Comments on: "For 9/11" (Boing Boing Flickr Pool)

By: sblethyn

sblethyn — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 09:34:00 +0000

Isn’t this how any politician of any nation attempts to get the country behind them to war – “weapons of mass destruction” any one? Just substitute “threatened” for “attacked” and it works for starting wars as well.

By: NoneofYourPenguins

NoneofYourPenguins — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 18:53:00 +0000

@NothingButFlowers:disqus looks to have a finger on the matter. Yes, Goering did reveal an ugly truth. Remember the Maine!

By: Teller

Teller — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 18:40:00 +0000

Almost every other day in this fascinating comments section, I read sci-fi class musings about the coming takeover of the US either by the people or the fascists. The rock I’m supposed to be under if I don’t believe either can happen, is the rock I now stand on where I can look across this nation and assure the fearful we are too large, too diverse and too cranky for such shenanigans to occur.

By: NothingButFlowers

NothingButFlowers — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 15:39:00 +0000

Goering had a pretty good grasp of war propaganda. He may have been trying to call the kettle black but he was also revealing a truth about propaganda which, despite the source and context, has some truth to it.

By: MB44

MB44 — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 14:59:00 +0000

Last couple of months? I have always taken snark to be a trend in BB comments since I started reading the blog a couple of years ago. I prefer snark to ignorance any day though and as far a an internet collective goes, it seems like BB commentators know what they are talking about, as a whole, much more than any other group I have found online with a similar forum.

By: samovar100

samovar100 — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 14:43:00 +0000

It’s not so much the debunking but rather the self-satisfied degree of snark that seems to be overwhelming the BB comments the past few months.

By: awjt

awjt — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 12:31:00 +0000

Nazi-ism wasn’t something dreamed up “by the people.” It was dreamed up by a few people as a power play to take Germany back from the SA. It grew in popularity because of its ability to polarize on a mass scale and to marginalize the weak. Once they had parliamentary control, and therefore impunity, they executed their rival countrymen and took over the military. And then began their march towards the beaches and extermination of all who opposed.

If you think that couldn’t happen in the USA, you are under a rock.

By: opmaroon

opmaroon — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 11:01:00 +0000

BUT THEY HATE OUR FREEEDOM!

By: Cowicide

Cowicide — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 08:36:00 +0000

If it wasn’t for all the posts of mine that Xeni, moderators, etc. nuke before you read them, you’d probably hate me.

By: benher

benher — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 06:57:00 +0000

Cowicide is the shadow CEO of Redbull.

By: GlenBlank

GlenBlank — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 06:55:00 +0000

At the risk of being misunderstood, misinterpreted, and deliberately misconstrued, I would simply observe (without implying any particular conclusion) that:

Goering was a masterful propagandist. A masterful propagandist who was about to be executed, after his country’s military had been defeated by an alliance of nations, one of the most powerful of which was the United States – a democratic nation whose citizens wholeheartedly supported entering the war only after they were told that they were being attacked – and whose pacifists were frequently denounced for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.

Make of that what you will.

By: MB44

MB44 — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 06:31:00 +0000

Cowicide,
Where do you get the energy to debunk the comments of idiots and produce consistently witty remarks to posts that are pertinent to world events and issues that I feel are important. I always feel so zapped that I can rarely muster an argument against the idiots that you consistently thrash on BoingBoing. I want to know your secret. I must know your secret…
BTW are you only getting 50 cents per post? You should talk to xeni because your style call for a raise.
mb

By: Cowicide

Cowicide — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 05:55:00 +0000

I'm not sure why today's anti-war movement wants to promote a Nazi worldview, but with this quote, they literally are.

You're not sure? It's very simple. Today's anti-war movement is filled with Nazis who secretly want war and are doing so by literally promoting a Nazi worldview to all those who ignore the spirit of the message and focus on the red herring intent of the Nazi in question. Why else?

By: floraldeoderant

floraldeoderant — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 05:07:00 +0000

I can’t be understanding what you’re saying correctly. I do apologize but…Are you saying that his quote can only work on the one level, of critiquing America from a Nazi standpoint? And that the fact that it works on a broader scale is… What, an accident? (And that he phrased it generally because…) Alternately, you’re saying things can never evolve into meaning something else? That because Goering only intended it to be used in one context (yo necessito citation), it can’t also apply to others? When person A gets cross with person B for using a swear word, person A is really engaging in class warfare against the poor, uneducated English speakers?People quote it because it’s meant to shock people living in a society that’s so very fond of shouting about its own freedom. And even if you’re unmoved by its perfect prediction of recent history, it’s using one bit of rhetoric (omg Nazis ugaiz) to combat something at least as sophomoric (USA! USA! USA!).To say that people who use the quote are proclaiming their affection for Nazi philosophy is inane.

By: Cowicide

Cowicide — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 04:00:00 +0000

Heaven forbid if there is an opinion on the BB comments that runs opposite to prevailing winds.

I wallow in opposing opinions. I love to sail within these seas of cheese. I bathe lustily within them as those tumultuous squall opinions upset the prevailing winds of sheep-hybrid-boingboing-readers who are obviously paid handsomely through Xeni’s secret shell account at fifty cents an agreeable thread post.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/77/1991_Sailing_the_Seas_of_Cheese.jpg

… or something.

By: Cowicide

Cowicide — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 03:52:00 +0000

The nookie.

By: Rachel Red Cloud Johnson

Rachel Red Cloud Johnson — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 03:51:00 +0000

For what, exactly?

By: Rachel Red Cloud Johnson

Rachel Red Cloud Johnson — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 03:50:00 +0000

Worked for watchmen

By: travtastic

travtastic — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 03:30:00 +0000

For some reason, you have yet to pick up your toys and go play by yourself. The tyranny of the majority is smashing your freedoms, man! Fight the power!

By: samovar100

samovar100 — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 03:27:00 +0000

Heaven forbid if there is an opinion on the BB comments that runs opposite to prevailing winds.

By: librtee_dot_com

librtee_dot_com — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 03:23:00 +0000

Amazing message, that need. to be more widely known. I am currently selling a t-shirt with those exact words on it…

By: Cowicide

Cowicide — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 03:19:00 +0000

Yet, here you are… absorbing all the “freshman level agitprop” you can muster.

By: Cowicide

Cowicide — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 03:17:00 +0000

It’s the little things.

By: samovar100

samovar100 — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 02:43:00 +0000

I agree, in that there seems to be quit a few posts on BB lately that would qualify as freshman level agitprop.

By: Wagner James Au

Wagner James Au — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 02:29:00 +0000

This is freshman grade agitprop. Goering made this statement in relationship to World War II, because he believed Roosevelt dragged and manipulated the US into war with the Axis. (And yes, there was a pacifist movement against US involvement even in WWII, and yes, pacifists’ patriotism was impugned.) So if you treat Goering’s statement as meaningful, you’re basically accepting his underlying premise that the US fought World War II for nefarious, dubious reasons. I’m not sure why today’s anti-war movement wants to promote a Nazi worldview, but with this quote, they literally are.

By: flagler23

flagler23 — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 01:58:00 +0000

The statement is almost tautological and therefore not really enlightening, but that’s why it’s so dangerous. It suggests nothing of when we should suspect our leaders itself, as opposed to trusting that we’re being attacked, but the mere use of it is suggestive enough that we should.

By: BarBarSeven

BarBarSeven — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 01:49:00 +0000

But would that have been an effective measure to stop troops being deployed? Perhaps the level of military involvement would be less, but I cannot imagine a peaceful Presidency with Bush or Cheney involved.

By: walter davis

walter davis — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 01:42:00 +0000

if 9/11 hadn’t happened, i think a lot more people would have stood up and said something

By: BarBarSeven

BarBarSeven — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 01:31:00 +0000

Did the U.S. really need the 9/11 attacks to send troops to war? When it was revealed there were no so-called “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq, who stood up and said “Hey! We were lied to!” Very few.

If you ask me in a world where 9/11 never happened, somehow George W. Bush and Dick Cheney would have figured out a way to send troops overseas.

By: Mitchell Glaser

Mitchell Glaser — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 01:26:00 +0000

Eisenhower, with his warning against the military-industrial complex, understood this well.