QOTD: Matt Yglesias
by digby
He responds to that disgusting piece of work Keith Ablow and his friend Ben Carson’s sick, anti-semitic implication that the Jews of Europe didn’t fight the Germans and if they’d just had a couple of shotguns in the basement and a few more handguns they would have beaten the SS and Wehrmacht. O at least they would have proved to armchair tough guys like Carson and Ablow that they were worthy of respect by pretending to be Hollywood’s Butch and Sundance and going out in a hail of gunfire.
Yglesias points out what anyone with a 6th grade education should know, which is that the wh9ole fucking world had trouble beating the Germans including untold numbers of Jews who died trying to do it. (Grrrr, this is so outrageous that we even have to argue about it!)
He concludes with this:
The problem was that defeating the German military was hard. Here’s a photo of some Jewish partisans being hanged in Minsk in modern-day Belarus. Minsk is about 600 miles east of Berlin but the German military was there hanging Jewish anti-Nazi fighters because they had successfully defeated the Polish military, and then defeated the Soviet military in a number of battles allowing them to occupy vast swathes of Soviet territory. Hitler also conquered France, Norway, and a number of other countries that — like Europe’s Jewish population — fought back. They were simply unsuccessful. If you’re interested, here are ten great stories of Jewish resistance but they tend to end up being rather sad — the German war machine was sophisticated and ruthless.
That should sober up these inane right wing freaks but it won’t. They believe they would be able to hold off the US Military, a fighting force 100 times more powerful in every way than Germany in WWII. It doesn’t even occur to them that by blindly supporting the American global military empire, the government they fear and loath so greatly could turn on them and there is nothing they could do about it. Having a cute little arsenal in your garage isn’t going to keep out Jade Helm, boys. Not if they really want to do it.
And the sick, depraved thing is that if this were to happen here it would be some right wing fanatic deciding to round up Muslims or Mexicans and Ben Carson and Keith Ablow would be right there helping the military do it. You know they would. In fact, Carson goes on and on about how armed Americans could “help” the military fight off a foreign invader:
“What I’m talking about is the reason we have a Second Amendment in there,” Carson explained. “In case of an invasion by foreign power, the people will be able to aid the military. And also, if we have a time when we have the wrong people in office and they want to dominate the people, the people will be able to defend themselves.”
As if the American military needs a bunch of yahoos with Ar-15s running around. But it’s worth thinking about exactly what he’s talking about there. He’s the guy who says we should use drone planes on the border, after all. And he’s not sure at all that Muslims can be loyal Americans.
He’s a very short-sighted person.
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