The random political thoughts thread (Part Deux)

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

I have never listened to Beck, for the record, and I haven't watched O'reilly in many, many years.

I interpretted Pelosi's "nazi" usage much, much differently. I saw it as her trying to link the protesters to skin heads.

I accept that you do not equate them, and niether do I. The reason I brought it up was your specific statement of

Interviewer: Do you think there’s legitimate grassroot opposition going on here?

Pelosi: "I think they’re Astroturf… You be the judge. "They’re carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on healthcare."




She didn't say they were Nazis. She said, correctly, that they were carrying the symbols. These people have been calling the healthcare proposal a Nazi proposal for months. They have been on the news carrying sings that talk about it being a Nazi program, carrying red line crossing out the swastika signs. She, and everyone else listening and watching, are fully aware that these people are coming to townhall meetings with these symbols with the intention of saying, "What the Dems are proposing is Naziism." There is no way I can possibly believe that she thought that those people are Nazi sympathizers. It's so completely in the domain of obvious that there was no need for her to elaborate and say, "There are people who are carrying "signs with swastikas crossed out" and other anti-nazi signs." Her meaning is clearly, "No, I do not consider them legitimate. I consider no one who is engaging in the hyperbole of bringing swastika to townhall meetings as a shorthand for leveling accusations of Naziism against the healthcare efforts to be legitimage."