their little heads with politics? Okay, turn in your voter registration at the door please. You’re defending ignorance? Shouldn’t you be on some other board? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/37 "2009-09-16T18:27:27Z")
> [@kingpengvin](#): > > could be worse they could be [Space Commie Nazis](http://www.tmunderground.com/watch/73f3f8dc8b4be867a9a0/It's-Not-as-bad-as-it-looks) Or [Commies from Mars.](http://www.amazon.com/Commies-Mars-Planet-Collected-Works/dp/0867193433) ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/38 "2009-09-16T18:31:21Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Glen Beck, et al., seem to have that exact same idea. Bingo. ---
**Author:** ![Scuba\_Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/39 "2009-09-16T18:32:48Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > IME from other boards, some of them are perfectly aware of the history of mutual Nazi/Communist hostility, but stoutly and repeatedly maintain it is irrelevant: Hitler was a “socialist” and used the word in his party’s name (etc etc etc). By the same token, the Democratic Republic of Germany (East Germany) was a democracy and a republic, because the country’s name uses both words, instead of the one-party police state it actually was. :rolleyes: at the stupidity of the claim ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312/40 "2009-09-16T18:41:30Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Glen Beck, et al., seem to have that exact same idea. It’s something I’ve thought for a while, especially when I’m being exceedingly cynical about politics. The left tells the average American, “The data we’ve collected suggest you’re not that smart, but we’d like to fix that.” The right jumps in with, “How _dare_ you call this fine, upstanding, patriotic citizen of the greatest nation in the world stupid! This is a _real_ American _starts sobbing_ and you liberals just hate America and everything it stands for!” And lo, the votes and money come rolling in. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-teabaggers-really-so-dumb-as-to-not-know-the-difference-between-nazis-and-communists/510312.md?page=3)