# You dumbasses ever heard of "historical re-enactment" or what? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 12, 2010, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dumbasses-ever-heard-of-historical-re-enactment-or-what/556845 "2010-10-12T01:04:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dumbasses-ever-heard-of-historical-re-enactment-or-what/556845/61 "2010-10-12T15:03:20Z")
> [@emacknight](#): > > I saw a guy re-enact a battle from the future, where robots developed artificial intelligence, and sent a killer robot back in time to help in their genocidal plot to wipe out all of humanity, and he dressed up like one of the robots! I don’t remember what happened to that guy but he tried to run for governor too. > > Now that I think of it, I remember another guy running for governor that dressed up in a war re-enactment involving a group of elite marines that had to fight against an alien. He was okay though because he was on the good side, and died really early without too many speaking parts. Once you say, “I ain’t got time to bleed” everything else is just downhill from there. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dumbasses-ever-heard-of-historical-re-enactment-or-what/556845/62 "2010-10-12T15:07:27Z")
His opponent’s last name is Kaptur. Says it all, really. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dumbasses-ever-heard-of-historical-re-enactment-or-what/556845/63 "2010-10-12T15:11:47Z")
> [@Death\_of\_Rats](#): > > > [@Sigmagirl](#): > > > > I saw some guy re-enact Judas last Easter. Then we all went out for brunch. > > How is Judas a bad guy? Without him you don’t have your religion. 😃 In similar vein, Hitler was a necessary but not sufficient condition for ending the Great Depression and making the USA! USA! USA! the most powerful nation on earth. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dumbasses-ever-heard-of-historical-re-enactment-or-what/556845/64 "2010-10-12T15:18:55Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > > [@dhkendall](#): > > > > I’m assuming that everyone here knows that Werner Klemperer was Jewish who enjoyed making Klink as bumbling as possible, for obvious reasons. > > A bit like Conrad Veidt as Major Heinrich Strasser in _Casablana_ – he wasn’t a Jew, but he’d left Nazi Germany with his Jewish wife, to make a career playing Nazis in Hollywood. Or Christoph Waltz, who played Col. Landa in Inglourious Basterds, but in real life was married to a Jewish woman and has a son who is a rabbi. ---
**Author:** ![Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/46a35a/32.png) [@Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walker_in_Eternity)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dumbasses-ever-heard-of-historical-re-enactment-or-what/556845/65 "2010-10-12T15:19:53Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > The regular German army were assholes, and only an asshole would admire them. If your desire to play “shoot the Russian Commies,” comes from sound Republican values, you can still dress up as Poles or Finns or even [American Doughboys](http://pbma.grobbel.org/) Really? You do know the difference between the army and the SS don’t you? There were many conscripts in the German army and even officers who did not support the Nazi party, but they had to fight. That doesn’t mean that all german soldiers were war criminals or assholes. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dumbasses-ever-heard-of-historical-re-enactment-or-what/556845/66 "2010-10-12T15:20:51Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > His opponent’s last name is Kaptur. Says it all, really. It only says it if you click the little icon next to it. Otherwise, it’s a group of colored, distorted letters on a very busy background. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dumbasses-ever-heard-of-historical-re-enactment-or-what/556845/67 "2010-10-12T15:26:11Z")
First, why in the world anyone wouuld even WANT to play act as a Nazi is pretty much beyond my comprehension. Secondly, the comparison to Civil War re-enactors seems not appropriate, there are no civil war survivors. There are still many survivors of the Nazi atrocities. To celebrate htese guys is idiotic. the guy can do wahatever he wants, of course, no one is denying him that. But it reflects poorly on his character in my opinion and therefore would certainly make me not vote for him. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dumbasses-ever-heard-of-historical-re-enactment-or-what/556845/68 "2010-10-12T16:10:30Z")
There is choice involved. He chose to dress up like a SS agent. There are less controversial selections and most people would feel pretty uncomfortable doing it. It makes me wonder. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dumbasses-ever-heard-of-historical-re-enactment-or-what/556845/69 "2010-10-12T16:16:26Z")
I’m not a historical re-enactor myself, but when I play Starcraft I do prefer to play Terran, because of my sympathies. That’s not the same as saying that those who like to play the Zerg are somehow suspect in their loyalty to the human race. Likewise, if I were doing historical re-enactment, I would be drawn to the side whose ethos was closest to my own, but I wouldn’t want it to be assumed of those who play the other side. Frankly, most historical re-enactment would be morally reprehensible under such an assumption: it’s one set of murdering bastards vs. another. Practically, however, people will make assumptions, and those assumptions will be exploited for political purposes. If a Democrat were found to be a Crusades re-enactor who played on the side of the Saracens, I don’t think you’d see many Republicans defending the principle that it’s inappropriate to judge the participant’s ethos from this. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dumbasses-ever-heard-of-historical-re-enactment-or-what/556845/70 "2010-10-12T16:28:46Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > It’s much harder for an SS reenactor to distance himself from the ideology. The SS were specifically the arm of Nazi ideology. There’s a big difference between Wermacht and SS. And I agree that studiously not mentioning the bad parts on their website is suspicious. I also think, although this is more a personal preference, that I wouldn’t mind a portrayal that said something like, to invent an example, “ordinary men caught up in a terrible tide” nearly as much as the gung-ho promotion of the supposed “fight to free Europe from Communism.” Not to mention that “freedom” was no part of the understanding implicit in der Fuhrer’s _[lebensraum](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebensraum)_. Given current information, my best guess is that this guy’s political opponents tried to make hay out of his re-enactment activities purely for their own advantage, but more-or-less accidentally outed a bunch of closeted Nazi wannabes in the process. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dumbasses-ever-heard-of-historical-re-enactment-or-what/556845/71 "2010-10-12T16:39:33Z")
> [@dhkendall](#): > > > [@SteveG1](#): > > > > We’re going after Colonel Klink next :rolleyes: > > I’m assuming that everyone here knows that Werner Klemperer was Jewish who enjoyed making Klink as bumbling as possible, for obvious reasons. I sure hope so ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dumbasses-ever-heard-of-historical-re-enactment-or-what/556845/72 "2010-10-12T16:46:31Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > > [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > > > It’s much harder for an SS reenactor to distance himself from the ideology. > > The SS were specifically the arm of Nazi ideology. There’s a big difference between Wermacht and SS. And I agree that studiously not mentioning the bad parts on their website is suspicious. Indeed. The SS were volunteer throughout the war, IIRC. And membership of the SS was, I believe, declared a war crime after Germany’s surrender. It’s just historical reenactment doesn’t cut it. If a group of people decided to split themselves up into groups and on the weekend one group would put on stripey pajama type uniforms, and the others would dress as prison guards, and they spent time reenacting the death camps, no one would think it acceptable. The military arm of the SS was as responsible for the Holocaust as the death camp guards. ---
**Author:** ![Doughbag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Doughbag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doughbag)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dumbasses-ever-heard-of-historical-re-enactment-or-what/556845/73 "2010-10-12T16:47:37Z")
This is just retarded, ever heared about TV, Movies or Cinema? Do we procecute every actor for acting his or her part? Maybe the next time someone plays a serial killer in a movie, we put him onto the Green mile for real. And when the aliens kill all humans or extract some of us to another planet do do some Predetor’ing we send those aliens to prison for unlawfull behaviour. By the way, when I was a little boy I dressed up as an Indian or a Cowboy and we shot each other with fake guns, so lay the lay on me…:smack: ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dumbasses-ever-heard-of-historical-re-enactment-or-what/556845/74 "2010-10-12T16:59:12Z")
I suppose if we want to give him the benefit of the doubt, we can note that the SS Wiking had a grand ole time in the Caucuses during Case Blue (before having to haul ass out of there along with the rest of the army), they fought at Kursk, they conducted a pretty heroic rearguard action at the Korsun Pocket, and they managed to stay intact as they retreated through Hungary and Czechoslovakia and surrendered to the Western allies. And watching one of their videos somewhere, they seemed about as menacing as a LARP troupe (BTW, what’s the LARP equivalent of reenacting an SS division? An Uruk-Hai clan?) But yeah, reenacting the exploits of an SS division, as opposed to a regular German army division is certainly a curious decision (is there a reenactor playing Josef Mengele?). If they wanted to reenact an “elite” unit, why not the fallschirmjägers? ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dumbasses-ever-heard-of-historical-re-enactment-or-what/556845/75 "2010-10-12T17:02:04Z")
**Doughbag** - seriously, what would you think of a person who spent his weekends re-enacting Auschwitz? Do you not think that indicates something about a person’s mindset that bears on their capability to hold public office? The Waffen SS were war criminals. Every single (volunteer) member (apparently I was wrong and there was conscription into SS units later on). [Regardless of the record of individual combat units within the Waffen-SS, the entire organisation was declared a criminal organization by the International Military Tribunal during the Nuremberg Trials, except conscripts, who were exempted from that judgement due to being forcibly mobilised.](http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/waffenss.html) ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dumbasses-ever-heard-of-historical-re-enactment-or-what/556845/76 "2010-10-12T17:06:28Z")
> [@Doughbag](#): > > This is just retarded, ever heared about TV, Movies or Cinema? > > Do we procecute every actor for acting his or her part? > > Maybe the next time someone plays a serial killer in a movie, we put him onto the Green mile for real. And when the aliens kill all humans or extract some of us to another planet do do some Predetor’ing we send those aliens to prison for unlawfull behaviour. > > By the way, when I was a little boy I dressed up as an Indian or a Cowboy and we shot each other with fake guns, so lay the lay on me…:smack: 1. We’re not talking about a production to be aired in mass-market; we’re talking about a group (with a website touting the SS) dressing up, taking pictures of themselves all nazied out, and playing bang bang in the back yard. B) No one is asking for this guy to be subject to the Nuremburg trials. And lastly) when you played cowboys and indians when you were a boy, it’s important to point out that you weren’t an adult … and probably not running for public office. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dumbasses-ever-heard-of-historical-re-enactment-or-what/556845/77 "2010-10-12T17:14:00Z")
> [@MOIDALIZE](#): > > the SS Wiking had a grand ole time in the Caucuses during Case Blue (before having to haul ass out of there along with the rest of the army) Yup, they needed to pull out, or else they’d get pounded in their rear during Operation Uranus. True fact. ---
**Author:** ![heatmiserfl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df705f/32.png) [@heatmiserfl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heatmiserfl)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dumbasses-ever-heard-of-historical-re-enactment-or-what/556845/78 "2010-10-12T17:33:25Z")
> [@Kokopilau](#): > > It’s not the WWII re-enactment that’s so troublesome. It’s not even the fact that it’s German military WWII re-enactment. Nor is it even the fact that it’s SS-unit German military re-enactment. > > No, it’s the [statements on their website](http://www.wiking.org/topics/history.htm) about how the members of this particular SS division (which, remember, participated in Einsatzgruppen murders of Jews and once counted Josef Mengele as a member) were “idealists” fighting for “their loved ones and a basic desire to be free,” how they were “valiant men [who] died defending their respective countries in the name of a better tomorrow,” and how they were “volunteers willing to lay down their lives to ensure a “New and Free Europe”, free of the threat of Communism.” > > THAT’S what’s so troublesome. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dumbasses-ever-heard-of-historical-re-enactment-or-what/556845/79 "2010-10-12T17:41:26Z")
> [@Doughbag](#): > > This is just retarded, ever heared about TV, Movies or Cinema? > > Do we procecute every actor for acting his or her part? > > Maybe the next time someone plays a serial killer in a movie, we put him onto the Green mile for real. And when the aliens kill all humans or extract some of us to another planet do do some Predetor’ing we send those aliens to prison for unlawfull behaviour. > > By the way, when I was a little boy I dressed up as an Indian or a Cowboy and we shot each other with fake guns, so lay the lay on me…:smack: Prince Harry got lambasted for dressing up like Hitler . Can you figure out why? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2010, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dumbasses-ever-heard-of-historical-re-enactment-or-what/556845/80 "2010-10-12T17:42:00Z")
I was all ready to say “get over it, it’s just a historical re-enactment,” but the more details come out about this, the worse it gets. I don’t think the guy is a secret Nazi. I think he’s one of those creeps who admires the Nazis for being **HARDCORE, MAN!** People like that aren’t evil, but they’re a little off and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near one of them. And how fucking stupid do you have to be to run for federal office and not realize that, gee, those pictures of you wearing an SS uniform might be a problem? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dumbasses-ever-heard-of-historical-re-enactment-or-what/556845.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-dumbasses-ever-heard-of-historical-re-enactment-or-what/556845.md?page=5)