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The Big Lie Theory: How Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels Still Influence Modern Politics

Kromm

By Kromm
in Current Events & Politics

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Kromm

Kromm

The Big Lie theory is a phrase coined by none other than Adolph Hilter in that  thrill per minute bestseller of his, Mein Kampf. A book which Donald Trump has, on the record, referred to as "a good read".

As originally used by Hitler, it basically means that if you are going to lie... lie big. According to Der Führer, the sheep which make up the public are simpletons who themselves perpetrate small lies constantly, but are either ashamed or too cowardly to tell big ones. So if you deal with them, make the lie as big as possible, because they'll be inclined to accept it easier, because they can't even comprehend how someone could or would get away with telling such a whopper (this is all paraphrasing Mr. Hitler). It is worth noting that rather than admit that Germany themselves used this technique, he instead blamed it on the Jews.

Joseph Goebbels also referred to the concept. He insisted that the English leaders, Churchill in particular, used Big Lies constantly.  But then turned around and used the concept himself to justify The Holocaust. The German Big Lie was that the Jews were dangerous to their society because they "started World War I", that they ruled the UK, US and Russia, and that left unchecked they wanted to (and would) destroy Germany. 

During WWII, the OSS (Office of Strategic Services--the predecessor of the CIA) even picked up the phrase and used it to describe Hitler himself:

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His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.

If that sounds like anyone involved in the current political cycle... well.. 

These days the Big Lie has been boiled down to the following maxim: lie about something OFTEN enough, with enough of a senses of absolute assurance, and eventually everyone will start acting like it is actually the truth. The original truth... the ACTUAL truth... typically won't matter anymore, because people will be SO sold on The Big Lie that they won't reverse themselves easily (if at all), regardless of what evidence you present.

So lets discuss the use of this in current politics. Do you agree that people are perhaps even more vulnerable to it than ever? Is it used consciously these days, or do politicians lie SO much that even THEY believe the lies?

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partofme

partofme

22 minutes ago, Kromm said:

These days the Big Lie has been boiled down to the following maxim: lie about something OFTEN enough, with enough of a senses of absolute assurance, and eventually everyone will start acting like it is actually the truth. The original truth... the ACTUAL truth... typically won't matter anymore, because people will be SO sold on The Big Lie that they won't reverse themselves easily (if at all), regardless of what evidence you present.

So lets discuss the use of this in current politics. Do you agree that people are perhaps even more vulnerable to it than ever? Is it used consciously these days, or do politicians lie SO much that even THEY believe the lies?

This is FOX News in a nutshell.

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Kromm

Kromm

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33 minutes ago, BW Manilowe said:

If a Mod is reading--& with all due respect to thread starter @Kromm--the "ph" at the end of "Adolph" in the thread title needs to be changed to an "f". He spelled his name "Adolf".

Correct.  I always get that wrong for some reason.

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BookWoman56

BookWoman56

I believe people are more vulnerable about it than they used to be, mostly because reading/hearing the big lies has become a much more passive act than it used to be. Think back to the early 1900s, when if people wanted to get news, they had to buy a newspaper and deliberately read it. People who didn't want to be bothered wouldn't necessarily be exposed to news and propaganda disguised as news. Later on, people could go to cinemas and see newsreels, but still that was a deliberate choice. Perhaps less of one than buying a newspaper, because I believe that some people saw newsreels as they were waiting for the feature film to start rather than going in exclusively to see the news. Then of course there was the progression to having news on television, so anyone who wanted could watch news, initially as a small part of television programming and then eventually having access to channels devoted entirely to news. My point, though, is that people still had to make an active choice to watch the news and hear politicians deliver big lies. Now, though, with social media being what it is, those big lies are mixed into purely personal stuff that people read and hear who otherwise wouldn't make an effort to view. Currently, people who are so willfully ignorant that they can't even be bothered to watch Faux News will still see the big lies in their FB feeds, etc., and even if they don't read every detail, the headlines will stick with them.

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33kaitykaity

33kaitykaity

Let me see if I can unpack how I got where I am on this.  I mean, the Big Lie helps the totalitarian, but it's not the only tool in the toolbox.  The first is to define the three principles of party loyalty, greedy self-interest, and power, in that order, add to that a terrifying "other," and you have an audience of justifiably aggrieved Trumpbots who believe he is winning, that the system is rigged, that he is a real billionaire, and on and on to infinity.  They believe nothing that does not come from their precious FAUX Noise.  They cannot be reasoned with because their fearless overlord is never wrong.  Their gut told them so.  

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Nidratime

Nidratime

Can't really see a media thread on here, but I think this opinion piece from today's Post can fit in this topic. It's disturbing and frankly I think it will be the new normal since the media never self-corrects.

How the U.S. media fails to defend itself against foreign propaganda
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-the-us-media-fails-to-defend-itself-against-foreign-propaganda/2016/11/01/a7d0f0b4-9f8c-11e6-a44d-cc2898cfab06_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.64f6ad5fb815

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Silver Raven

Silver Raven

An avowed white supremacist is doing robocalls to Utah voters telling them that Evan McMullin is a closet homosexual.

 

His mother is married to a woman, and he is never married and has no girlfriend, so I guess that's proof that he's gay.

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Cupid Stunt

Cupid Stunt

(edited)

Business as usual at CNN, normalizing Hair Gropenführer's fellow travelers ...

 

Take a moment to absorb that topic header. THAT. REALLY. HAPPENED. IN. 2016. 

 

Here's a couple of other topics to help CNN normalize white supremacists in the waning days of the Republic ...

"Alt-Right Founder asks if black people are the real racists"

"Alt-Right Founder: Mexicans do a lousy job cleaning our pools"

"Alt-Right Founder: Are Catholics really Christian"

"Alt-Right Founder asks if anyone would miss Muslims"

"Alt-Right Founder asks if Affirmative Action is slavery for whites"

"Alt-Right Founder: We don't need Gays to get a decent hair cut"

"Alt-Right Founder: My God is biggerfasterstrongergreater than your puny god"

Edited by Cupid Stunt
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Cupid Stunt

Cupid Stunt

(edited)

post-26939-Jason-Momoa-dis-gon-b-gud-gif

Thank you, Hawaiian Jesus. It certainly will be gud. Pass me a cold beer and the carburetor and we'll dive right into the Heart of Darkness.

 

'Hail Trump!': White Nationalists Salute the President Elect

There's a delightful video in link of the "Alt-right" conference in Washington, D.C., where Trump’s victory was met with cheers and Nazi salutes.

 

 

Museum Condemns White Nationalist Conference Rhetoric

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WASHINGTON, DC – The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is deeply alarmed at the hateful rhetoric at a conference of white nationalists held on November 19 at the Ronald Reagan Building just blocks from the Museum. 

According to press reports, Richard Spencer, the leader of the National Policy Institute – a white nationalist think tank – that sponsored the conference, made several direct and indirect references to Jews and other minorities, often alluding to Nazism. He spoke in German to quote Nazi propaganda and refer to the mainstream media. He implied that the media was protecting Jewish interests and said, “One wonders if these people are people at all?” He said that America belongs to white people. His statement that white people face a choice of “conquer or die” closely echoes Adolf Hitler’s view of Jews and that history is a racial struggle for survival. 

Hair Gropenführer and the GOP are a day late and a dollar short condemning their Neo-Nazi fellow travelers ... Unless, of course, if they agree with their SuperRace Friends ...

 

Fun Update from the restaurant The SuperRace Friends had their party:

Restaurant apologizes for 'inadvertently' hosting alt-right event

Why drive away business from the far-right? They should rename themselves Mussolini's Little Italy.

 

Incidentally, does Tila Tequila not know she's not Caucasian, or has she been adopted by the Neo-Nazis as their token D-list Asian Drama Queen?

Edited by Cupid Stunt
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Danny Franks

Danny Franks

(edited)

Yeah, CNN and other outlets need to stop discussing this stuff. They need to simply say, "alt-right founder said this horrendous thing. This man is a supporter of Donald Trump, and speaks for a large section of Trump supporters. Trump has failed to denounce this man, his group or these comments" and move on. Don't normalise this by talking about what he said, why he said it, whether Trump should speak out (because of course he should!). This isn't political discussion. Throw the stone and walk away. And keep doing that until you start scoring consistent hits.

Quote

Incidentally, does Tila Tequila not know she's not Caucasian, or has she been adopted by the Neo-Nazis as their token D-list Asian Drama Queen?

It may have something to do with the Hitler adulation that happens in some South East Asian countries. Those unscarred by the Nazis, and ignorant of their activities. I don't know if Tila Tequila has expressed views like that or not. But any culture that loves images of Hitler will be nirvana to these dirtbags. They'd probably even make allowances for skin colour (although I'm sure they'd still use some charming racial epithets).

Edited by Danny Franks
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Guest

Guest

On 11/2/2016 at 5:05 PM, Silver Raven said:

An avowed white supremacist is doing robocalls to Utah voters telling them that Evan McMullin is a closet homosexual.

 

His mother is married to a woman, and he is never married and has no girlfriend, so I guess that's proof that he's gay.

I know this is from pre-Dark Ages, but, while I'm not a Republican, I do have a lot of respect for Evan McMullin. He seemed like an honest man who wanted to do the right thing. And of all the third-party candidates, he'd have been the who'd have had my vote if I were voting third party. 

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Apprentice79

Apprentice79

(edited)
4 hours ago, Danny Franks said:

Yeah, CNN and other outlets need to stop discussing this stuff. They need to simply say, "alt-right founder said this horrendous thing. This man is a supporter of Donald Trump, and speaks for a large section of Trump supporters. Trump has failed to denounce this man, his group or these comments" and move on. Don't normalise this by talking about what he said, why he said it, whether Trump should speak out (because of course he should!). This isn't political discussion. Throw the stone and walk away. And keep doing that until you start scoring consistent hits.

It may have something to do with the Hitler adulation that happens in some South East Asian countries. Those unscarred by the Nazis, and ignorant of their activities. I don't know if Tila Tequila has expressed views like that or not. But any culture that loves images of Hitler will be nirvana to these dirtbags. They'd probably even make allowances for skin colour (although I'm sure they'd still use some charming racial epithets).

Well Tila has described herself as an alt-right Queen, her tweeter account was suspended, after she proudly tweeted her picture of her  doing that odious Hitler salute.   I have no words for a woman of color aligning herself with White Supremacists..Does she not know that if these degenerates had their way, she would be killed or become a slave...They described themselves as being conquerors and nonwhites, as creatures...My goodness! what the hell is going on.. Donald Trump has opened up Pandora's box...

Edited by Apprentice79
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ClareWalks

ClareWalks

15 minutes ago, Cupid Stunt said:

Once the president-elect says racist crap a couple thousand times, it's okay for regular white folks to get in on the good times of hating on people for laughs ...

Four Univ. of Kansas cheerleaders suspended for racist picture

 

Asshats.

And in her statement, "I would never of done that." Not exactly making the University of Kansas look like they have standards for admission.

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Toomuchsoap

Toomuchsoap

(edited)
On 11/11/2016 at 8:23 PM, Kromm said:

The New Republic: 
Democrats Should Lie Like Donald Trump - Outlandish campaign promises helped him win. Will liberals learn from it?
BY JEET HEER - November 11, 2016

Democrats are held to a higher standard by the talking media heads. Always has been this way since television took hold as the primary news source for average people in the flyover states. Republicans have always screamed about media bias - those Commies, Socialists, Limousine Liberals - since the Roosevelts busted up the trusts and brought The New Deal into the starving folks in the dust bowl and the ten year olds in the West Virginia coal mines. If there'd been even a hint of scandal about President Obama EVER, it would have been over before it ever left the ground. The media do double time to dog Democrats and let these sleazoids get away with murder, and tRump even bragged he could shoot somebody on Broadway and it wouldn't touch him.

Edited by Toomuchsoap
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