# So What's The Big Deal Over "Mein Kampf"?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-the-big-deal-over-mein-kampf/742775
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [January 11, 2016, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-the-big-deal-over-mein-kampf/742775 "2016-01-11T03:39:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2016, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-the-big-deal-over-mein-kampf/742775/21 "2016-01-11T21:52:00Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#):
>
> they’ll ban damn near anything at this point.
No, actually, they won’t.
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2016, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-the-big-deal-over-mein-kampf/742775/22 "2016-01-11T21:56:30Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#):
>
> I tried reading it once in college too, because I thought it might be somehow revelatory or something, but it just turned out to be really, really boring.
Hitler was a terrible author, whether or dictated or written himself. Unintelligent, boring, and just plain whiny. I think OJ’s “If I Did It” book deserves attention more, and that is also a very odd book.
Still, no harm in exposing his thoughts to anyone with a brain.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2016, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-the-big-deal-over-mein-kampf/742775/23 "2016-01-12T00:19:51Z")
> [@Derleth](#):
>
> The biggest revelation from _Mein Kampf_ is that Hitler just wasn’t very intelligent.
Well, in at least one respect, he was a genius. James Howard Kunstler, in _The City in Mind,_ defines politics as “the management of human wills in the aggregate by force of character.” In that sense, Hitler was one of the most gifted and capable politicians in history.
However, he eventually learned that even he had not enough force of character to manage the wills of foreigners.
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### Author:  [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2016, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-the-big-deal-over-mein-kampf/742775/24 "2016-01-12T00:24:49Z")
The worry, Mahaloth, isn’t what can happen if you expose his thoughts to people with brains, it’s what can happen when you expose them to people who don’t.
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### Author:  [@cardinal\_fang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cardinal_fang)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2016, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-the-big-deal-over-mein-kampf/742775/25 "2016-01-12T00:39:20Z")
> [@Derleth](#):
>
> The biggest revelation from _Mein Kampf_ is that Hitler just wasn’t very intelligent. Certainly not compared to Churchill, for example, who was a very readable author and noted as a wit in his own time.
>
> [snip]
He even won a prize for his writing. 🙂
(Underlining in original quote mine.)
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### Author:  [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2016, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-the-big-deal-over-mein-kampf/742775/26 "2016-01-12T01:08:12Z")
I find it disturbing and ironic. One of the first things that any Nazi like, oppressive government in history has done is to start banning ideas and speech it doesn’t like.
It’s with good intentions here, but we know where those tend to lead… Lederhosen!
Seriously, the Germans need to get on that freedom of speech law… maybe not under the banner of this work (definitely not, actually), but if they truly don’t want to ever see a repeat of Nazi Germany (not that I think there’s any real danger of that), banning this book isn’t doing anything valuable, and protecting speech would be an actual step towards making sure such a thing much harder to get going.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2016, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whats-the-big-deal-over-mein-kampf/742775/27 "2016-01-12T01:25:53Z")
> [@Kinthalis](#):
>
> I find it disturbing and ironic. One of the first things that any Nazi like, oppressive government in history has done is to start banning ideas and speech it doesn’t like.
>
> It’s with good intentions here, but we know where those tend to lead… Lederhosen!
>
> Seriously, the Germans need to get on that freedom of speech law… maybe not under the banner of this work (definitely not, actually), but if they truly don’t want to ever see a repeat of Nazi Germany (not that I think there’s any real danger of that), banning this book isn’t doing anything valuable, and protecting speech would be an actual step towards making sure such a thing much harder to get going.
This whole post baffles me.
First, Mein Kampf was not banned before. It was legal to buy and legal to own. If you wanted a copy you could buy an existing copy or purchase it from another country. You can go to your local library and take one out. What just happened was that Germany let the book pass into the pubic domain, meaning that anybody in Germany can now publish it legally and without paying royalties, exactly as copyright law works.
Every single thing about this episode is the exact opposite of book banning. How are you twisting reality in order to make that accusation?
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