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what about all the good things hitler did?
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| more from oliver... |
| posted by: publius |
10:21 1.26.10 |
is there anyone who would be surprised by stone's claim that western bankers aided hitler's rise to power? it would be somewhat surprising if it were otherwise. somehow people seem to think that hitler came out of the womb wearing a big "dirty rotten genocidal evil baddie" dunce cap (yes, the birth was a bit painful for his mother) and forget that in the 30s he was relatively popular with certain groups in the us and europe. if the 30s version of hitler had been a comer in the early 80s, lord knows the us would have supported him then as well owing to his anti-communist stance.
again, it's just the intellectual slackness which uses hitler as shorthand for evil and shouts down anything resembling a nuanced look at that period in germany which irks me. i don't really see why the guardian is debasing itself by pushing this "story". ollie must have really pissed someone on the editorial board off in his time...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/jan/26/oliver-stone-bankers-hitler |
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| I recommend |
| posted by: camdolphin |
11:45 1.11.10 |
| Roald Dahl's short story, "a fine son," which tells the true life tale of Hitler's birth in the most sympathetic light. It ends with his mom praying that he will survive, after she lost 3 children in 18 months. Just thought I'd throw that out there. |
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| how's that for a punch thread title? |
| posted by: publius |
10:00 1.11.10 |
(for those who don't remember, there used to be a shirt available from the good folks at t-shirt hell which featured that tag line over a picture of hitler in a maid's apron wielding a feather duster)
anyway, i just found this article about a new 10 part history of the 20th century being produced by everybody's favorite provocateur (no...not michael moore...he's so 2004) oliver stone.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/jan/10/hitler-stalin-oliver-stone-history
what angers me is most definitely not stone's proposed documentary but the general tone of incredulity in the guardian article (and you can be damned sure this is about as restrained as the mainstream media response is likely to be). granted, the popular press has always run by setting up polar opposites and black and white absolutes and then bashing the hell out of whatever side is safer. and of course if you're doing that then hitler, stalin et. al are pretty easy to categorize. but anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows that nothing in the world is absolute and if you have any interest in learning anything, putting hitler in an "evil" box and calling it a day isn't going to get you very far.
no earth-shaking statements there. i'm pretty confident that everyone on tentfort would agree and operates on an intellectual level above the hue and cry of the rabble.
what irks me is that guardian feels the need to take such a sneering, childish tone about this series based on some statements which stone (who, it is certainly true, invites controversy and likes to show off his bruises as stigmata) made and which are completely unobjectionable (at least all the ones in the article). all those statements do is challenge the non-thinking, flat orthodoxy which allows people to use hitler as a synonym for evil and feel that that's really all there is to learn or know about him and nazi germany. the guardian response boils down to "we can't believe oliver stone had the gall to come out and say all these things which will stir up moronic hornets in every corner. but we certainly are going to enjoy watching the idiot feeding frenzy that we help to create!"
so while i'm sure oliver stone will find a way to make me regret this, i got his back on this one.
on a related note (file under: humanizing the nazis), i recently finished reading "inside the third reich" be albert speer, most often referred to as "hitler's architect". it is fascinating stuff. in writing his memoirs speer was engaged in a complicated dance of taking the appropriate amount of blame for the nazi war machine while at the same time distancing himself from the holocaust so his account is to be taken with same amount of salt as all first-hand accounts, but the perspective it offers of a first hand account by a high-ranking member of hitler's inner circle is worth your time.
and there may even be an anecdote about hitler doing the dishes... |
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