In the social media era, the phrase “literally Hitler” has been used by fans of snark and sarcasm as a response to what is usually a rather benign action. Here’s an example:
“I just put ketchup on a hot dog.”
“OMG, you’re literally Hitler.”
The clinically insane denizens of the American Left are whipping their media dogs into a frenzy and ordering them to yowl in unison that Donald Trump is, at least, figuratively Hitler. Because we live in stupid times and words don’t have any meaning, one of them will no doubt throw a “literally” into the conversation at some point.
This week’s meltdown comes to us from The Washington Post, where Mike Godwin wrote an Opinion piece titled: “Yes, it’s okay to compare Trump to Hitler. Don’t let me stop you.”
If the name Godwin rings a bell when discussing Hitler, it’s because this is the very same man who came up with Godwin’s Law, which says: “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.”
Honestly, I thought that WaPo’s descent into clown show rag status had long ago been completed. Kudos to the Beltway paper of record for its ability to always find new embarrassing depths to plum. Getting the Godwin’s Law guy to prove Godwin’s Law is a variation of the “Lizzo on Body Positivity” approach to journalism.
Here’s the relevant bit of unhingement (yeah, we’re making up words) from this article:
But when people draw parallels between Donald Trump’s 2024 candidacy and Hitler’s progression from fringe figure to Great Dictator, we aren’t joking. Those of us who hope to preserve our democratic institutions need to underscore the resemblance before we enter the twilight of American democracy.
Let’s see how many of the prevailing Trump hysteria narrative talking points Godwin hit in two sentences.
1: Hitler. Check.
2: Dictator. Check.
3. ZOMG MUH DEMOCRACYYYYYYYYYYYY. Check.
He probably would have gotten some extra Beggin’ Strips from his WaPo masters if he had managed to throw “authoritarian” in there somewhere.
Godwin wastes no time establishing his “unoriginal talking points parrot” credentials. As proof that Trump wants to be a unilateral wand-waver rather than a chief executive, he quotes a New York Times (yes, the rivals keep working together to amplify the lies) article that, typically, relies on a bunch of anonymous sources.
This gives me an opportunity to coin “Kruiser’s Law,” which says: “As any New York Times article relies more and more on anonymous sources to badmouth Trump, the probability of the article being false approaches certainty.“
I should probably write a column full of those.
The rest of Godwin’s Op-Ed reads like it was generated by some sort of knockoff AI. Like so many of these Trumpdicatorhitler jeremiads that we’ve seen in the past couple of weeks, Godwin tortures context and mentions Trump’s “poisoning our blood” and dictator on “Day One” quotes. I provided the context and explained why these are a couple of piles of horse manure in last week’s column.
Godwin then rambles for what seems like weeks about Trump, the Federalist Society, and a nefarious plan to hire lawyers if Orange Man Bad becomes POTUS 47. A lot of it is leftist Republicansplaing which, after decades of conservative activism, I can assure you is never over the target.
Here’s the conclusion to the piece, which, again, is taken so out of context that it is essentially a lie:
Will Trump succeed in being crowned “dictator for a day”? I hope not. But I choose to take Trump’s increasingly heedless transgressiveness — and, yes, I really do think he knows what he’s doing — as a positive development in one sense: More and more of us can see in his cynical rhetoric precisely the kind of dictator he aims to be.
The fact that the leftmedia hacks are all relying on the same two or three context-free remarks to bolster the Trumpdictatorhitler garbage narrative shows a pathetic combination of desperation and lack of imagination. I would say that Godwin lost the thread when he assured us that his hyperbole was, in fact, not hyperbole, but he never really had a thread in the first place.
He’s just got a tantrum that isn’t accomplishing any of what he thinks it is.
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