Adolf Hitler: The Unofficial Encapsulation for Ignorant Christians

Kevin R Brown
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Adolf Hitler: The Unofficial Encapsulation for Ignorant Christians

First thing's first: read Mein Kampf. It is essential reading for anyone who cares to at all understand exactly who Adolf Hitler was, and why the Nazi campaign / holocaust was set in motion and (mis)managed as it was. After you've read Hitler's own words, if you still don't think you have a grasp on the man, come back here.

 

Adolf Hitler was the furthest thing from an atheist that is likely possible on a human level. Even Joseph Stalin, whom by all accounts genuinely thought himself a deity, is the spitting image of humbleness when sat next to Hitler.

Hitler was 'born again', to the extent that he essentially refused to acknowledge his own biological birth and childhood, during the end of his service in the Great War. His intelligence and courage earned him decorations by the German military and he was initially (reportedly) well-liked by his peers and commanders. Following a mustard gas attack, however, Adolf fell into hysteria and started to devlop extreme patriotic ideals about Germany (even though he himself was not a German citizen).

From here, Adolf leant himself to believing the 'dagger-stab legend' regarding Germany's defeat, and seeds for his anti-semitism and anti-marxism began to grow. Fuelling the former notion was the public perception in general of Jewish families in Germany at the time; Germany, being under crushing economic sanctions after their surrender, was in fiscal ruin - yet it was percieved that most Jewish families still had vast sums of wealth and lived smugly atop their ill-gotten luxuries while the rest of the country lay in squalor (of course, the perceptions were rather distanced from the facts).

Hitler's ideas finally congealed into far less vague notions of what he should do when he was fatefully assigned as a police spy to infiltrate the German Worker's Party. There he met Anton Drexler, whose anti-semitic 'philosophy' and vision Hitler admired, emulated and eventually took as his own. He also met Dietrich Eckart, one of the German Worker's Party's founders and an occultist lunatic who took it upon himself to take Adolf under his wing and act as a 'mentor', giving rise to Adolf's supernatural beliefs regarding himself and the mythology he would eventually construct over the world.

 

During his time with the German Worker's Party, Hitler learned to make public speeches, and became increasingly adept at it. Anti-semitism was rampant throughout Germany (and most of Europe, and even America) at the time, so finding a gleeful choir to preach to was hardly a problem. It elevated Hitler's confidence to the point that he decided to mount a coup, marching on Berlin and demanding a surrender of power by the ruling government at gunpoint. The coup failed, however, and Hitler was thrown in jail for treason (where he would write Mein Kampf, and finalize his plans for Germany).

Hitler's rise to power after his release (having served hardly a year's worth of a 4 year sentence) was a complex affair. Germany hit a major depression, and the government did little to curb it. Adolf appealed to the hard-hit farmers and middle class, who were really feeling the impact, to assist in changing the government. Hitler obtained his citizenship, and ran against President Hindenburg. He lost the election, but achieved exactly what he wanted: exposure as a political presence.

Hinderburg, who was largely a greedy totalitarian asshole, then made a series of political blunders in an attempt to consolidate sole political control into his own hands - forcing the resignation of his best ally and supporter, Chancellor Heinrich Bruning, and putting Franz von Papen in his place. Papen was a naive noble and an idiot; upon being appointed, without going to the trouble of winning any public support for himself (while Hitler had meanwhile been campaigning his Nazi party widely to the public), he called for an election. His reasoning was that only a single party supported his administration at the moment, so the extra votes (which he simply assumed would go to his supporters) would assist in tightening his grip on the political specturm.

These elections won the Nazis huge gains, making them the biggest body in the Reichstag. Papen attempted to diplomatically sway Hitler for his support, but he would have none of it. The Reichstag was dissolved in a no-confidence vote against Papen.

Political juggling and balancing acts ensued, with Hindenburg attempting to keep his throne in place. Ultimately, this lead to the Nazi's being formed into a coalition government with Adolf sworn in as Chancellor. There were measures in place meant to restrict the power of this coalition government, but they were all undermined with a brutal series of browbeating tactics that lead to the passing of the 'Enabling Act'. After that, Hitler's executive power allowed him to virtually shut-down the political process. After Hindenburg's death, Hitler assumed total control of the German government and military, and put all elections on hold.

 

Nazi Germany was born.

 

Note the lack of the word 'Darwinism'. This was not an intentional omission. Darwinism had nothing to do with what happened to allow Hitler to become who he became, and in turn, not even Hitler can assume all resposibility for Germany's transformation. It was a cooperative effort, however uncomfortable a notion that may be for some people.

Hitler's anti-semitism wasn't original, and wasn't uncommon. His implementation is arguably another story, but the idea that atheism or Darwinism was behind it is absurd. Hitler blamed the Jewish, Communists and a variety of other minorities for 'betraying' Germany, and put himself to the task of 'rescuing' the country. His notions of Aryan superiority were based entirely on occult superstition and lunacy, and his self-image was that of a man who had transcended mortal existence and was now treading a destined path.

 

Personally, I don't think Hitler was ever convinced at any point during the Second World War - even after the bombs were exploding in the streets of Berlin - that he was fighting a fight he couldn't win; right up until the night he committed mutual suicide with the wife he'd been married to for a day. Even his closest friends like Himmler weren't spared his wrath when they doubted the effort in the last days.

Not until he had the poison sliding down his throat and his finger on the trigger, in my opinion, did Hitler begin to understand the mortal nature of himself and his many fallibilities.

Quote:
"Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full."

- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940


Loc
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Great stuff Kevin. It is

Great stuff Kevin. It is documented that Hilter often enlisted the aid of astrologers to help him.While it is possible to be atheist and believe astrology, I doubt you would find one, especially not the man who christians tote as a hardcore atheist muderer.

It's kind of funny-are there so few bad atheists in history that theists have to keep dragging up the same few?(Even with evidence that they're atheist)

Psalm 14:1 "the fool hath said in his heart there is a God"-From a 1763 misprinted edition of the bible

dudeofthemoment wrote:
This is getting redudnant. My patience with the unteachable[atheists] is limited.

Argument from Sadism: Theist presents argument in a wall of text with no punctuation and wrong spelling. Atheist cannot read and is forced to concede.


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Another point I think is the

Another point I think is the role religion played in all this. The seeds for anti-Semites started with Martin Luther and the fact that the "Chosen People" of God didn't integrate with the rest of society. The Jews believed God made them superior to gentiles and would intervene and fight for them just as he did throughout the Old Testament. Many religious Jews didn't believe something like the holocaust could happen because God would come in a save his chosen people.

The Jews rejected the New Testament because it no longer gave Jews a special place in God's kingdom. They became seperated, the merchant and money lending class in society, so when the depressions hit Germany, they were the scapegoats.

Hitler also borrowed many of the propaganda and brainwashing methods from religion.

 

Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen


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EXC wrote:Another point I

EXC wrote:

Another point I think is the role religion played in all this. The seeds for anti-Semites started with Martin Luther and the fact that the "Chosen People" of God didn't integrate with the rest of society. The Jews believed God made them superior to gentiles and would intervene and fight for them just as he did throughout the Old Testament. Many religious Jews didn't believe something like the holocaust could happen because God would come in a save his chosen people.

The Jews rejected the New Testament because it no longer gave Jews a special place in God's kingdom. They became seperated, the merchant and money lending class in society, so when the depressions hit Germany, they were the scapegoats.

Hitler also borrowed many of the propaganda and brainwashing methods from religion.

 

I believe Louis pointed this out in a different thread, but it bears repeating:

Hitler was a troubled man in troubled times, and he was the moving force behind some monstrous things. He was not, however, the 'evil man' most people would like to paint him as so he can serve as a scapegoat for what was, in the end, a much larger problem.

Hitler was an ethical vegitarian and animal rights lobbyist (and so I laugh rather contemptuously at those who might insist Hitler ever treated the Jews 'like animals'). He treated Eva Braun, his mistress and eventual wife (if for a very brief period) as the centre of his universe (it's no wonder at all why we she was loyal to him to the end). He reportedly had an excellent sense of humor (until his regime was in it's darkest days) and personally went to greet his troops and shake their hands (again, until late in the war, after many attempts had been made on his life).

We gain nothing useful by seeing Hitler as something other than just another human being, with good qualities as well as bad (as he clearly was). It should remind us that high ideals can lead any of us down a dark road, given the proper environment.

Quote:
"Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full."

- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940


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Cool stuff.It's become a

Cool stuff.

It's become a cliché to paint Hitler as 'Mister Evil' but I bet it's never occured to most of us to see where he was coming from and how he became that way.
I have a friend who has the book. I've got a reading list as high as the sky right now but I've made a mental note to give it a go sometime.


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One of Hitler's positive

One of Hitler's positive contributions to humanity was that his activities during the 1930's and 40's provided all the neccessary material for thousands of WW2 reinactors to dress up and play "war", thereby giving meaning to what would have otherwise been their dull and dreary lives.


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Strafio wrote:Cool

Strafio wrote:

Cool stuff.

It's become a cliché to paint Hitler as 'Mister Evil' but I bet it's never occured to most of us to see where he was coming from and how he became that way.
I have a friend who has the book. I've got a reading list as high as the sky right now but I've made a mental note to give it a go sometime.

You know, far too many ignorant people, if they see someone reading that book would say, "SEE SEE SEE, YOU DO SUPPORT HITLER" and are too fucking stupid to understand the difference between "supporting something" and "understanding why something happens"

It would be absurd to call a doctor "evil" if they studied how cancer happens. Knowing how and why something happens can help avoid it in the future.

 

 

 

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ProzacDeathWish wrote:One of

ProzacDeathWish wrote:

One of Hitler's positive contributions to humanity was that his activities during the 1930's and 40's provided all the neccessary material for thousands of WW2 reinactors to dress up and play "war", thereby giving meaning to what would have otherwise been their dull and dreary lives.

It's very hard to say "D'oh!" when laughing this hard.

"You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know... morons." - The Waco Kid


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Yeah, from what I've learned

Yeah, from what I've learned of Hitler he was extremely superstitious. Even if his superstitions weren't about the Christian God, superstition and atheism just don't go together. So why theists keep telling us Hitler is an example of the evils of atheism, I don't know.

"The Bible looks like it started out as a game of Mad Libs" - Bill Maher


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Hitler wasn't a genocidal

Hitler wasn't a genocidal atheist, he was a genocidal anti-Semite. Big difference. It just doesn't follow that as an atheist he would only pick one religion to go after and try to exterminate.

Hitler's biggest mistake, though, was that he never played Risk when he was a kid...

 

Nobody I know was brainwashed into being an atheist.

Why Believe?


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Not only was he a great

Not only was he a great humanitarian, but the dude had a set of pipes...

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"With its enduring appeal to the search for truth, philosophy has the great responsibility of forming thought and culture; and now it must strive resolutely to recover its original vocation." Pope John Paul II