It all makes sense… As Lewis Black points out, “This is a guy who uses more swastika props and video of the Nuremberg rallies than the History Channel.” The only reasonable explanation according to Black? “Glenn Beck Has Nazi Tourette’s.”

Godwin’s Law, also known as Godwin’s Rule of Nazi Analogies, is defined as follows:

[A] humorous observation made by Mike Godwin in 1990 which has become an Internet adage. It states: “As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.” The term Godwin’s law can also refer to the tradition that whoever makes such a comparison is said to “lose” the debate.

It is an ad hominem argument and logical fallacy that is known as Reductio ad Hitlerum, or “reduction or argument to Adolf Hitler or the Nazis,” which is sometimes used to play the “Nazi Card,” analogous to the “Race Card.” Basically, it used like this: “Hitler (or the Nazis) supported X, therefore X must be evil/undesirable/bad.” It is also related to the fallacy of Guilt By Association, another tactic commonly used by Beck.

If you’re familiar with Glenn Beck’s style of “journalism,” you know that he not only uses guilt by association and the negative proof fallacy, but also has exhibited ample use of Godwin’s Law. Here are 14 examples, courtesy Media Matters for America:

1. Beck: “This is what Hitler did with the SS.”
2. Beck: “I’m not comparing” Obama to Hitler, but asked his audience to “please read Mein Kampf” and learn from Germany’s mistakes.
3. Beck cited Hitler to attack Obama, claim “[e]mpathy leads you to very bad decisions.”
4. Beck told Newsmax: “I fear a Reichstag moment.”
5. Beck links health care reform to Nazis, suggests reform would kill elderly and newborns.
6. Beck compared car dealership closures to Nazism, warning “at some point, they’re going to come for you.”
7. Beck compared auto bailouts to the actions of German companies “in the early days of Adolf Hitler.”
8. Beck compared TARP to “what happened to the lead-up with Hitler.”
9. Beck said “the Germans” during Hitler’s rise “were an awful lot like we are now.”
10. Beck airs photos of Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, asks, “Is this where we’re headed?”
11. Beck repeatedly compared Gore to a Nazi propagandist.
12. Beck has also attacked progressive organizations as “brownshirts.”
13. Beck compared Fox News to Jews during Holocaust, other news organizations to silent bystanders.
14. Beck compares media portrayal of “tea partygoers” to Nazi portrayal of “complainers.”

Gregg Jarrett, an anchor on Fox News, falsely claimed that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi “sort of suggested that any American citizen who dared voice an objection in a protest is a Nazi, apparently based on one isolated incident.”

The truth is that she’s never called a protester a Nazi, compared a protesters to Nazis, or anything of the sort. What she really said, at more than “one isolated incident” is that some protesters turning out at Town Hall meetings were carrying signs with swastikas and Nazi-related symbols.

JARRETT: First of all, in the beginning, Pelosi sort of suggested that any American citizen who dared voice an objection in a protest is a Nazi, apparently based on one isolated incident. But now, she’s stepped it up and she’s labeling protesters “un-American.” Isn’t that destructive rather than constructive?

What Nancy Pelosi really said:

PELOSI: I think they’re Astroturf; you be the judge. They’re carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on health care.

And it’s absolutely true.

Click to enlarge

And it’s not just signs – vandals have struck Congressman David Scott’s (D-GA) office and spray painted a large swastika over his name.

Original Story

DailyKos writer MaikeH recently addressed a comment that he thought needed to be expanded on. Apparently his father was a Nazi, active Hitler Youth member and all. His father eventually changed his political views and did a complete 180.

On a visit to Texas in 2004, he was introduced to Fox News, which he initially suspected to be satire. He noted that if you were to change a few adjectives, it would be “Nazi talk.”

“This is some kind of joke, right?”
“Uhm, no.”
“You mean this is an actual news show? Not satire?” My father obviously thought I was pulling his leg.
“No, it’s not satire. Why are you asking?” I said.
“Because all you have to do is change a few adjectives, and it’s Nazi talk.”

Original Story