Are Leftists evil, crazy, or both? This piece isn’t about jihad, but it does describe an instance of the same tactic that Leftists and Islamic supremacists use on foes of jihad terror and Sharia oppression: take a statement, twist its meaning, and use it to try to defame and destroy the speaker. My latest in FrontPage:
Leftists thought they had hit the jackpot last week in their never-ending quest to portray all dissenters from their totalitarian agenda as Nazis and/or tools of Vladimir Putin: video surfaced of black conservative activist Candace Owens of Turning Point USA appearing to say that the only problem with Adolf Hitler was that he carried his program outside of Germany. Their gleeful smearing of Owens raises the question yet again: are Leftists evil, crazy, or both?
Owens said this at a December event in London:
I actually don’t have any problems at all with the word ‘nationalism.’ I think that it gets, the definition gets poisoned by elitists that actually want globalism. Globalism is what I don’t want. So when you think about, whenever we say ‘nationalism,’ the first thing people think about, at least in America, is Hitler. You know, he was a national socialist, but if Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, okay fine. The problem is that he wanted, he had dreams outside of Germany. He wanted to globalize. He wanted everybody to be German. Everybody to be speaking German. Everybody to look a different way. To me, that’s not nationalism. In thinking about how we could go bad down the line, I don’t really have an issue with nationalism. I really don’t. I think that it’s okay.
It was indeed possible to see this as saying that the only problem with Hitler was that he didn’t confine his activities to Germany alone. And Owens’ Trump/Hitler resonance in speaking of Hitler wanting to “make Germany great” was more fodder for Leftists eager to find validation of their multiple smears of conservatives, and particularly of Trump supporters.
However, any sane person can see that Owens was discussing the taint that has been attached to the word “nationalism,” and not pausing to detail all of Hitler’s obvious crimes. That did not mean that she endorsed those crimes, as she made clear after the firestorm erupted: “He was a homicidal, psychotic maniac who was bent on world domination outside of the confines of Germany. You wouldn’t say he was a nationalist, because he wasn’t about putting Germans first. There were German Jews that he was putting into camps and murdering. He was a mass murderer.”
She also explained that she wasn’t likening Trump to Hitler: “Trump has no interest in conquering the world.” He is “employing a type of nationalism that is desperately needed in times like this, when you have people that are trying to globalize our economy, and we’re seeing that America has been hurt by it.” Responding to claims that she was saying Hitler would have been fine if he had just stayed in Germany, she said: “No, I’m saying Hitler wasn’t a nationalist.”
Anyone with an ounce of good will and common sense could have realized these things all along, but Leftists evidently have neither. Chelsea Clinton tweeted: “Ignorance about Hitler’s evil regime must always be confronted. That burden should not fall on Holocaust survivors. There was nothing, using
@RealCandaceOown words, ‘great’ about the Third Reich before it began annexing & invading its neighbors.”Fake moderate Muslim Qasim Rashid jumped on as well: “Oh my God. Candace Owens says she has ‘no problem’ w/Hitler’s nationalism as long as it had remained in Germany b/c ‘it’s important to retain your country’s identity.’ So Hitler using Nationalism to commit genocide of Jews was ‘just fine’ for Owens.”
The Washington Post pontificated: “Owens and Turning Point have been criticized for issues related to diversity. Some former members have called leaders of the group racist. With speeches like that from Owens, it’s not hard to see why.”
There are just two options here: one is that the Leftists who pounced on Owens (and there are many more) actually believe that conservatives are Nazis, in which case they are insane. Insanity is the inability to distinguish reality from fantasy, and if Chelsea Clinton, Qasim Rashid, the Washington Post and the rest really think that Owens’ initial statement revealed that she secretly admired Hitler, they have shown that they cannot make basic distinctions and perceive elementary realities.
On the other hand, if Leftists knew full well all along that Owens was not a Nazi, but saw her words as fodder to be exploited in order to try to defame and destroy her and all conservatives and Trump supporters, then they are evil.
The most likely answer is that they’re both crazy and evil.
Kay says
It’s hard to be articulate in a firestorm of emotions and when there are so many unfinished “conversations.” I hope Candace Owen is not undone by the twisting critics.
Or Else! says
You’re welcomed by the “compassionate” Leftist elites ONLY IF you agree to sit in one or more of their ever-morphing, ever-melding groups. “You’re black? You’re a woman? Come on in! You’re really oppressed by the evil, white, straight, Christian patriarchy.”
“Wait….you’re a black woman who doesn’t agree with us? We hate you. You’re a Nazi…..get out!”
Who’s “compassionate” again?
Or Else! says
Being a “Muslim” is just another category for these ideologues. And the Islamists are more than happy to slide under the covers.
But if you’re a Muslim/ex-Muslim/Islamic scholar who criticizes Islam and speaks the truth….you’re the enemy.
They live in a make-believe world. Little do they know that Islam runs a make-you-believe-or-else! world.
TruthHonestReality says
We’ve seen these exact same tactics over and over again and leftists don’t care what the truth is and they never have. So many people nowadays just know and say what the leftist talking points are and they don’t know the truth and they don’t care to. From here on out she could always be referred to as a nazi and a white supremacist and it doesn’t matter that it doesn’t make sense because the leftists are insane. Liberalism is a pathogen that infects people that are not free thinkers. I hope this doesn’t destroy her and turning point but even if it doesn’t leftists will never stop going after her. You can’t have a powerful black female that’s a conservative – it goes against everything the left preaches.
As we’ve all seen white leftists will scream the N word at black republicans and conservatives without hesitation and no one says a word about it. The left have lost their minds and they have no desire to re-enter reality any time soon.
James Lincoln says
TruthHonestReality,
You stated, correctly that “Liberalism is a pathogen that infects people that are not free thinkers.”
Isn’t it ironic that liberals, who are now the far left, still think that they are “freethinkers” even though they all use the same talking points. It’s rather easy to predict their answers to any political question – before you even hear it. And they still think that they are so unique, so one-of-a-kind.
I guess that Jordan Peterson is correct about the far left…
Not so much with centrists – and folks that lean right.
cornelius says
I love Candice, but sometimes she needs to exercise a little more discipline and discretion. The real lesson to be learned here is to avoid ANY reference to Hitler, or Mussolini, or white supremacism that isn’t unequivocally repudiating. We all know what she was trying to say and that her motives were benign, but she handed the left a unforced error….it was an “own goal”.
We live in a hyper-polarized world where our left-wing enemies are looking for any and all means to demonize us….and let’s face it, conservatives aren’t above such context-stretching/muddling. Many of us would likely jump on such an opportunity if a liberal had made an equivalent mistake (I certainly have on occasion).
Sometimes, discretion is the better part of valor. Be careful what you say.
Mark Swan says
Absolutely Cornelius.
mortimer says
Owens obviously is very naïve about history and has not researched Hitler’s ideas based on racism. Hitler was a hippy in a military uniform. Hitler was pitifully uninformed and deeply bigoted. Owens hasn’t a clue about all that. What ‘program’ is extermination of ‘Untermenschen’ and KLEPTOCRACY? It’s a criminal takeover of the government and a conspiracy against the voters. That was Hitler’s program. All the technological advances for which Hitler took credit were the brainchildren of German engineers and visionaries BEFORE the Nazis took over with about 30% of the vote.
Owens should read more deeply about Hitler’s simple-minded twaddle. Hitler was NOT a visionary or a thinker, but merely a miserable little bigot with a big mouth.
John says
And you should read her words more thoughtfully.
Westman says
Candice Owens is a realist who recognizes the destructive potential of Globalism.
Leftists are globalists who dream a fantasy of cooperation and world order that will ultimately minimize them to meaninless entities while raising only a few to tyrannical control of the others. It is in complete opposition to a basic drive of humans – competition. As such, it will always demand compliance; which is exactly what makes Islam a retrograde force(Sharia) in Islamic nations and has driven its expansion by the sword.
Global Business is the main driving force behind globalism and the invention of the 401(k) is now a means of dragging the workers in tow. Few will resist globalism when doing so reduces or destroys their retirement while it is in business investments. Of course, the university-brainwashed youth are too young to think about those ramifications and only observe business is moving in the same direction toward globalism.
Leftists are so removed from reality – caught in the delusions that destroyed empires – that they cannot see they are severing the very branch upon which they are sitting. Neither business or Islam share the same goals with the Left; they are only traveling on the same road.
Kilfincelt says
Those who are so bent on calling conservatives Nazis are the real Nazis. Further, Candace was right. Hitler wasn’t a Nationalist in the same sense as Trump. HItler wanted to conquer the world much like his buddy, the Mufti of Jerusalem.
vlparker says
She was trying to make a valid point, which is that the left equates the right in the US with Hitler, but that Hitler had nothing in common with the American right. Hitler was a leftist, a National Socialist. He believed in gun control, control of industry, socialized medicine and control of the press.
She was trying to expose the leftist narrative, that the cowardly Republican leadership has let fester and become ingrained in people’s minds, for the decades old lie that it is. She could have done a better job, but as Mr. Spencer points out, no honest person believes that Ms. Owens is a supporter of Hitler.
This is a perfect opportunity to expose the lie. Conservatives should be taking this opportunity to debunk this ridiculous narrative once and for all.
SamB says
I think Candace is brilliant. There no equivocation of Trump & Hitler in fact it I think her criticism is with those who demonize his America first policy. Those who are for Globalized the agenda does not America’s interest at heart.. Trump may be for Globalization but his office right now wants him to be a nationalist, hence his America first policy. However, those apposed to Trump misunderstand his aim. The media who ghoul his intentions have missed the point that his fixation is foremost with America and secondly with their friends. For example, Saudi Arabia, a Muslim country serves his interest because they support America with their buying power, is this ghoul? China, on the other hand is fixated on a exporting to America increasing its surplus(and increasing America’s deficit). Trump needs to reduce the imbalance here. is this ghoul? The Candace suggest Trump is in the right space…
Lorensacho says
Any person stupid enough to claim that all Hitler wanted was that the world speak German doesn’t deserve your defense.
patriotliz says
Sorry Robert, but Candace screwed up big time talking about Hitler: “You know, he was a national socialist, but if Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, okay fine.”
Being a “national” socialist is not “okay fine.” Being an international (globalist) socialist isn’t fine either. They are different sides of the same totalitarian coin. Nationalism is not a dirty word; Socialism is. If she were really smart, she could have launched the first salvo to compare the Democrat Socialist Party of America to the Nazi Party of Germany and put the Democrats on the defensive…where they belong:
Democrats/Nazis
Socialism/Socialism
Totalitarian State/Totalitarian State
No Free Speech/No free speech
Digitally “imprison” political opponents/Imprison political opponents
Gestapo tactics/Gestapo
Murder of innocent babies/Murder of innocents
Jew-haters/Jew haters
Allies w/ Muslim Jew haters/Allies w/ Muslim Jew haters
Antifa/Brown Shirts
UNCLE VLADDI says
Hitler’s Nazis were national SOCIALISTS. The main difference between the national socialists (nazis) and international socialists (common communists) was the nationalism bit – the basic commies are globalists, whereas the nazis wanted a planet-sized Germany.
UNCLE VLADDI says
LIBOCRITES.