OUCH! 😳 (X & Text) Colbert: "Do not compare ICE or Border Patrol agents to the Nazis.

[underpants]

Stephen Colbert: “Do not compare ICE or Border Patrol agents to the Nazis. That’s an unfair comparison. The Nazis were willing to show their faces.”

Link to tweet

?s=46&t=3VBm1LJ8j8qLp6JTs_8J2A

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. Nazis showed their faces

The evil Nazis in Germany were not ashamed to show their faces. ICE are such cowards that they hide behind face masks. FYI their cloth masks can be soaked with pepper spray if one we’re so inclined.

— 🌟Deborah M. Weeks 2.0 Please refollow 🚫DM’s 🌟 (@deborah-10-06.bsky.social) 2026-01-27T18:55:32.191Z

[Floyd R. Turbo]

3. Brando

[ret5hd]

7. a fully loaded SuperSoaker (tm)...

with plain water in these winter conditions would be pretty effective i would think.

[SergeStorms]

9. Not unless....

you wished to be soaked with your own blood from 10 or so exploding rounds of lead from ICE weapons.

Not the personal choice I'd make, that's for sure.

[irisblue]

11. That is Marlon Brando from the 1958 movie The Young Lions.

[malthaussen]

18. Why is this person showing a photograph of Marlon Brando, and more importantly...

... why are you reposting it?

BTW, Brando's character in "The Young Lions" was not a Nazi. He was a German soldier.

-- Mal

[Cirsium]

19. The myth of the clean Wehrmacht

Myth Of The Clean Wehrmacht

The Wehrmacht may have lost the war, but it won the battle of postwar memory. Few of its members were ever prosecuted for war crimes. Instead, the German public remembered the army as an honorable institution whose men had behaved decently and avoided any involvement in Nazi atrocities. Politicians, former generals, and ordinary veterans all contributed to this popular narrative, which today has come to be known as the myth of the clean Wehrmacht.

Scholars have dismantled the myth over the last several decades. The war the Wehrmacht waged on the Eastern Front, we now know, was more a criminal campaign than a conventional one. Soldiers murdered millions of civilians—including Jews—despoiled the region of economic resources, burned tens of thousands of villages to the ground, and starved millions of POWs. All this was in service to the Nazi regime’s ideological goal of destroying “Jewish Bolshevism” and killing or enslaving the USSR’s “subhuman” inhabitants.

In recent years, scholars have tallied the army’s crimes and investigated the motives behind them but some crucial questions remain unanswered. What did soldiers think about the atrocities their side committed, and how did they emerge from the war insisting that they had remained innocent? What ideas of good and evil influenced the army and its men? Finally, where did the Wehrmacht myth come from and why did it have such a powerful hold over the German public?

https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/the-clean-wehrmacht-making-a-myth/

The myth of the ‘Clean Wehrmacht’ has endured for decades in post-World War II memory, portraying the German Army (Wehrmacht) as a professional military force uninvolved in Nazi atrocities. This narrative suggests that while the SS and Nazi Party carried out war crimes and genocide, the Wehrmacht remained honorable, fighting only conventional battles. However, modern scholarship, historical documents, and survivor testimonies have increasingly dismantled this myth, revealing the German Army’s direct involvement in war crimes, including the Holocaust and brutal occupation policies across Eastern Europe. Understanding this distortion of history is essential to grasp the full scope of responsibility and the mechanisms of denial in postwar Germany and beyond.

Extensive evidence now contradicts the myth. Historical research has uncovered thousands of documents, photographs, and testimonies showing the Wehrmacht’s complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity. These include mass shootings of civilians, participation in the deportation of Jews, destruction of villages, and reprisals against partisans. The invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Operation Barbarossa, marked a turning point where the Wehrmacht was fully integrated into the genocidal policies of the Nazi regime.

• Army units participated in the shooting of Jews, Roma, and political prisoners.

• Wehrmacht commanders coordinated with the Einsatzgruppen (SS death squads).

• Soldiers enforced the Commissar Order to execute captured Soviet political officers on sight.

• Entire villages were burned, and their populations massacred in anti-partisan campaigns.

https://elpopularec.com/myth-of-the-clean-wehrmacht/

Franz Halder was a German military officer who played a central role in the strategy and execution of the war on the Eastern Front during the Second World War. As Chief of the General Staff of the German Army, he coordinated numerous operations and was involved in policymaking that led to war crimes. After the war, Halder became an influential advisor to the U.S. Army, actively contributing to the creation of the image of a “clean” Wehrmacht. His role during the war and in postwar historiography remains the subject of extensive historical research.

During his work for U.S. Army historians, Halder promoted a specific interpretation of the German military role in the war. According to this interpretation, the Wehrmacht was separate from the political and ideological crimes of the Nazi regime. Halder presented the German army as an apolitical, professional force pursuing purely military objectives.

In the reports produced under his supervision:

• responsibility for war crimes was attributed solely to the SS;

• Hitler was portrayed as the sole author of strategic mistakes and crimes;

• the Wehrmacht’s involvement in orders such as the Kommissarbefehl was omitted or minimized.

https://worldwar1-2.com/franz-halder-clean-wehrmacht/

[malthaussen]

23. Has nothing to do with the "myth"

"Nazi" means "Member of the Nazi Party." Marlon Brando's character was not a member of the Nazi Party.

-- Mal

[Cirsium]

25. I'm surprised

I'm surprised and disgusted that anyone would try to split that hair.

Wehrmacht officers swore personal allegiance to Adolph Hitler, the leader of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei - the "Nazi" party.

"We weren't technically members of the Nazi party" is the very foundation of the clean Wehrmacht myth.

Not much solace to the victims. "Don't worry, your executioners are not members of the party."

During World War II, the German military helped fulfill Nazism's racial, political, and territorial ambitions. Long after the war, a myth persisted claiming the German military (or Wehrmacht) was not involved in the Holocaust and other crimes associated with Nazi genocidal policy. This belief is untrue. The German military participated in many aspects of the Holocaust: in supporting Hitler, in the use of forced labor, and in the mass murder of Jews and other groups targeted by the Nazis.

The military’s complicity extended not only to the generals and upper leadership but also to the rank and file. In addition, the war and genocidal policy were inextricably linked. The German army (or Heer) was the most complicit as a result of being on the ground in Germany’s eastern campaigns, but all branches participated.

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-german-military-and-the-holocaust

[malthaussen]

29. It's like calling all US Military personnel "Republicans."

Except the Republicans cast their net more widely than did the Nazis, so more US Military personnel are probably Republicans than German military were Nazis.

What you call "hair-splitting," I call "avoiding stereotyping." I actually think it's kind of important.

Evil does not prosper because people are inherently evil. It prospers because average, decent people choose to go along to get along. The Nazis didn't go to war with the whole world because everybody in the country was a fanatical Nazi, they did because not enough people stood up and opposed the madness. Calling a German soldier a "Nazi" is intellectually lazy, inaccurate, and does not recognize the fact that most of them only acted as they did because it was the easy way out -- just like people have acted since time immemorial, just like a lot of Americans are acting now. It is "othering" an enemy for the purposes of hating him, and permitting any conduct towards him, which among other things is diametrically opposed to Christian scripture (not that it matters). It's what propaganda trains us to do, and as such, I think it should be avoided.

-- Mal

[Cirsium]

30. You've got to be kidding

Stereotyping Nazis? "Othering" Nazis? Hating Nazis? That is your worry? Such a persecuted class of people.

The Ukrainian Hilfswillige - they weren't Nazi party members. Is it OK with you if we criticize them, or would that be intellectually lazy? We wouldn't want to stereotype them just because they helped the Nazis and committed mass murder.

How about the middle aged urban German police - "ordinary men" as described by historian Christopher R. Browning? Would it be unfair to them if we called them Nazis?

Ordinary Men is the true story of Reserve Police Battalion 101 of the German Order Police, which was responsible for mass shootings as well as round-ups of Jewish people for deportation to Nazi death camps in Poland in 1942. Browning argues that most of the men of RPB 101 were not fanatical Nazis but, rather, ordinary middle-aged, working-class men who committed these atrocities out of a mixture of motives, including the group dynamics of conformity, deference to authority, role adaptation, and the altering of moral norms to justify their actions. Very quickly three groups emerged within the battalion: a core of eager killers, a plurality who carried out their duties reliably but without initiative, and a small minority who evaded participation in the acts of killing without diminishing the murderous efficiency of the battalion whatsoever.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/647492.Ordinary_Men

[malthaussen]

31. Ya know, I don't think we're going to come to a meeting of minds on this.

FYI, I didn't buy the "Clean Wehrmacht" myth when I was 10, and I sure don't buy it now that I'm 70. So you're already flogging a dead horse.

Not stereotyping Germans has nothing to do with the merits or desserts of the Nazis, which are non-existent, but with my own intellectual honesty, which doesn't like painting people with a broad brush. Your logical fallacy (whataboutism) has nothing to do with my position. Yes, indeedy, the Nazi state committed uncountable atrocities. And they were committed by people who were not Nazis. I think this is a very important point. I think tossing them all into the bin of "Nazis" is a comfortable excuse that leads to "It can't happen here" fallacies. "They did bad stuff because they were bad people, and us good people won't do it." I'm pretty sure Hannah Arendt and Deitrich Bonhoffer would agree with me, but perhaps I shouldn't take their names in vain as they are no longer around to defend themselves.

Saying "X" was not a Nazi is not a claim that the Nazis weren't bad guys, nor does it excuse "X" for obeying the Nazis (and sometimes participating enthusiastically). It is making a very specific point, which you apparently don't want to hear: that normal people do terrible things not because they themselves are terrible, but because they want to keep on living themselves.

A comparison of a Hans-average Heer soldier and the Hilfswillige is invalid; you might as well be comparing a German draftee with an SS volunteer, or the draftees in Vietnam with hard-core CIA and SOG members. But the Hans-average soldier did commit atrocities, that is the central lesson of the refutation of the "Clean Wehrmacht" myth. Moreover, any casual reading of the history of the Russian front leaves one with the certain knowledge that the atrocities and brutality were systematically applied: they were features, not bugs, not the acts of isolated individuals. Which lesson arguably applies to Minnesota today. But consider Minnesota, for a moment: the idea is going around that the people who are committing these atrocities are all new hires, unqualified, possibly recruited specifically because they are fanatics whom can be relied upon to violate rights they probably know nothing about. It ignores the fact that many of these agents are long-term members, and that institutionally, the department of Homeland Defense expects and encourages one kind of conduct, while claiming their training doesn't allow it. These people are not hard-core fanatics, and they're resigning in droves, but many of them stick around because they have families to feed and it's a paycheck. This is how institutions like DHS and the Nazi Party get people to do stuff they wouldn't choose to do if they had their druthers, and I suggest that if one wants to find out a way to stop it, he find a way to eliminate that leverage, rather than call them all Nazis. But if calling them all bad people floats your boat, then by all means do whatever gets you through the night.

-- Mal

[Cirsium]

32. Okey dokey

[niyad]

24. Thank you for this important information. Would you consider posting

this as its own OP for wider visibility? Thanks in advance.

[Cirsium]

26. The effect and why this is important

I believe that the white washing of Nazi crimes, particularly by the Wehrmacht, the rehabilitation of many war criminals and Nazi collaborators by the US government and media, and the fast tracking of them into the US are contributing factors that brought us to where we are today in the US.

The criminality and complicity of the army in the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes escalated most clearly during the invasion of the Soviet Union. Well before the attack, the High Command issued three “Criminal Orders” which explicitly rejected the laws of war and encouraged soldiers to commit atrocities.

The first, the “Jurisdiction Order,” stated that soldiers would not be prosecuted for crimes in the Soviet Union as they would elsewhere in Europe.

Second, soldiers received the “Guidelines for the Behavior of the Troops” which instructed that “this war demands ruthless and aggressive action against Bolshevik agitators, snipers, saboteurs, and Jews, and tireless elimination of any active or passive resistance.” Thus, Jews became almost immediately a target for the German army.

Finally, the Commissar Order directed that all captured Soviet political commissars be immediately executed. Political commissars were Soviet Communist Party officials who oversaw its military units and reported directly to party leaders. The order was in direct violation of the treaties Germany had signed. Nevertheless, 90 percent of German units carried it out.

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-german-military-and-the-holocaust

[Torchlight]

2. That one pierces narrow and deep.

In my deepest judge's voice, 'I'll allow it...'

[leftstreet]

4. Ouch

[malaise]

5. Nailed it

Rec

[bucolic_frolic]

6. I wonder if covid masking

is being thrown back in our faces. There's often a nasty, subliminal projection to the GOP.

[underpants]

8. If the Jan 6ers had masked up ....

but no they were clearly (mostly self) brainwashed and had to show their fealty to Dear Leader.

[Wednesdays]

10. I think they learned from that...

...and so, here we are.

[Jilly_in_VA]

27. The doxxing of the Jan 6ers

is probably why ICEholes are masking. Anybody thought of that?

[2naSalit]

12. Was pert of...

His monologue last night. It's true!

[PatSeg]

13. I was thinking the same thing

Who on earth aspires to being lower than a Nazi?

[Martin68]

14. Those who believe we have already become a fascist nation should consider that the reason the Gestapo and SS didn't

have to wear masks is because the vast majority of the population supported what they were doing. The majority of Americans are opposed the brutality and tactics of ICE and are proving in Minnesota that Trump has not won yet.

[EdmondDantes_]

15. And there's no delusion that Trump is starting a 1000 year reich

He's gone from office no later than Jan 20 2029.

[underpants]

16. As true as all of that is...

let’s not forget that they are almost surely a lot of Proud Boys, Oath takers, and others pardoned after Jan. 6

[Martin68]

21. Yes, we have people we need to guard against: corrupt SCOTUS Justices, corrupt billionaires, corrupt Senators

and Representatives, corrupt law enforcement, corrupt state officials - it's a long list. But there are more of us, and Minnesotans (and others all over the country) have shown us that if we work together we can block and reverse the creeping tide of fascism.

[malthaussen]

17. Yes, I've noticed that.

The Nazi/Gestapo comparisons are inexact, but as with most slogans, one goes with what works to extract maximum emotional response.

-- Mal

[mdbl]

20. CBS fired the only news reporting show they have left

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Has monologue is more truthful than the evening news.

[live love laugh]

22. Just call them the UN-Proud Boys.

[Jilly_in_VA]

28. Or Proud Li'l Boys

I think that works better. They're little boys cosplaying, except with real guns.

[Kid Berwyn]

33. Dregs is Dregs.

DU from 2008:

Know your BFEE: War and Oil are just two longtime Main Lines of Business

https://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2596898

[underpants]

34. That's a great read. How long ago was that?

Prescott was quite the MIC PR agent. What he failed to account for was that Russia lost 24-27 MILLION people in WWII. The old Red Guard survived and defeated the Nazis (Huns) and there was no way they were going to relent to these comparatively new kids (The US) in town. The rest of the Soviets knew their economic system was done but even post-Stalin they couldn’t make that move.

As I have learned, Moscovites are completely certain that they are predestined to rule the world. There are always more Russians hence the one way bombing missions. Yikes.

I was a Cold War kid. We were told Russians (Soviets) were these 10 foot baby eating monsters. When the wall came down we found out they ate sausages, drank a lot, and rooted for the Red Team…..they were basically….Wisconsin.


Very intricate read.

Hold it, you were Octafish? No wonder I love your posts.


Enjoy for your Friday night groove. The Fleshtones “TheDreg”

?si=utWn5JRd5_DPSV_K

[Kid Berwyn]

35. 2008. Where does the time go?

Hiya, underpants!

Prescott and his ilk have had their fingers in the MIC pie from the day after Fort Sumter.

From 2005:

Know your BFEE: The Merchants of Death

https://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3743890

PS: Always loved your posts, Sir. Nothing but respect for Tankers.