My Mother-In-Law is staying with us for a few days...

[Adsos Letter]

when she first got here, after the usual exchange of pleasantries, talk suddenly shifted to politics.

Out of the blue, she says "You know, Hitler had the same approval ratings Obama does..."

After about 2 minutes of silence, while I tried to fathom what relevance that had to anything in the real world, I went ahead and asked her:

"So...what does that mean?"

She actually couldn't define what it meant, except to repeat it...she isn't normally in an environment where right-wing propaganda is challenged; quite the opposite.

This is the ignorance we are dealing with...

[Flying Dream Blues]

1. I guess that was in the latest email, huh. Good grief! nt

[Ilsa]

2. Good move! And remind her that Dumbya had high approval

ratings, also.

I don't envy you having your MIL with you. I love my MIL, but over the last year she has taken up watching FUX news 18 hours a day. She gets a steady diet of RW lies.

[Adsos Letter]

8. I love my in-laws, and there are some things I respect about them, personally,...

but they are hard-core, right-wingers. My FIL is the worst...extreme racist, Fox-a-holic. My MIL is pretty much sequestered with him 24/7 in a place out in the boonies. I think that is where she picks most of this up.

I am just amazed at how fantasy-based their beliefs are. When we get her down here for awhile, away from the constant propaganda, it seems like she mellows a bit...hard to say how much effect it really has.

She will be with us for a couple of months. I just try to treat her the way I would want to be treated, and gently challenge her to think through what she is basing her beliefs on.

Hopefully, some good will come of it... :hi:

[EFerrari]

3. Yesterday my sat installer said if Bush was in office, those pirates would never have struck.

:crazy:

[rfranklin]

6. Remind him that Bush did nothing to prevent 9/11...

and never caught Osama bin Laden, the supposed mastermind of that attack.

[EFerrari]

9. I didn't say anything. You can't talk to that kind of stupid. n/t

[Adsos Letter]

12. A non-in-yer-face application of the Socratic Method...

is what I have found most effective, if anything is...the rare ones actually think about it, most just end up shutting down because they usually can't support their ignorance with any reasoned response.

[EFerrari]

15. The sad thing was that this man, probably heading into his 50s,

was in training. Nothing wrong with that but he obviously is hanging onto an idealization that bears no resemblance to his actual life. Maybe he needs George Bush to get through his day.

I did use your suggestion on a younger neighbor before the election. He expressed the fear that Obama would only "take care of" black people. And I asked him if he thought Obama would neglect his own mother. That seemed to reassure him although he didn't say anything out loud.

/oops

[Ilsa]

13. Haven't the pirates been doing this since last year... like when W was pretzeldent? nt

[EFerrari]

16. I don't think this gentleman has the kind of mind that groups

things that happen to other people (i.e., vessels under other flags) along with things that happen to U.S.

[CoffeeCat]

4. Say, well George Bush's approval ratings...

...after 9/11 were higher than Obama's...does that make Bush, a Hitler on steroids?

Remind her that Ronnie Reagan also had very high popularity ratings.

I've heard this theme from a few right-wing nutters. They must be getting this from Rush or something.

[EFerrari]

5. Btw, Adsos Letter, we've missed your late night Anthro posts!

:hi:

[Adsos Letter]

11. I thought maybe I shouldn't have been posting them outside of the anthro forum...

which is a dungeon, and people rarely seem to go there...kind of destroys the whole purpose.

School has gotten very crazy, also...I'm just taking a breather here for a couple of days.

:hi: :hug:

[spanone]

7. i have a dog enclosure you're welcome to borrow....bout 18' by 18'

[mitchum]

31. LOL! That sounds as if it would be very appropriate

[lpbk2713]

10. No doubt she heard it on AM radio.

Out of the mouth of one of the RW Media Hatemongers.

Patience and good luck.

[EFerrari]

14. Fyi, Amy Goodman aired some of the documentary about Pacifica Radio today.

When they started up, they were denied an AM license and had to go FM. Which meant their signal was so weak, it barely covered Berkeley AND they had to hawk FM radios to their potential listeners!

Fascinating story that takes place in the middle of the McCarthy era:

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/15/pacifica_radio_at_60_kpfa_remains

[rucky]

17. You need to short-sheet her bed.

[EFerrari]

18. Small coverment.

[Adsos Letter]

26. !

:spray:

[peace13]

19. I send you patience and energy.

But I fear that this is not going to turn out well. Please lock up the guns and bring out the ear plugs. This sounds like a visit form my mother and after two days she demanded that we take her to the airport hotel the day before her flight was to leave...and so we did. Best wishes. peace, Kim

[Adsos Letter]

25. Thanks; it will be ok....

She stays a bit every year...I blame much of it on being fed nothing but hate-propaganda, and not getting out to socialize much. Still, I worry about the cumulative effect of her isolation...in some ways I think it is healthy for her to be here.

If she gets on my nerves I find something else to do.

:hi:

[blogslut]

20. You know, the Nazis had pieces of flair that they made the Jews wear!

Sorry. Just felt I had to post that. :)

[Catherine Vincent]

21. Your mother in law is definitely sheepish. Good lord. nt

[walldude]

22. Remind her that Bush had a 90% approval rating.. Even higher than Hitler

of course as soon as he opened his mouth that was the end of that.

[happyslug]

23. Actually Hitler NEVER had the approval level of Obama

On the other hand Hindenburg did. In the Presidential election Hindenburg decisively defeated Hitler. Hindenburg had 53% of the vote, Hitler 36.7% and the Communist Candidate won 10.1%. When Hitler was tapped to be Chancellor less then a year later it was because he lead the largest single party and preferred Hitler to the leader of the Second Largest Party in the German Diet, the Communists.

1932 German Presidential Election:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_presidential_election,_1932

In the March 1933 election, Even with control of the Government, Nazi Monitoring of the election, open suppression of the Communists (and less overt, but clear suppression of the Social Democratic Party), the Nazi were only able to get 43.9% of the Vote:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_election,_March_1933

This permitted the Nazi's to pass the enabling acts, which made Hitler Dictator of Germany. People forget the Enabling act actually enabled the PRESIDENT (i.e. Hindenburg) to pass laws by himself,a right Hindenburg had had previously and had previously delegated to whoever was Chancellor at that time. I point this out for many people viewed Hindenburg as the person who the various parities were willing to give Dictatorial power to, not Hitler, and even Hitler knew this. At the same time everyone believe Hindenburg would die shortly and the President of German would be the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Germany. Instead, at Hindenburg's death, Hitler merged the office of Chancellor and President into one, with him holding that office, thus assuming not only actual power of a dictator (Derived from Hindenburg) but also Legal Power (Hitler was then President AND Chancellor).

Yes, How Hitler became Dictator is complex, but he NEVER had more then 43.9% of the population behind him (and that with ALL the power of the State to force people to vote for him). In the last "Fair" Election, in November 1932 he only had 33.1 % of the vote. You do NOT gain 10 percentage vote gain in five months, unless you do illegal acts. In the case of Hitler he outlawed the Communists (who had in November 1932 election, won 16.9% of the Vote), intimidated the Christan Democrats (who in November 1932 election had won 20.4% of the vote), Made a deal with the Central Party (Which Hitler later reneged on, leading to Vatican hostility for the life of Nazi Germany, but a hostility offset by the Vatican's desire to contain Soviet Russia and the Vatican's view that Germany was the key to that Containment, a view adopted by the US at the end of WWII).

November 1932 Election:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_election,_November_1932

My point is Hitler NEVER had more the 43.9%, in the last fair election (November 1932) the Nazi's were only 36% of the vote. TI took a lot of cheating ot get that up to 43.9% and then bad faith promises (and acts of overt violence) to get to the 2/3 votes needed to pass the enabling act.

Obama won a clear majority of votes, unlike Bush jr. and Hitler.

[Cha]

24. I feel bad for you having to

listen to that so close to home. I would be freaking out.

[Adsos Letter]

27. Once I engage her on these things she usually stops raising issues....

My FIL is a different matter...gets loud and obnoxious when we visit (if politics enters the conversation).

He will never come down here, as there are to many "non-white" libruls in our area (I will spare you his characterizations, though we have all heard them).

It's just really, really maddening to observe the ignorance.

[Cha]

28. I know..I get Mad just thinking

about the ignorance and when I encounter it(although not in my family) I pretty much get livid.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

29. You poor thing

I hope you survive this shit because I would have asked her to find a hotel room.

I still have my Obama - Biden sign in our window... My neighbors find me "amusing."

I do not have any RW idiots left in my family...

They have all died. (except my brother who is dead to me due to his politics and religiosity shit) My cousin, who spent 15 years in federal prison for drug dealing (including selling cocaine to teens)... she is one of them... she is the darling of the family. Dumb fuckers. Me? Never sold drugs to anyone nor served time for anything??? I am considered a moral loss due to my left wing politics.

[mitchum]

30. Charge that freeloading hag rent...it's part of her beloved free market

[Mz Pip]

32. Yeah, well

the Rolling Stones are probably more popular than either Obama or Hitler. Does that make the Rolling Stones fascists who want to throw the people who don't like them into concentration camps?

But seriously, were there public opinion polls done in Nazi Germany? If so by who? Was there only one acceptable answer?

You have my best wishes for this visit. I'm pretty lucky. My in-laws are 89 and my dear old WWII veteran father-in-law was threatening to leave the country if McCain became president.

Mz Pip