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Today I learned there exists a person who likes both Hitler and Netanyahu. He likes Hitler because he helped his nation get devloped and was a great leader. He likes Israel because they are defending against terrorism.
I don't think learning that Nationalism exists warrants any comment, let alone here.
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This isn't particularly weird, there's always been a strand of antisemitic thought that just wants the Jews removed from the speaker's own country and views Israel as an effective containment zone. There are other strands that despise the Jews but view them as the second most important threat next to the Muslims and take "the enemy of your enemy is your friend" seriously.
There's also of course people who just want to be edgy and given explanations are just cover for that. And taking the Hitler is cool stance is edgy. Increasingly taking the Bibi is cool stance is getting edgy. Quite a lot of extremists when you get to know them are really just that, they wanna be edgy extremists first and pick which flavor of extremism after. It's the same thing with a lot of the authoritarians, there's a reason why Trump is so fond of both Putin and Kim Jong Un. He likes people who boldly hold extreme power and people who will flatter him, regardless of idealogy.
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This is a rather low-effort post. Are you referring to someone in particular? Are you subtweeting something? Is this a reference we are supposed to recognize? Or did you just come across a random person who has a random set of beliefs, which we are supposed to find interesting... why?
"Likes both Hitler and Netanyahu" is odd enough to be worth contrasting, I suppose, but not in such a vague way that it just reads like a drunken shitpost.
Is it? Both need Lebensraum, both view their neighbors as potential targets for conquest, both draw their legitimacy from historic grievances, nationalists, conservative, preside over some of the best engineering minds in the world. Both policies could lead to their countries potential downfall. Somewhat cavalier attitude towards the civilian suffering and deaths inflicted on the populations they subjugate.
If you have a general liking to nationalist strongman, they are not that different aside from their answers on the jewish question.
Hitler and Lizzardspawn are both humans. Look at the similarities!
Yes if you take a 1,000 miles high view, the two look similar. But…if you have any sort of refined look the differences emerge pretty quickly.
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It was a meme posted by an Indian man on Twitter. It shows an image where half of Hitler’s face and half of Netanyahu’s face have been joined together at the center to make one face. They are both images where the men are making an intense Kubrick-style stare at the camera. The Indian Twitter user posted the image because he greatly admired both men and saw similar characteristics of personality in each.
It’s not that weird when you realize it’s an Indian guy from India making an independent assessment of both guys from his own vantage point: Hitler held all the imperialist powers of Europe by the throat for a moment, and did it while draped in a lot of mythical quasi-Hindu symbolism. Netanyahu is a strongman leader who defends his country from the Islamic hordes, much like Narendra Modi. All in all it’s no weirder than a western liberal admiring both Harvey Milk and Che Guevara.
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This is surely an uncommon pairing of leaders for someone to appreciate, but I don't actually see any internal contradiction. Someone could also like Saladin and Pope Urban II even though they weren't exactly working towards the same goals.
If all of someone's favorite historical leaders could sit in the same room together without a fistfight eventually breaking out, I don't want to know them.
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This is an incredibly bad top level post, even for a weekend.
First this seems 'boo outgroup'.
Second, liking Hitler is an extreme fringe position in Germany. Hitlers success at making Germany great again was very short-lived, and most German nationalists would not claim that a few years of ruling most of Europe at gunpoint was worth the eventual defeat, the splitting of Germany (with the East still worse off than the West today) and the destruction of the Germany cities, even if they were totally indifferent to the pain the Wehrmacht inflicted on the rest of Europe. As a rule of thumb, great leaders do not cause their countries to be ruined within a decade and change.
Or do you mean that the person you are talking about is not a German, and Hitler helped develop another nation, indirectly? The US? Israel? This would be much easier if you had bothered to proactively provide evidence, e.g. a link to a tweet or something.
Third, you can't chose what people admire you, and as a dig at Netanyahu it seems incredibly weak. I dislike his policies from the bottom of my heart, but "a fringe German Neonazi agrees with him" does not change at all how I feel about him.
It was a pretty funny post.
Notably, you made a bad not too level post by comparing Hitler to Trump (ie make Germany great again). Trump isn’t Hitler even if Trump has an authoritarian streak.
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I posted it because it was funny not because of any political implications or as a dig at Netanyahu. I suppose that can count as low effort here.
Then it should go in the Friday Fun Thread.
If felt too political for that, since it is Netanyahu. What thread is best for political jokes anyways?
TheMotte is not for all purposes. Political jokes and political satire specifically do not fit here very well.
Go to X or reddit for that
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Makes sense? The polar opposite (hates both) surely is common, as is the person who would be inclined to say that said polar opposite is wrong about approximately everything. Then just take that thought to its logical conclusion.
Also, "strong leader who values everyone outside of their own people at <=0" is an obvious and coherent category.
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Not unheard of for some niche lowbrow online Indian/Hindu nationalist types. In both cases it’s “enemy of my [historic] enemy”.
They dislike Britain because of the British Empire, so they like Nazi Germany, plus they used the Swastika and extended some token sympathies to Indian nationalists contra the British.
And they very much dislike Muslims and the Muslim presence in India, so like Israel because they’re carving out territory in a formerly Muslim land and have good relation with India. And Palestine is the central global Muslim cause more than any other, so it often comes up.
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Why is it so surprising? Yes, Hitler hated Jews, but this isn't the only thing he's infamous for, and it's wrong to reduce the lessons of WWII to "anti-Semitism is bad". If you are able to decouple, you can easily compare Nazi Germany to Israel: a country that punches well above its weight vows to never again be humiliated, puts the well-being of its nation above all others to the point that makes everyone else accuse them of committing atrocities.
Notably, everyone seems to hate "Nazis", but what exactly is the defining characteristics of such seems to vary quite a bit: Putin calls anyone opposed to Russian dominion of Eastern Europe a Nazi (or sometimes anti-communist positions), which I suppose are some of the actions Hitler is famous for. I've occasionally seen other parts of Europe drop the reference to any sort of German leadership of the bloc. Israel-stans point to the Holocaust as the defining action for obvious reasons, which part of America seems to align with, while the rest of America sees "Aryan supremacy" as the most salient. I'm sure there is some mass-transit-stan somewhere who sees the Autobahn and its ilk and the idea of a "People's car" as central.
They are such a widely-defined enemy that it's almost important to clarify why the Nazis were evil in contexts like this because it can explain otherwise-nonsensical positions.
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