Results 1 to 30 of 141

Thread: Not by a hair of my chiny chin chin....

Threaded View

Previous Post Previous Post   Next Post Next Post
  1. #11
    Ming the Merciless is my idol Senior Member Watchman's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Location
    Helsinki, Finland
    Posts
    7,967

    Default Re: Not by a hair of my chiny chin chin....

    Quote Originally Posted by Fragony View Post
    Like you do with the marxist theory's?
    Marxism at least has a proper theory, although "Really Existing Socialism" as the Soviets rather ambigiously called their system didn't actually have much to do with it.
    Do explain where exactly I'm taking it at a face value, though. 'Cause I know for a fact I could write you a short essay on where the man was patently wrong... (Pretty much *no* serious academician these days employs Marxist theories in their pure, classical form; as with any viable school of thought, they have been adapted and modified and whatever as the discourse develops.)

    Oh looky, a strawman. Let's BBQ!

    The Nazis chiefly had delusions of racial supremacy, a raging case of ultranationalist militarism and copious amounts of wholly shameless opportunism. If they thought they had a reason to tell you black is white, they did - and changed it right back the next day if convenient.
    Well, those guys did deny rationality having too much value. They didn't have to be consistent or make much sense...

    Anyway, what you're patently missing with your original quote from Adolf is that the Nazis competed with the Communists over the support of the same populist-fodder demographic - angry, disenfranchised working class stiffs who'd just been royally screwed over by the Great Depression. Like any good populist movement both gleefully played the "fat cat capitalists suck" card for the benefit of the audience; among the major differences were that the Communists actually meant it (if you know anything at all about the economic policies of the Third Reich, you know the Nazis were quite cozy indeed with Big Business - as long as it served their purposes, anyway) and that the Nazis were wont to indentify those "fat cat capitalists" as Jews...
    Yeah, they actually did think just about everything bad in the world was the work of a vast Jewish conspiracy for some reason hellbent on destroying the German race. I did say they didn't put much stock on rationality, no ?


    As for Stalinism, fair enough - although it is actually pretty debatable how much anything at all that has in common with the principles of Marxist theory anymore. But the only thing that proves is that anything taken to extremes turns toxic and insane, and probably not too different from comparable fringe lunacy at the other end of the spectrum. (Well, the nutso-Lefties generally fail to play the nationalism card and instead claim everyone equally should be included in their "happy workers' paradise"; the Right-wing whackjobs conversely have a notable propensity for being exclusivist and racist.)
    Probably also worth noting the USSR in peacetime was actually mostly a mellow enough place; the really bad happened chiefly on Stalin's watch. That guy seriously should be the illustration by the textbook definition of Dubious Management Practices.
    Also, North Korea's "Juche" thingy is pretty crackpot even by Stalinist standards.

    I'm incidentally a bit surprised nobody's brought up the Khmer Rouge yet. Probably because it's pretty seriously difficult to see where their stark lunacy had anything to do with any commonly recognised ideological framework, and because the Vietnamese came over and booted tham back into the jungles (and got flak from both the US and China for it... ).
    Last edited by Banquo's Ghost; 01-01-2009 at 11:42. Reason: Bad language
    "Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. --- Proof of the existence of the FSM, if needed, can be found in the recent uptick of global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters. Apparently His Pastaness is to be worshipped in full pirate regalia. The decline in worldwide pirate population over the past 200 years directly corresponds with the increase in global temperature. Here is a graph to illustrate the point."

    -Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
Single Sign On provided by vBSSO