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If It Rants Like a Nazi, and Deceives Like a Nazi ...

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by Lee Russ

Have you noticed how angry the far right--the neo-thugs and rabble rousers, among whom I'd place Wolfowitz, Cheney, Coulter, Hannity, O'Reilly, Limbaugh, and Falwell, among many others--becomes when they are compared to Nazis? Ever wonder why?

At first glance, you could dismiss this as a natural reaction to being insulted. But insults are part of these peoples' lives, and they don't seem to be nearly as agitated by other insults.

You might also try to explain it in terms of their great revulsion at Nazis, making the label an especially grievous insult. But I don't really buy that one either, since I suspect that many of these people secretly admire many things Nazi.

The basic precepts of Hitlerian propaganda, however, provide a very plausible answer. Hitler and his buddy Goebbels believed that you had to establish broad labels for your enemies, and ensure that the masses associated these labels with the most vile traits. This is a kind of shorthand. Once the basic label had been established in Nazi land, you didn't have to say "greedy, uncaring, deviant Christ-killer," you just said "Jew." In today's America, you don't have to say "traitorous, cowardly, girlie-man waster of other peoples' money," you just say "liberal."

What propagandists of this ilk fear, naturally, is that the enemy will paste the same type of label on them: one that carries a very strong and clear negative message that will turn the emotions of the masses against them. Those of us who oppose the far right have not done a very good job of this. However, our society still bears the imprint of World War II. Hence the term "Nazi" is a ready-made label that carries far worse connotations than "liberal." That's why the frothing, pseudo-patriots get so upset about the term.

They know that many of their actions resemble those of the Nazis, that the resemblance is real enough and deep enough that the label could stick. And if it sticks, all their years of expensive and detailed propaganda activity to demonize liberalism and rational thought are wasted.

All their accumulated power and wealth gets put at risk if those tricky masses--the people of "What's the Matter with Kansas"--start to look at them and see "Nazi" and all its trappings. It's their Achilles heel.

They don't fear rational criticism--another propaganda precept is that the limited attention span of the masses can't handle it or retain it. They don't fear other types of propaganda, because they know they have the financial and resource advantage. Maybe we should stop analyzing their heads and worry about their heels. Maybe we should start calling a spade a spade, a thug a thug and a Nazi a …

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