Skip to content

Literally Hitler

2016-04-19 · letter vlog · John · 3:30 · watch on YouTube

Topic: US politics & society · mode: News analysis · tags: timely hook

John argues that Hitler comparisons and insults in the 2016 campaign are inaccurate and counterproductive: the US is not in mortal peril, there was never a golden age, and name-calling pushes people out of policy debate; he and Hank will next examine the candidates' tax plans.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The history of Hitler analogies: 'Obama is literally Hitler', reductio ad Hitlerum, Pharaoh, and today's comparisons of every candidate

  • ★★ John says that in August 2009 someone started a Tumblr called 'Obama is literally Hitler', satirizing comparisons between Obama and Hitler. — 00:00:00 · Tumblr, Barack Obama
  • ★★ John says the phrase 'reductio ad Hitlerum' was coined in 1951 for arguments that compare others' positions to the Nazis or Hitler. — 00:00:11
  • ★★ John says that before Hitler a common uber-villain was the Pharaoh of Exodus: in the Civil War abolitionists called slaveholders pharaohs and Southerners called Lincoln a modern pharaoh. — 00:00:22
  • ★★ John says Hitler and the Nazis are now compared to everyone: on social media Clinton, Trump, Cruz and Sanders are each likened to Hitler. — 00:00:33 · Donald Trump
  • ★★ John says an actual presidential candidate compared the contemporary United States to Nazi Germany. — 00:00:44 · United States

00:00:48 — Why the analogy is counterproductive: the US is not in mortal peril, its real problems, and the golden age that never was

  • ★★★ John says such comparisons are inaccurate and counterproductive: hearing your candidate compared to Hitler doesn't make you less likely to vote for them; you are repulsed, since it implies you are a Nazi. — 00:00:48
  • ★★★ John says the analogy imagines something terribly wrong with the US, like 1930s Germany, which is just not true: the US is not in mortal peril. — 00:01:01 · United States
  • ★★★ John says the US economy has grown each of the last six years, unemployment has dropped through the 2010s, crime is down and 90% of Americans have health insurance, the highest since the 1970s. — 00:01:07 · United States
  • ★★ John says the US does have big problems, for instance Americans have too much student loan debt. — 00:01:21 · United States
  • ★★ John says high income inequality is hindering growth. — 00:01:26 · economic inequality
  • ★★ John says the US health-care system is way too expensive and not particularly effective. — 00:01:28 · United States
  • ★★ John says the US desperately needs comprehensive immigration reform. — 00:01:32 · United States
  • ★★ John says the US still has a very high violent crime rate compared to other rich nations. — 00:01:32 · United States
  • ★★★ John says the US has always had big problems, and asks, of talk about making America great again or reigniting the American dream, when exactly this golden age was. — 00:01:38 · United States
  • ★★ John says 200 years ago the vast majority of people couldn't vote because they weren't landowning white males. — 00:01:47
  • ★★ John says a hundred years ago most women couldn't vote. — 00:01:52
  • ★★ John says fifty years ago interracial marriage was still illegal in half the country. — 00:01:54
  • ★★ John says that in 1985 unemployment was higher than today, median household income was lower and you were more than twice as likely to be murdered (plus no Snapchat). — 00:01:58
  • ★★★ John feels that imagining a past that never existed feeds the notion that the US faces an unprecedented danger only candidate X or Y can solve. (hedged) — 00:02:08 · United States

00:02:17 — Name-calling over policy drives people out of the conversation; Trump's insults of Ted Cruz; insults weaken government

  • ★★★ John says that when politics focuses on name-calling rather than policy, discussion becomes hard: insulting his candidate calls his future into question and feels personal, so he withdraws before the policy nuances. — 00:02:17
  • ★★★ John says all the presidential candidates have name-called, but, not wanting a false equivalence, that Donald Trump does it by far the most. — 00:02:36 · Donald Trump
  • ★★ John lists some of Trump's insults of Ted Cruz that he can repeat on Vlogbrothers: liar, choker, disloyal, lowlife, crazy, dishonest, reckless, hypocrite, a soft, weak little baby. — 00:02:43 · Donald Trump
  • ★★★ John thinks insults hurt American political life, making government less effective whatever the leaders' ideology. (hedged) — 00:03:02 · United States
  • ★★ John hopes that in this election cycle people can avoid insults and focus on what government should do and how. (hedged) — 00:03:11

00:03:18 — Plan: Hank on the Democratic tax plans Friday, John on the Republican plans next Tuesday; sign-off

  • ★★★ John says that next Tuesday (26 April 2016) he will look at the Republican candidates' tax plans. — 00:03:20 · Republican Party
  • ★★ John says that first, on Friday (22 April 2016), Hank will look at the tax plans of the Democratic candidates. — 00:03:23

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Adolf Hitler · Donald Trump · name-calling · reductio ad Hitlerum · United States

Also: People: Abraham Lincoln · Barack Obama · Bernie Sanders · Hillary Clinton · Ted Cruz

Works: Book of Exodus · Hebrew Bible · Obama is literally Hitler

Organizations: Democratic Party · Republican Party · Snapchat · Tumblr

Concepts: American Dream · economic growth · economic inequality · false equivalence · health care prices in the United States · higher education · interracial marriage · rosy retrospection · suffrage · tax · Unemployment · violent crime

Places: Nazi Germany

Events: American Civil War

Policies: Comprehensive immigration reform

Myths: Pharaoh of the Exodus

Also centred on Adolf Hitler: Questions Answered! · Hitler and Sex!

← Previous: T-Shirt and Jeans and TOUR ANNOUNCEMENT · Next → Clinton vs. Sanders: POLICY IS EXCITING!