# Out on the road today, I saw a "MENGELE" license plate on a pickup truck **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 29, 2021, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-on-the-road-today-i-saw-a-mengele-license-plate-on-a-pickup-truck/951610 "2021-09-29T22:37:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2021, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-on-the-road-today-i-saw-a-mengele-license-plate-on-a-pickup-truck/951610/21 "2021-09-30T03:28:42Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > Excellent job, Comrade. Keep reporting your fellow citizens to the government for reeducation.- Wait, so it’s okay to have a MENGELE license plate if it slipped through the first time? Got it. ---
**Author:** ![Mortimus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Mortimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mortimus)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2021, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-on-the-road-today-i-saw-a-mengele-license-plate-on-a-pickup-truck/951610/22 "2021-09-30T03:34:07Z")
Don’t you know that Republicans have special dispensation to be asshats? ---
**Author:** ![JaneDoe42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janedoe42/32/14104_2.png) [@JaneDoe42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaneDoe42)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2021, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-on-the-road-today-i-saw-a-mengele-license-plate-on-a-pickup-truck/951610/23 "2021-09-30T03:35:28Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Once again, for at least the 3rd time this week, you are my hero. Blushes. Thank you for your kind words. Honestly? I live totally pissed off at those assholes. The only reason _I_ haven’t stroked out is because I have a kitten. > [@nearwildheaven](#): > > We both agreed that was very inappropriate, and wondered if authorities had said anything to him, like, “You know, children can see that.” No they won’t. It’s a freedom of speech issue. I reported the guy who had a big sign saying “Trump 2024 FUCK YOUR FEELINGS!” and that’s the answer I got. I have to drive down that street once a week, so I had a big car magnet made that says TRUMP LOST! FUCK YOUR FEELINGS! that I only put on my car a block before driving by their house. Have I mentioned how pissed off I am 24/7/365 nowadays because of those assholes? ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2021, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-on-the-road-today-i-saw-a-mengele-license-plate-on-a-pickup-truck/951610/24 "2021-09-30T03:50:03Z")
> [@JaneDoe42](#): > > so I had a big car magnet made that says TRUMP LOST! FUCK YOUR FEELINGS! that I only put on my car a block before driving by their house. How about, “TRUMP: LOST THE POPULAR VOTE TO HILLARY IN 2016!” ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2021, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-on-the-road-today-i-saw-a-mengele-license-plate-on-a-pickup-truck/951610/25 "2021-09-30T03:51:35Z")
> [@JaneDoe42](#): > > I reported the guy who had a big sign saying “Trump 2024 FUCK YOUR FEELINGS!” and that’s the answer I got. I have to drive down that street once a week, so I had a big car magnet made that says TRUMP LOST! FUCK YOUR FEELINGS! that I only put on my car a block before driving by their house. Okay, hero _4th_ time this week. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2021, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-on-the-road-today-i-saw-a-mengele-license-plate-on-a-pickup-truck/951610/26 "2021-09-30T12:25:04Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > Keep reporting your fellow citizens to the government for reeducation. I know, right? Nazis can’t catch a break. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2021, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-on-the-road-today-i-saw-a-mengele-license-plate-on-a-pickup-truck/951610/27 "2021-09-30T13:19:48Z")
Confession: It was me. I meant it to say MINGLE but I have terrible handwriting. Sorry! ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2021, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-on-the-road-today-i-saw-a-mengele-license-plate-on-a-pickup-truck/951610/28 "2021-09-30T13:21:06Z")
We like our Nazis in uniform. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/YissPv9Ycjs/maxresdefault.jpg ""I'm going to give you something you can't take off" | Inglourious Basterds | Screen Bites") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YissPv9Ycjs) ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2021, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-on-the-road-today-i-saw-a-mengele-license-plate-on-a-pickup-truck/951610/29 "2021-09-30T13:29:41Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Nazis can’t catch a break. 80 years now, and Nazis still can’t stand the left. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2021, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-on-the-road-today-i-saw-a-mengele-license-plate-on-a-pickup-truck/951610/30 "2021-09-30T13:38:01Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I’m assuming the DMV approved it in the first place, tasteless as it may be. Not seeing how reporting it to the government would help when the government approved it. I suspect there are plenty of people whom I could pose the question, “Are you familiar with Josef Mengele?” and they’d just shrug at me. I realize the DMV clerk was an agent of the government, but it’s not like he or she approved the plate after the full weight of the government bore down to make that decision. There’s a good chance the clerk simply didn’t know any better and just approved it out of habit. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2021, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-on-the-road-today-i-saw-a-mengele-license-plate-on-a-pickup-truck/951610/31 "2021-09-30T13:51:17Z")
That’s a very polite and reasonable reply to an incredibly stupid assertion. You’re a better person than I, friend. Oh, and D’anconia is a fucking moron, ftr. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2021, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-on-the-road-today-i-saw-a-mengele-license-plate-on-a-pickup-truck/951610/32 "2021-09-30T13:52:17Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > I suspect there are plenty of people whom I could pose the question, “Are you familiar with Josef Mengele?” and they’d just shrug at me. I realize the DMV clerk was an agent of the government, but it’s not like he or she approved the plate after the full weight of the government bore down to make that decision. There’s a good chance the clerk simply didn’t know any better and just approved it out of habit.- This. Let’s face it, the DMV person who approved it had NO IDEA who Mengele was. S/He might have recognized the name “Hitler” if someone had requested it, but any of the other Big Names in the Third Reich? Not a freakin’ chance. In fact, if someone requested “Third Reich,” that probably would have been approved, too. People do not learn history in school any more. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2021, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-on-the-road-today-i-saw-a-mengele-license-plate-on-a-pickup-truck/951610/33 "2021-09-30T14:18:40Z")
I’ll go further and say that maybe the guy who ordered the plate didn’t know who Mengele was. Perhaps the name has some other connection for him. Perhaps it’s not even a name. Though I agree that’s a bit of a reach… ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2021, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-on-the-road-today-i-saw-a-mengele-license-plate-on-a-pickup-truck/951610/34 "2021-09-30T15:01:22Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > “The DMV approved it” often just means “minor doofus functionary fucked up”. There’s no shortage of personalized plates that were subsequently revoked … I enjoyed the example in that article of the guy who thought he was being clever choosing ‘NULL’ for a license plate, thinking he wouldn’t be able to get any tickets since the database assigns ‘NULL’ to any license plates that are missing or unreaddable. Instead, it backfired on him big time, and he got assigned ALL the ‘NULL’ tckets, a bill totaling $12,000.00 🤣 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2021, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-on-the-road-today-i-saw-a-mengele-license-plate-on-a-pickup-truck/951610/35 "2021-09-30T16:53:38Z")
That last license plate was rather cheesy. ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2021, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-on-the-road-today-i-saw-a-mengele-license-plate-on-a-pickup-truck/951610/36 "2021-09-30T17:07:06Z")
While well documented, that one seems odd to me. Any license plate reader would pass that to the database in a string format. Thus they’d be looking for ‘NULL’ I don’t know every single database management system out there, but in the big ones the below two values do not match in any way: NULL ‘NULL’ If missing license plates had NULL values in a field for thousands of records, SELECT \* FROM TABLE WHERE FIELD = ‘NULL’ would return nothing. In fact NULL != NULL in this world. To find the actual NULL records, you’d have to use SELECT \* FROM TABLE WHERE FIELD \color{red}IS NULL. Anyway, we now return you back to our resident Nazi and his desire to collect all of the Schutzstaffel license plates that he can get past DMV workers. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2021, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-on-the-road-today-i-saw-a-mengele-license-plate-on-a-pickup-truck/951610/37 "2021-09-30T17:35:43Z")
> [@DMC](#): > > While well documented, that one seems odd to me. Any license plate reader would pass that to the database in a string format. Thus they’d be looking for ‘NULL’ Could be an urban legend. Wouldn’t be the first time an urban legend snuck its way into a ‘factual’ internet content article. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2021, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-on-the-road-today-i-saw-a-mengele-license-plate-on-a-pickup-truck/951610/38 "2021-09-30T17:37:24Z")
Not wishing to relativize the license plate in any way, it is nasty, obnoxious and tasteless, and probably on purpose so. But it made me ask myself what the reaction would be in the USA if a plate read [TORQUEMADA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom%C3%A1s_de_Torquemada). And it made me wonder how often newborns are named Adolf this days. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2021, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-on-the-road-today-i-saw-a-mengele-license-plate-on-a-pickup-truck/951610/39 "2021-09-30T17:57:08Z")
Mark Engele has kind of a warped sense of humor, and can be a bit of an asshole. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2021, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-on-the-road-today-i-saw-a-mengele-license-plate-on-a-pickup-truck/951610/40 "2021-09-30T18:02:25Z")
For a bit, I actually thought “maybe he meant Mengelev” but ran out of letters. But then I realized I was thinking of Mendeleev, father of the Periodic Table. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-on-the-road-today-i-saw-a-mengele-license-plate-on-a-pickup-truck/951610.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-on-the-road-today-i-saw-a-mengele-license-plate-on-a-pickup-truck/951610.md?page=3)