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Hitler Ate Sugar: Difference between revisions
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'''Bob:''' Really? What was I thinking? I can't believe I was going to do something the Nazis did. }}
This is also one of the reasons why we are often loath to admit that a person who we generally always [[Dumbass Has a Point|disagree with]] may actually be right [[Jerkass Has a Point|for once]]. Someone intimidated by this "argument" may invoke [[No True Scotsman]] as a "rebuttal".
Compare [[Abomination Accusation Attack]], the [[Chewbacca Defense]] and [[Godwin's Law]]. [[Sub-Trope]] of [[So Was X]] and [[Anti-Advice]]. Compare also to [[Real Men Hate Sugar]], in which people come to hate something normally considered pleasant due to cultural/gender expectations of what is considered "mature." Usually occurs when people take [[Not So Different]] to absurd levels.
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{{quote|'''Rupert Pupkin:''' I made a mistake.
'''Jerry Langford:''' So did Hitler. }}
* Inverted in ''[[Downfall (film)|Downfall]]'', where the first scene shows Hitler being kind and forgiving to a flustered job applicant. The director was obviously trying to make the point that no one can be evil 24-7, but the usual suspects went nuts, claiming the film was trying to whitewash Hitler. They also failed to notice that Hitler was being kind because the secretary came from a region of Germany he was fond of, demonstrating how he had little interest in people's actual competence compared to their racial purity or national heritage.
* This is the reasoning behind the title of ''[[Bowling for Columbine]]''. Moore points out that media watchdogs and social commentary pundits were alarmingly quick to point towards all sorts of societal influences that supposedly caused Harris and Klebold's rampage, including video games, bullying, violent movies, and the like. He then questions if they might as well blame the sport of bowling for what happened, as both killers were attending school classes in bowling and even played a game the morning before the shooting.
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* Hitler's often held up as an example of the inevitable moral bankruptcy of atheism...''and'' as an example of the inherently intolerant and oppressive nature of Christianity. This is actually sort of understandable, since both his public and private statements about religion are so contradictory that it's just about impossible to figure out what he believed. (The general scholarly consensus is that although he didn't mind using the Jews' supposed complicity in the Crucifixion to justify his antisemitism to others, his personal attitude toward Christianity was actually extremely contemptuous. He wasn't a strong atheist or anything, [http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/13/weekinreview/word-for-word-case-against-nazis-hitler-s-forces-planned-destroy-german.html?pagewanted=all but it is now known] [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1753469.stm that he intended to do away with Christianity].)
** This was actually true of the man in general; speaking and politics were his only real skills, and he had an incredible knack for saying the exact thing that would get him his way. It's not even totally certain if Hitler himself was actually an anti-Semite, or if he just fashioned himself as one because Germany was pretty anti-Semitic in general at the time and it was a good way to get in with the voters, as it were.
*** This controversy was not helped by the fact that the original edition of ''Hitler's Table Talk'' was full of mistranslations and downright crimes of omission - for instance, phrases such as "the common good" are translated as "Christianity."
* A strange variant of this trope occurred in Jaslo, Poland in July 2009. [http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,634758,00.html An oak tree became the target of a political movement to get it felled once it was found out that Hitler planted it in celebration of his 53rd birthday]. Though really, that isn't saying all trees are bad... just the specific Hitler Tree.
* Anti-smoking policies are often denounced as Nazi-ist, as the Nazis banned things. Adolf Hitler did indeed disapprove of smoking, and hoped that in his lifetime every cigarette package in Europe would be labeled with a warning message (an idea that has since then become widespread). He also never drank alcohol, citing its effects on the poor families in Austria. Yet, cigarette corporations have also been accused of fascism on at least one occasion, for profiting on the ills of others (which doesn't really make sense, since fascists tend to distrust private corporations).
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* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/29/osama-bin-laden-climate-change Osama bin Laden supported the fight against climate change.] Cue Right-wing America asking 'What is the difference between bin Laden and Al Gore?'
** Bin Laden was also [http://blogs.suntimes.com/sportsprose/2010/04/osama_bin_laden_an_avid_soccer.html an avid soccer fan and reportedly very good at volleyball.]
** According to some of the stuff found at his compound, Bin Laden also enjoyed smoking weed and drinking Coca-Cola.
* [[Rush Limbaugh]] has [http://kotaku.com/5677274/rush-limbaugh-defends-video-games-free-speech-says-this-is-where-the-battle-is?skyline=true&s=i established] himself as being a supporter of free speech in video games, and a number of individuals [[Your Approval Fills Me with Shame|have expressed shame at agreeing with him.]]
* [[wikipedia:Francisco Franco|Franco's]] memory suffers greatly from his association with Hitler, one of the most evil men in history (though the relationship was pretty one-sided, with Germany giving the assistance, and Spain receiving it). This is justified in almost all aspects in that Franco was also a brutal <s>[[You Keep Using That Word|fascist]]</s>authoritarian dictator who was ruthless to his enemies; the few exceptions are important. Hitler's is the most infamous person in history because of his holocaust and starting a World War. On the other hand, Franco let some targets of anti-Semitic persecution into Spain, and Spanish officials abroad in Nazi-controlled territories did this as well, though without his authorization. And Spain remained neutral in WWII and did not start their own world wars. So the notoriety that extends from Hitler's evil taints Franco, even though he didn't actually support some of the worst of Hitler's evils. The fact that his life isn't as well known is partly to blame for this, as is the fact that most famous figures are seen as [[Black and White Morality|simply good or evil]], not people with [[Even Evil Has Standards|a different view]] of what constitutes moral behavior.
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** Another way of [[Inverted Trope|inverting]] or [[Subverted Trope|subverting]] this trope is to present Hitler eating sugar as a [[Pet the Dog]] moment, to ask whether or not Hitler was "really that bad?" "Nazi Germany was the first government to campaign against smoking," and similar kinds of observations are presented in the hope that we'll see the Third Reich in a different light, as if Hitler being a vegetarian (which he wasn't, this is a myth) or an animal lover somehow makes Auschwitz less horrible than it actually was.
* Patriotism/Nationalism. Germans in Nazi Germany were patriotic/nationalistic, therefore patriotism and nationalism are evil. Or so some people say.
** Especially strange regarding patriotism considering that Hitler was insulted by anyone thinking he was a patriot - patriots believe in the culture and traditions of their nation, while nationalists believe in race, blood, volk, etc. Hitler hated Weimar-era German culture, and wanted to destroy it, so he saw calling him a patriot tantamount to calling him a supporter of the Weimar regime (i.e. pretty much everything he hated)
* [http://www.youtube.com/user/ObamaComma This Youtube channel], filled with videos of political commentary unabashedly referring to the right with terms like "reich," "big lie," and "Nazi," interspersed with videos explaining that, no, it isn't hyperbole, he really believes that the GOP is a Nazi organization based on vague similarities and tenuous connections (such as Prescott Bush and the National Prayer Breakfast).
* The Daily Mail have used Charles Manson's belief in climate change to ridicule the idea. [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1378178/Charles-Manson-breaks-20-year-silence-40th-anniversary-gruesome-Sharon-Tate-murders.html Seriously]
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** Americans in particular seem to have great difficulty in distinguishing other kinds of socialism from Marxism.
* The (slightly left-wing) Labour party of the UK tried this kind of argument on the (slightly right-wing) Conservative party by showing a series of billboards featuring the Conservative party leader photoshopped into "Gene Hunt", the sexist, homophobic main character of ''[[Life On Mars]]'' and ''[[Ashes to Ashes]]''. Which might have been a good idea if Gene Hunt wasn't the most popular tv character in the country at the time.
** The Labour Party had a collective [[Oh Crap]] moment when the Conservatives [[Laser-Guided Karma|produced a wildly successful poster, using the same image, with the slogan: "Fire up the Quattro, it's time for change]].
* Philosopher Martin Heidegger was a Nazi supporter, making quite a few scholars apprehensive about his work.
* Some people boycott [[Disney]] merchandise and films because of Walt Disney's purported anti-Semitism during his lifetime.
** Others boycott Ford because of Henry Ford's ''actual'' anti-Semitism.
* Modern and postmodern architects have played this trope for all it's worth. The Nazis generally preferred traditional and monumental buildings over the blocky stuff, which they thought decadent--ergo, anyone who prefers pre-Bauhaus styles is a crypto-Nazi. Even today, this is an accurate, non-hyperbolic description of many respected architectural critics' stances.
* In April of 2012, Representative Allen West said that members of the Congressional Progressive Caucaus were members of the Communist Party, because the Communist Party praised some of their policies. [http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2012/apr/11/allen-west/allen-west-says-about-80-house-democrats-are-membe/ Politifact] called this "Guilt by Association on steroids."
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Absurdity Ascendant]]
[[Category:The Only Righteous Index of Fanatics]]
[[Category:Reichstropen]]
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