Newt Gingrich, Richard Nixon, Saddam Hussein, and other fascist dictators ...

The BBQ Pit
1

Introduction
My roommate (the female one that isn’t the slut, for those of you keeping track) invited me to a poetry recital taking place on campus. I have a vague interest in poetry, it being something that is rumored to have a garment-removing effect on the female sex. When she told me there would be women there, I was intrigued. When she told me there would be food there, I was sold.

Story
Alas, fate had another path for me that evening.

I went to campus with the full intention of listening to poetry and eating free food. However, no sooner was I within the doors of this hallowed institution (of SOUL-CRUSHING BEAUROCRACY*) when I noticed a flyer on the wall. The flyer on the wall was on “The Wall”. That very evening, in one of the large lecture halls usually dedicated to efficient mass soul-crushing, the movie “Pink Floyd’s The Wall” was being played.

The flyer also said something about this being for a psychology class, with an emphasis on analysing the movie for anti-war themes. But it was open to all interested parties, so I was in the position of having to choose between free food and Pink Floyd.

I looked down and realized that, by chance, I was wearing my “The Wall” t-shirt. This was the greatest example of synchronocity since some stoned genius matched up “Dark Side of the Moon” and “The Wizard of Oz”. It was therefore decided.

[sub]* Sorry. Nearly slipped into an entirely different rant there.[/sub]

Rant
But as I sat in the lecture hall waiting anxiously for the movie to start (being surrounded by psych students always makes me nervous; I never know how they’re diagnosing me in their heads), the professor began a little introduction to his anti-war interpretation of the film. Some of it was good, some of it was bad, and this part was eminently Pittable:

“… Newt Gingrich, Richard Nixon, Saddam Hussein, and other fascist dictators …”

Having not previously expended much mental energy to devising a system of categorizing Facist Dictators from Not Facist Dictators, I quickly created the following method:
In order to be a fascist dictator, one must be -

  1. Fascist.
  2. A dictator.

My mind raced through the analysis:
Saddam Hussein -

  1. Fascist? Quite.
  2. Dictator? Unquestionably. (Well, an ex-dictator anyway.)
    Richard Nixon -
  3. Fascist? Er, well, I suppose moreso than many presidents, I guess.
  4. Dictator? Probably would have liked to be, but no.
    Newt Gingrich -
  5. Fascist? Er … well … not exactly …
  6. Dictator? Um … no …

Conclusion
Now, I curse the universe that puts me in the position of defending the names of Newt Gingrich and Richard Nixon. Verily, I have sinned in a past life and this is my torment.

But, c’mon, I know you’re a college professor and all, and academia often does tend to be quite liberal, but jimminy jumping Joseph on a pogo stick! Let’s tone down the exaggeration a wee bit!

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I hear ya, brother. I get the same feeling when Bill O’Riley and others compared Hussein to Hitler.

Can we please keep some perspective???

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This sort of thing is all too common among academicians in the Liberal Arts, i.e. people who wouldn’t know the Real World if it bit them in the ass.

I hope you learned your lesson, young man. You only get to do the college thing once. Never, ever pass up women and free food.

Haj

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Sounds to me like the Prof’s acid kicked in early.

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Do I have to be the first to say “We don’t need no education. We don’t need no thought control…”?

Nah, too obvious.

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Or maybe, “There’s someone in my head, but it’s not me.”

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But that would be the wrong album.

Strangely The Wall’s opening lyrics:

seem quite apt.

And yeah, liberal hyperbole serves no-one – resort to hyperbole and the fascists have already won.

8

Fuck! The closing lyrics:

fit pretty well too.

Isn’t this where…

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If I wanted to play Devil’s Advocate, I’d argue that you may have gotten the punctuation wrong and that it was “Newt Gingrich, Richard Nixon, Saddam Hussein and other fascist dictators…”; however, I can’t think of a context in which the fascism isn’t at least implied for the first two members of that list. In which case it sounds suspiciously like a modified case of Godwin’s Law.

I don’t suppose you remember the rest of the sentence?

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Godwin’s Law: “As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.”

Bill’s corollary: Part of this progression involves one party accusing another of said comparison.

Hilarious OP btw.

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I wish I could give you a more specific context for that quotation, but I don’t remember the exact words. The general context was about how Bad People[sup]TM[/sup] were usually that way because of poor childhoods. I recall the professor saying “they weren’t shown enough love”. He said something along the lines of “Most dictators fit this theme”, and then in the next sentence gave that list.

From the handout which the professor distributed before the movie:
“In Pink, after an attempt at self-destruction, he finally reverted to forcing esteem from others, and expressing his repressed rage against his earlier victimizers (and innocent scapegoats) by engaging in fascist totalitarianism, where he would not be victimized and where he and his accomplices finally get some respect.”

So a central part of his overall analysis involved the topic of “fascist totalitarianism”, and how it comes about. If he didn’t mean to imply that Nixon and Gingrich were totalitarian fascist dictators then he worded things very, very poorly.

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Obviously I’ve been misinformed about Godwin’s Law. Fortunately, there’s a helpful FAQ to aid in dissipating my erroneous assumptions.