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The people pushing Prop 8 have their heads so far up their asses they've turned into mobius strips.
This is what you're fighting when you fight Prop 8: a video that connects gay marriage with Hitler. Wait, WHAT? Oh, it's a joke! You know! Funny! HA! HA! But as commenters observe, you can't mention Hitler and homos in the same breath without remembering what ACTUALLY happened in World War Two: fifty thousand gays imprisoned, with estimates of around 10,000 gays killed in concentration camps. HA! HA! HA!
We do adore offensive humor when it works, because it is so impressive an accomplishment. Jokes about dictators are a tempting challenge because the author must attain a level of humor sufficient to overcome the audience's horror. For example, the over-the-top relationship between Satan and Saddam on South Park is initially shocking, but we breathe a sigh of happy relief when it becomes outlandish -- just as we do during the gleeful "Springtime for Hitler." But for satire to be permitted to land its blow, it must be both devastatingly funny and devastatingly true. It must accomplish, as Henri Bergson said, a "temporary anesthesia of the heart."
This video, on the other hand, fails to land a single joke, fails to ring true, and so fails to numb its pain. The video is not only guilty of being unfunny, as are most of these Hitler re-dubs; it specifically evokes the inescapable real-life persecution and murder of thousands of gays in the Holocaust. By reminding us of Hitler's extermination campaign, it invites an elephant into the room and then abandons it. And the elephant is so massive, so horrifying, that it defies comprehension.
It is the cruelest of memories that could possibly have been evoked in this campaign. And it is beyond shameful. It is evil.
We certainly don't want to join this video in issuing a surrender via Godwin. But by evoking Hitler's murder of thousands of gays -- a genocide motivated by religious convictions -- it is impossible not to observe which side of this argument is more vulnerable to unflattering historical comparison. We would not stoop to insinuate such a comparison ourselves; it is a comparison that, through their actions, has simply insinuated itself.
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Mormons used to be below my radar, but between Nate Longshore and Prop 8, I'm going to have a hard time ever taking them seriously.
Wow. That was really well put.
Using Hitler, that's going really low, like super low... to the point that someone is kicking you in the nuts and still kicking you on the ground.
Once again, we get it. You're against Prop 8. The voters will decide.
Mormons: One "m" away from being "Morons"
I've already added the Mormon Church to the KKK and Al-Qaida ... all hate groups.
If the voters decide to enact a law that is unconstitutional, then the courts will overturn that law. Whatever will you do then, missiondweller?
@missiondweller: once again, we get it, you're all for treating gays as second-class citizens.
@katyg: what will they do? exactly what they've done. they'll try to amend the constitution. which is exactly what Prop 8 does. then eliminating marriage rights IS constitutional.
Then the fight is on to the Supreme Court of the United States, where two, if not three justices will shortly retire. Now if THAT doesn't rush you to the polls to vote for Obama, nothing will. McCain in charge of nominating three more neocons to the SC? That's a thought that wakes me up in a cold sweat.
This Hitler redub, in contrast, is how to do it right: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd4WZ3LqCKw
When your own site is known for "offensive humor," and which others would characterize as reactionary, unfunny snark, you don't get to define what is over the line in terms of reactionary, unfunny humor. You're part of the same continuum. Sorry, but it's true.
By the way, I don't give a damn about gay marriage because I think church and state should be separated and the entire institution of state-sanctioned rights for certain kinds of couples is just absurd. But I am voting No on 8, and I'm still thinking of spending next Saturday on the Mormon Sabbath picketing in front of one of their church services with deeply offensive signage calling them out as the homophobic bigots they are. It's not that the Catholics and Orthodox Jews are any better, but at least the assholes aren't phone-banking this election. That's the line that's being crossed here, not some stupid Hitler analogy.
@sfmike: This is sfist blog, not topekaist blog or nazigermanyist blog. Based on the humor and norms of San Francisco, we get to decide what is funny and what is not and what crosses the line. I think the vast majority of San Franciscans would find this wildly offensive, and that even a majority of Americans would find this unfunny at best. Kudos to mattymatt for bringing it to our attention.
It is shocking and absurd that you would equate this to anything SFist has posted. Please point me in the direction of the post where SFist rubbed someone's face in the mass extermination of their historical counterparts. Oh yeah, and did so to promote the elimination of their rights. As far as I can tell, the only unfunny snark right now is coming from you.
Ok, it's coming from me too, but that's because I take this pretty friggin' seriously.
@bluecanary: I love this @[poster name] notation.
once again, sfmike, you're wrong on all accounts. (sorry you need your news and entertainment spoon fed to you, ever so gently so your petal-soft feelings aren't bruised.)
but thanks for playing, grampa.
In addition to being offensive and unfunny, these "Hitler Dubs" have stolen footage from "Downfall" which is perhaps the greatest film about World War II ever made. It was nominated for best foreign film in 2005 and represented a watershed moment in the history of German cinema.
I think it's a waste of time to be offended by something like this. I believe the best way to handle things like this is to just simply ignore it--which means not giving it the weight of this blog and its audience.
There's really no use in validating another poorly executed derivative, especially attempting to stretch it to illicit outrage. There's nothing to be outraged about. It's bad, EOS.
@bluecanary: in theory, the CA Supreme Court still has the power of judicial review over constitutional initiatives. In this particular case, the content of Prop 8 has already been determined to be in contradiction with the CA's Equal Protection Clause. Therefore, the court theoretically has the power to invalidate Prop 8 on the grounds that it must first explicitly repeal all or part of the Equal Protection Clause.
(I am not sure if this theory has been tested in court before, but this UCLA law prof seems to agree with me.)
sfmike- the Catholics are just as bad as the Mormons. To date the Knights of Columbus have contributed $1.4 million to the Yes on 8 campaign.
So many take-offs from that movie, here is the motocycle version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9nrANs5Tr4
@pantsgolem: Thanks, I wasn't aware of that.
Not taking offense @Elizabeth, but I expect that exit polls would show Catholics returning a higher "No" vote than the LDS crowd. I am just guessing, my only real datapoint is that Utah is currently McCain's highest polling state, so I'll just lump them all together in a big bin.
I've generally felt that Catholics do a much better job of separating the unleavened bread from the chaff when it comes to Church edicts, or course the more lapsed you are, the less likely you are to control the pursestrings.
Murph - one of the many (lapsed?) Catholics that thinks 8 absurd.