# So a kid showed up at school today dressed as Hitler... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 31, 2009, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795 "2009-10-31T00:56:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2009, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/181 "2009-11-03T15:34:54Z")
I can’t imagine any fourteen year old, unless he’s some sort of a skin head, even being interested in Hitler nor can I imagine other fourteen year olds being offended. I mean, does Hitler even register with kids today, except as a sort of a cartoonish legend? In any event, it all depends on context. If I knew the kid to be a trouble maker/racist/ bully I might feel proactive measures were needed but I, a Jew, do not crumble into a quivering mass at the mere sight of someone dressed as Hitler. ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2009, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/182 "2009-11-03T15:44:58Z")
Can we please get the end of the story? I’m getting impatient. No, wait, I am impatient. I’m getting annoyed. ---
**Author:** ![Translucent\_Daydream](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/translucent_daydream/32/16170_2.png) [@Translucent\_Daydream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Translucent_Daydream)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2009, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/183 "2009-11-03T16:26:23Z")
[This is probably what I would do.](http://memegenerator.net/Instances/613/Aldo-Raine-CALL-IN-THE-BEAR-JEW.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2009, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/184 "2009-11-03T22:04:11Z")
Here’s the Family Guy [clip](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rXx5QXbGgI) where Peter puts up a Hitler scarecrow to keep his Jewish neighbor away. {Warning: It’s as offensive as it sounds} ---
**Author:** ![Electric\_Warrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Electric\_Warrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electric_Warrior)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2009, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/185 "2009-11-03T22:59:40Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > I did a double take at this - I could (perhaps) give it a pass if it was some random US cutey pie that was trying to be funny, but if its genuinely worn by a recent immigrant who genuinely believed in it as a good luck symbol? Yes, it still should not be allowed. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2009, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/186 "2009-11-03T23:11:25Z")
> [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](#): > > Someone like Stalin caused just as much suffering as Hitler, and just as recently. But yes, people wouldn’t react to a Stalin costume the way they’d react to a Hitler costume. Why is this? Is it that Hitler’s atrocities were more publicized, and seemed to be more purposefully evil? I think that is the point, yes. I’ve thought about that for a long time. As wrong as it is, people sort of understand being a power-mad murdering dictator. What really sets Hitler apart is the conquering ambition coupled with the dry “please file all forms in triplicate” attitude that accompanied the “final solution” (which somehow would make a great punk band name except that you would totally be assumed to be a Nazi). People understand being a hothead and an idiot somewhat, but to be be so detached and stonefaced about the whole thing is a couple extra helpings of creepy. Plus trying to exterminate a specific people as though you were trying to get all the rats out of the barn. I also do not understand in any sense wearing Mao shirts. WHAT is up with that? ---
**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:** [November 4, 2009, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/187 "2009-11-04T08:02:55Z")
Did anyone here ever watch the TV show Alien Nation? Something similar happened on it. In one episode, the alien Sam Francisco’s daughter, after wracking her brain to come up with something scary to dress up as for her first time participating in Halloween, dressed up as an evil Overseer, one of the aliens who had enslaved her people for many years. Her mother got very upset with her, and had trouble explaining to the daughter why it was too scary and too real to her to be appropriate. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/188 "2009-11-04T12:06:05Z")
I’m really shocked by some of these replies. Suspension from school? Doors slammed in faces? Shame at the ‘stupidity’ of doing the same thing long ago? _Search warrants?_ Sacred cows make the best burgers, and it’s time to slaughter this cow. Hitler is a hilarious internet meme now for fuck’s sake! This is only my own personal experience, but I’ve never known anyone for being harassed or beaten up for wearing a costume on Halloween _except from school officials_. Kids don’t care. They’re not traumatized. Maybe he should have been sent home to change into a [ghost](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Klan-in-gainesville.jpg)costume. > [@Quasimodem](#): > > Devil’s Advocate question: Would you allow a child to dress up as Jeff Dunham’s “Achmed, The Dead Terrorist”? Totally! My son LOVES Achmed! If he wanted to dress up as him I’d let him. Although… who’s going to dress up as Jeff Dunham? 😮 ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/189 "2009-11-04T13:12:23Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > I also have a name that makes me rather sensitive to Nazi jokes. Did you try telling people the name is Italian and pronounced Men-gally? ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/190 "2009-11-04T13:15:52Z")
> [@Electric\_Warrior](#): > > Yes, it still should not be allowed. You don’t find that just a little bit oppresive? Similiar things can mean different things to different people ya know. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/191 "2009-11-04T13:19:17Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > Did you try telling people the name is Italian and pronounced Men-gally? Well, as always, one should always read to the end of the thread! ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/192 "2009-11-04T13:38:06Z")
> [@EvilTOJ](#): > > Sacred cows make the best burgers, and it’s time to slaughter this cow. Hitler is a hilarious internet meme now for fuck’s sake! Since when did kids dress up on halloween to make others chuckle? I must have missed that meeting! ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/193 "2009-11-04T22:41:16Z")
Sorry to repetitive, but I’m going to stick with my “Can it Hurt? Then Don’t do it!” philsosophy. I wil also add, “If you’re not _sure_, then don’t do it!” I’m over it now, but that swastika shit and name calling did some damage to me as a child and who knows how much of that I brought into adulthood. Quasi ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/194 "2009-11-05T01:13:34Z")
> [@Quasimodem](#): > > Sorry to repetitive, but I’m going to stick with my “Can it Hurt? Then Don’t do it!” philsosophy. > > I wil also add, “If you’re not _sure_, then don’t do it!” The problem, **Quasi** , is that _everything_ is offensive to someone. Take the cliched example of kittens. Everyone loves kittens, right? Wrong. I know people IRL who _hate_ cats and would like to see all of them killed or “made to go away”. Yes, even Mrs Mittens who sits on your nanna’s lap and purrs and keeps her happy. There is, I think, a point where society needs to say “Sit down and shut up” to the offenderati. Now, Hitler is perhaps _not_ one of those cases- he did some nasty shit to a lot of people and started World War II- but he’s rapidly becoming that way. Several of us have pointed out that Hitler has become a “character”, a subject of humour, and an internet meme. That doesn’t change the fact that Hitler was Not A Very Nice Person, but to a lot of people under about, say, 30 they’re more likely to think of Hitler as being a funny character rather than The Symbol Of Evil. > [@](#): > > I’m over it now, but that swastika shit and name calling did some damage to me as a child and who knows how much of that I brought into adulthood.i I’m sorry to hear that. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/195 "2009-11-05T01:26:18Z")
**However** he is portrayed, what he did does not need to be forgotten about, **ME**! Y’all know how I feel about kittens, but they did not kill millions of people! **We** domesticated **them**! Yeah, sorry if some people think of them as “rats”, but again, _they_ can’t help it! **ME?** Just “consider the source”, okay?😉 Your Pal, Quasi ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/196 "2009-11-05T01:42:17Z")
> [@Quasimodem](#): > > **However** he is portrayed, what he did does not need to be forgotten about, **ME**! No-one is ever likely to forget about what Hitler did- in the same way people still haven’t forgotten about Genghis Khan or Atilla The Hun, despite the fact they were operating centuries (or millenia) ago. > [@](#): > > Y’all know how I feel about kittens, but they did not kill millions of people![…] Just “consider the source”, okay?😉 Actually, I _don’t_ know how you feel about kittens… As for “considering the source”, I assume you mean “consider the intent of the person making the statement”? If so, yes, you’re absolutely right! ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/197 "2009-11-05T02:33:33Z")
> [@EvilTOJ](#): > > Totally! My son LOVES Achmed! If he wanted to dress up as him I’d let him. Although… who’s going to dress up as Jeff Dunham? 😮 Find the guy dressed up like the Catholic Priest, and they’d win best in show for sure! \* d&r\* ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/198 "2009-11-05T03:40:07Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > You don’t find that just a little bit oppresive? Similiar things can mean different things to different people ya know. Exactly, to some people Hitler represents the genocide of their people. To others he’s the heroic godhead sent to save the White race. :rolleyes: Wearing a Hitler costume to a school, if there are non-Aryan students, is an implied threat of racial violence. Even if the wearer didn’t understand or intend that–especially if he didn’t understand or intend that–he needs to be taken aside and made to learn that this is the case. It’s unacceptable if he knew what the implication was. If so, it was a low-level hate crime. It’s almost more unacceptable if he did NOT know the implication, which would be an indictment of the school’s educational effectiveness. Treat this as an opportunity for a learning experience. But the costume is unacceptable. (So is Quasimodal’s failure to report back. 😛 ) ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/199 "2009-11-05T04:38:52Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > No-one is ever likely to forget about what Hitler did- in the same way people still haven’t forgotten about Genghis Khan or Atilla The Hun, despite the fact they were operating centuries (or millenia) ago. > > Actually, I _don’t_ know how you feel about kittens… As for “considering the source”, I assume you mean “consider the intent of the person making the statement”? > > If so, yes, you’re absolutely right! I’m an animal welfare advocate. Not those PEMA people, just locally. I am sorry to think other people know this, I just thought I had made myself clear and everyone knew. It appears I am not as much an idiot as I thought I was. Thank you for that, but I really am demented, **ME**!🙂 BTW, I love your posts/threads! Q ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795/200 "2009-11-05T04:47:33Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > But the costume is unacceptable. > > (So is Quasimodal’s failure to report back. 😛 ) I think we have to give him a break - based on his other recent thread, he’s busy with some other activities that may well take priority: [Penis Sensitivity](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=538186). 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-a-kid-showed-up-at-school-today-dressed-as-hitler/515795.md?page=11)