# Will the right stop trying to stop trying to compare their crazies to the left's mild overreactions?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [August 26, 2009, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842 "2009-08-26T23:49:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2009, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/61 "2009-08-28T14:25:09Z")
> [@furt](#):
>
> :dubious: Nobody on the SDMB is a birther, either, which is what the OP was talking about. As to the idea that it was only some kind of rare fringe that was making the Bush=Hitler comparison, don’t be absurd. [Moveon.org](http://Moveon.org) is a major democratic player. Keith Olberman is not fringe, nor is Michael Moore; all made implicit or explicit comparisons.
>
> Here’s a couple galleries’ worth of the rank-and-file-nutballs:
>
> [http://brain-terminal.com/posts/2009/08/20/hitler-comparisons](http://brain-terminal.com/posts/2009/08/20/hitler-comparisons)
>
> [semiskimmed.net](http://semiskimmed.net/bushhitler.html)
Please provide the explicit or implicit comparisons that [Moveon.org](http://Moveon.org), Olberman, and Moore made between Bush and Hitler.
And no, a couple of nutballs submitting videos to a [Moveon.org](http://Moveon.org) video contest =/= [Moveon.org](http://Moveon.org). Just in case you were wondering.
OTOH, G.O.P. Congresscritters and right-wing TV and radio hosts with audiences of millions have compared Obama to Hitler.
---
### Author:  [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2009, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/62 "2009-08-28T16:41:17Z")
> [@furt](#):
>
> :dubious: Nobody on the SDMB is a birther, either, which is what the OP was talking about. As to the idea that it was only some kind of rare fringe that was making the Bush=Hitler comparison, don’t be absurd. [Moveon.org](http://Moveon.org) is a major democratic player. Keith Olberman is not fringe, nor is Michael Moore; all made implicit or explicit comparisons.
>
> Here’s a couple galleries’ worth of the rank-and-file-nutballs:
>
> [http://brain-terminal.com/posts/2009/08/20/hitler-comparisons](http://brain-terminal.com/posts/2009/08/20/hitler-comparisons)
>
> [semiskimmed.net](http://semiskimmed.net/bushhitler.html)
So when you said “BusHitler?” (in quotes), you didn’t actually mean “the phrase ‘bushitler’”, you just meant generic comparisons of Bush to Hitler? Because you can (I assume) see how that might lead to confusion. What with the quotes there and stuff.
---
### Author:  [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2009, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/63 "2009-08-28T17:14:36Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#):
>
> You lumped the movie in with protests, assaults, and threats, and then said it was the work of assholes.
>
> Why?
IMO, making a documentary-style film about the assassination of an unpopular sitting president when there already of plenty of crazy people who hate him is a dick move. I say the same about all the righties who go over the top with the Obama rhetoric. YMMV.
---
### Author:  [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2009, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/64 "2009-08-28T17:21:43Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#):
>
> **Furt** , you’re full of shit. You weren’t just casually mentioning a movie that depicted Bush’s fictional death, you were equating it with all the batshit crazy stuff your side yanks out of it’s collective asses.
>
> You either knew full well that that movie was in no way a call for Bush’s assassination, or you didn’t have a clue because you’ve never seen it and only took the word of your fellow loon-balls about what it was all about.
1. Sorry, not “my side.” I am only a conservative relative to the SDMB. I haven’t voted for a Pub presidential candidate since Dole.
2. It was not a “call for assassination,” nor did I say it was. It was an unhelpful contribution to overheated rhetoric, by someone who knew damn well what kind of environment he was releasing his film into. It is a step up from lynching Sarah Palin in effigy, but still an ugly thing, IMO.
---
### Author:  [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2009, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/65 "2009-08-28T17:25:01Z")
> [@furt](#):
>
> 1. It was not a “call for assassination,” nor did I say it was. It was an unhelpful contribution to overheated rhetoric, by someone who knew damn well what kind of environment he was releasing his film into. It is a step up from lynching Sarah Palin in effigy, but still an ugly thing, IMO.
This is further proof that you don’t have clue one about this particular movie; you’re trying to prop it up as some big bad We Hate Bush thing when it is so clearly not.
---
### Author:  [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2009, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/66 "2009-08-28T17:29:13Z")
> [@furt](#):
>
> 1. Sorry, not “my side.” I am only a conservative relative to the SDMB. I haven’t voted for a Pub presidential candidate since Dole.
>
> 2. It was not a “call for assassination,” nor did I say it was. It was an unhelpful contribution to overheated rhetoric, by someone who knew damn well what kind of environment he was releasing his film into. It is a step up from lynching Sarah Palin in effigy, but still an ugly thing, IMO.
Have you seen it?
---
### Author:  [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2009, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/67 "2009-08-28T17:29:33Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#):
>
> So when you said “BusHitler?” (in quotes), you didn’t actually mean “the phrase ‘bushitler’”, you just meant generic comparisons of Bush to Hitler? Because you can (I assume) see how that might lead to confusion. What with the quotes there and stuff.
yes, actually I did mean the whole panoply of Bush=Hitler comparisons. If you want to be technical about it, yes, there are/were [plenty of people](http://www.google.com/search?q=bushitler&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B3GGGL_enUS217US239) using the phrase “Bushitler.”
---
### Author:  [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2009, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/68 "2009-08-28T17:34:40Z")
> [@furt](#):
>
> yes, actually I did mean the whole panoply of Bush=Hitler comparisons. If you want to be technical about it, yes, there are/were [plenty of people](http://www.google.com/search?q=bushitler&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B3GGGL_enUS217US239) using the phrase “Bushitler.”
I don’t doubt it. I’m sure there were also people who thought he was literally the reincarnation of Jesus. But I honestly had never heard the term until an SDMB thread a few weeks ago in which someone, possibly you, used it as an example of what went on during the Bush years. Maybe I was just (un?)lucky, but it certainly didn’t seem to have penetrated the public consciousness the way birthers or teabaggers have.
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### Author:  [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2009, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/69 "2009-08-28T17:36:04Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#):
>
> Have you seen it?
Nope. Did read an interview with the director, and read (non-political) reviews.
Sorry, I don’t subscribe to the “you can’t say anything if you haven’t seen it” line. If someone made a movie speculating – purely speculating, of course – about a white supremicist killing President Obama, I wouldn’t need to see it to call it assholish. If the director acknowledging himself as a strong conservative, I’d regard it as an example of assholish behavior from a conservative.
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### Author:  [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2009, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/70 "2009-08-28T17:38:41Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#):
>
> I don’t doubt it. I’m sure there were also people who thought he was literally the reincarnation of Jesus. But I honestly had never heard the term until an SDMB thread a few weeks ago in which someone, possibly you, used it as an example of what went on during the Bush years. Maybe I was just (un?)lucky, but it certainly didn’t seem to have penetrated the public consciousness the way birthers or teabaggers have.
It probably wasn’t me. I can’t speak for the public consciousness, but some of the liberals I know were quite convinced Bush is/was a fascist, and I saw plenty of that rhetoric on the interwebs.
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### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2009, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/71 "2009-08-28T17:39:29Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#):
>
> I don’t doubt it. I’m sure there were also people who thought he was literally the reincarnation of Jesus. But I honestly had never heard the term until an SDMB thread a few weeks ago in which someone, possibly you, used it as an example of what went on during the Bush years. Maybe I was just (un?)lucky, but it certainly didn’t seem to have penetrated the public consciousness the way birthers or teabaggers have.
I hadn’t heard it either till just very recently here on the SDMB. FTR I despise Bush and pretty sure I would have picked up on this had I heard it before.
Not saying no one used it before. I try to keep my ear to the ground on these things so I guess I magically missed it too somehow.
Ah well…
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2009, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/72 "2009-08-28T17:45:13Z")
> [@furt](#):
>
> yes, there are/were [plenty of people](http://www.google.com/search?q=bushitler&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B3GGGL_enUS217US239) using the phrase “Bushitler.”
For example, from your link, Michelle Malkin? 😃
30,100 hits for “bushitler” is _nothing_.
By way of comparison, “obamanation” nets 464,000 hits while we’re less than 9 months into the Obama presidency.
Heck, I get 205,000 hits for “obama is hitler”.
---
### Author:  [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2009, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/73 "2009-08-28T18:42:01Z")
> [@furt](#):
>
> Nope. Did read an interview with the director, and read (non-political) reviews.
>
> Sorry, I don’t subscribe to the “you can’t say anything if you haven’t seen it” line. If someone made a movie speculating – purely speculating, of course – about a white supremicist killing President Obama, I wouldn’t need to see it to call it assholish. If the director acknowledging himself as a strong conservative, I’d regard it as an example of assholish behavior from a conservative.
And you’d be just as hysterical then as you are now.
---
### Author:  [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/74 "2009-08-28T18:48:55Z")
> [@furt](#):
>
> This is a whoosh, right?
In no way.
> [@furt's earlier statement](#):
>
> Feature length movies depicting the assasination of GWB? “BusHitler?” Republican campaign offices attacked and workers assaulted? Crosses burned on lawns with Bush-Cheney signs? Mock Palin lynchings?
I had never heard of any of these things, until you backpedaled from the BusHitler thing.
---
### Author:  [@Kearsen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kearsen)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2009, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/75 "2009-08-28T18:56:58Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#):
>
> Neither of them is as bad as the rightwingers.
>
> More importantly, they are two people. As opposed to the swarms and swarms and swarms of birthers and deathers and Obama-is-a-terrorist/Antichrist/communist lunatics.
I guess anytime you allow subjective absolutes such as “as bad”, you will never find a consensus.
My guy is just not as bad as your guy.
Both sides have a plethora of ‘crazies’ to pick from and from this thread alone it’s the Lib’s screaming that the other side is worse. Most of the Republican crowd is stating that there is plenty of crazy to go around.
Why would this not be embraced one might ask. It’s called compromise.
---
### Author:  [@Kearsen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kearsen)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2009, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/76 "2009-08-28T18:58:36Z")
> [@Squink](#):
>
> For example, from your link, Michelle Malkin? 😃
>
> 30,100 hits for “bushitler” is _nothing_.
> By way of comparison, “obamanation” nets 464,000 hits while we’re less than 9 months into the Obama presidency.
> Heck, I get 205,000 hits for “obama is hitler”.
Alternatively, if you type “bush hitler” you get 1,330,000 hits 🙂
---
### Author:  [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2009, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/77 "2009-08-28T19:10:54Z")
> [@Kearsen](#):
>
> I guess anytime you allow subjective absolutes such as “as bad”, you will never find a consensus.
>
> My guy is just not as bad as your guy.
> Both sides have a plethora of ‘crazies’ to pick from and from this thread alone it’s the Lib’s screaming that the other side is worse. Most of the Republican crowd is stating that there is plenty of crazy to go around.
>
> Why would this not be embraced one might ask. It’s called compromise.
Because the worse behaving one of a pair is happy to be punished only as much as the better behaving one, while the better behaving one is unhappy to be punished as much as the worse behaving one.
If Frankie punches Jeffy in the nose and Jeffy shoots Frankie in the face, Jeffy is better off if everyone says, “Gosh, both sides behaved badly” where Frankie is better off if everyone says, “Gosh, Jeffy behaved really badly.”
Averaging makes the bad look better than they are and the good look worse.
---
### Author:  [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2009, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/78 "2009-08-28T19:18:29Z")
> [@chappachula](#):
>
> Umm..I remember a little movie called Farehenheit 911, and little guy named Michael Moore.And a woman named Cindy Sheehan…The dems didn’t exactly run like hell to avoid 'em.
>
> Now, okay, they weren’t totally bat-sheet crazy…
Pretty significant that. These are the same 2 people who took their turn as Pulbic Enemy #1 on the right and were relentlessly bombarded with criticism on Fox etc. Moore puts out 2 hours of material every couple of years (and criticsm of F911 is just nitpicking), and Sheehan was just a housewife. Just 2 people and you admit they’re only moderately crazy.
Meanwhile, there are dozens of right-wing nuts who get hours of airtime each day, each of whom engages in far more egregious spin.
> [@](#):
>
> And the left wing _loved_ 'em.
There are plenty of non-conservatives who prefer to keep these 2 at arm’s length (Sheehan’s 15 minutes are over anyway).
---
### Author:  [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2009, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/79 "2009-08-28T19:41:17Z")
> [@Kearsen](#):
>
> I guess anytime you allow subjective absolutes such as “as bad”, you will never find a consensus.
>
> My guy is just not as bad as your guy.
> Both sides have a plethora of ‘crazies’ to pick from and from this thread alone it’s the Lib’s screaming that the other side is worse. Most of the Republican crowd is stating that there is plenty of crazy to go around.
>
> Why would this not be embraced one might ask. It’s called compromise.
It’s called caving in and going along with the Right Wing’s excuses for it’s own bad behavior.
---
### Author:  [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2009, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/80 "2009-08-28T19:44:09Z")
> [@Kearsen](#):
>
> I guess anytime you allow subjective absolutes such as “as bad”, you will never find a consensus.
>
> My guy is just not as bad as your guy.
> Both sides have a plethora of ‘crazies’ to pick from and from this thread alone it’s the Lib’s screaming that the other side is worse. Most of the Republican crowd is stating that there is plenty of crazy to go around.
>
> Why would this not be embraced one might ask. It’s called compromise.
No, it’s called false equivalence. Dwelling upon the splinter in your neighbor’s eye while ignoring the plank in your own.
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