Hatewatch Tweets
Hatewatch is managed by the staff of the Intelligence Report, an investigative magazine published by the Alabama-based civil rights group Southern Poverty Law Center.
A Little History Tutorial, from Hatewatch to Bryan Fischer
Bryan Fischer, the American Family Association (AFA) spokesman whose ultraconservative worldview is so extreme that he makes Pat Buchanan look like Rachel Maddow, seems never to have met a fact that he couldn’t improve upon.
He has declared that gays were responsible for the Holocaust and opined that American Indians lost their land to European settlers because they (the natives) weren’t Christian. He has claimed that states have the right to impose religious tests on elected officials and said that HIV is not linked to AIDS – a dangerous and utterly false theory that has led to hundreds of thousands of needless deaths in South Africa and elsewhere.
Fischer did it again on Tuesday, when he declared on his Internet radio show that Wade Michael Page, the neo-Nazi skinhead who last weekend killed six Sikhs at a temple in Wisconsin before shooting himself, was a left-wing socialist and probably a Democrat.
Fischer presented his evidence in this clip, captured by RightWingWatch.
“You know what the Nazi Party stands for? It’s the National Socialist Party. What about the word ‘socialist’ do you not understand?” Fischer said in exasperated tones. “They were the National Socialist Party. That is a left-wing political philosophy.”
He continued, “And you think even here in the United States, who was the party of racism? It was the left, it was liberals that were the party of racism. It was Democrats that supported and defended the institution of slavery. It was the Democrats that resisted the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments. It was Democrats that instituted Jim Crow laws. It was Democrats that created the Ku Klux Klan. It was Democrats that filibustered the Civil Rights Acts of the mid-1960s.”
Fischer is not the only one to spout this nonsense about Nazis being socialists and liberals being the “party of racism.” It’s time for a little history lesson.
History is complicated, Mr. Fischer, so please follow along closely.
After the Nazi Party – or National Socialist German Worker’s Party (NSDAP), as it was officially called – was founded, multiple factions competed for influence. Between 1925 and 1927, Hitler was forbidden to speak in public. During that time, a pair of brothers named Gregor and Otto Strasser rose to prominence in the party’s north German branch.
The Strasser brothers were somewhat sympathetic to socialism. According to celebrated Hitler biographer Joachim Fest, they “saw the world as divided into oppressing and oppressed peoples” and called for an alliance with communist Russia against “the capitalism of Wall Street.”
The Strasser brothers’ influence waned after Hitler was allowed to speak again. Otto Strasser was expelled from the party in 1930 and spent the war years in exile. His brother Gregor was murdered during the 1934 “Night of Long Knives,” when Hitler purged his party of perceived rivals. According to Fest, Hitler by then had long since declared that the Nazi Party “stood for private property and justice.”
Fest explains that Hitler kept the word “socialist” – a “leftist label” – in the party’s name “chiefly for tactical reasons,” employing a kind of “prestidigitation,” or sleight of hand, that allowed “capitalism [to find] its true and ultimate fulfillment in Hitler’s socialism, whereas socialism was only attainable under the capitalistic economic system.”
Translated, this means that Hitler, a canny politician, kept the term “socialist” in his party’s name because it made some people feel good.
Fischer’s claim that the Democratic Party is the party of racists is no less ridiculous than his claim about Nazis being socialists – though as with the latter, there is a kernel of truth.
Back in the bad old days, the Democratic Party was indeed rife with racists. Lincoln was a Republican, and for decades after the Civil War, the South was a Democratic bastion. From the end of Reconstruction in 1877 until the passage of the civil rights laws in the 1960s, virtually all officeholders in the South were Democrats. The Republican Party, in fact, barely existed in the region and put up only token candidates in the vast majority of elections.
But that doesn’t mean the Southern Democrats were liberal. In fact, for the most part, the region was dominated by conservatives, including many racists who remained bitter about the Civil War and Reconstruction.
Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond, two of the most stridently conservative and openly racist politicians of the late 20th century, began their careers as Democrats. Thurmond left the party briefly in 1948 to run for president as the segregationist States’ Rights Democratic Party, or Dixiecrat, candidate, and permanently in 1964 in protest of the Civil Rights Act. Helms, who in 1983 famously attempted to filibuster the establishment of Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday, became a Republican in 1970.
Following the civil rights era, the two parties began to switch places on matters of race and states’ rights. The Democrats took a sharp left, and the Republicans skidded decisively to the right. It was under and with the strong support of President Lyndon B. Johnson, a Texas Democrat, that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 were enacted. It is true that a group composed mainly of conservative southern Democrats led an effort to filibuster the bill that became the Civil Rights Act, but majorities in both parties ultimately voted in favor of it. And again, regardless of their party affiliations, these were conservatives, not liberals, who opposed civil rights legislation.
What began as a trickle of Southern Democrats abandoning the party in the 1960s because of its embrace of civil rights became a flood when the Republican Party, and President Richard M. Nixon in particular, adopted the “Southern strategy” of exploiting racism among white voters. By the end of the Reagan era, the South had completed its makeover and become reliably Republican in national and most state and local elections.
Today, neither party is explicitly racist. It is nonsense – or “prestidigitation,” to use Fest’s term – to describe “liberals” (or “conservatives” writ large, for that matter) as such.
And as Fischer should well know, such wordplay is not limited to political parties.
For instance, based solely on its name, the American Family Association’s mission ought to have something to do, broadly, with American families. But instead, its most prominent voices devote themselves to hating Muslims, lying about history, castigating long-dead American Indians for not being Christian enough, and speculating absurdly that the Department of Homeland Security is planning to wage war on American civilians.
And when it comes to families, the AFA rejects out of hand any suggestion of structures that deviate even a tiny bit from a married pair of heterosexuals together with their offspring. Yet it remains the “American Family Association,” presumably because someone understands that the word “family” makes supporters feel good.
Prestidigitation indeed. David Copperfield would be proud.
on August 9th, 2012 at 12:04 pm
Brilliant.
However, as authoritative printed matter is considered a dangerous influence on one’s “core beliefs” by the Republicans, I am doubtful much will sink in.
on August 9th, 2012 at 12:09 pm
You know if he said “The natives lost their land to the Europeans because they [the Europeans] were Christian in name only or to put it another way, Christians in word and Merchants in deed” it would be accurate
on August 9th, 2012 at 12:14 pm
In fact, Hitler obtained the chancellorship by arranging a deal through General Schleicher (“slinker” or “sneaker”, appropriately enough) whereby he would, in exchange for their support, see that the industrialists and junkers would never be troubled by any kind of socialization at all, and that unions would be abolished. Roehm was a member of the “socialist” wing to which the Strasser brothers belonged, and it was that, not his homosexuality, that sealed his death warrant on the Night of the Long Knives. Murdered on that same nght, ironically enough, was General Schleicher.
on August 9th, 2012 at 12:17 pm
I suspect that 100 years from now if current trends continue if there are any public schools left they will teach that the Nazis were in fact socialists and leftists
As these future students will tell you the noted American socialist Henry Ford said “History is more or less bunk.”
on August 9th, 2012 at 12:26 pm
Don’t know about David Copperfield, but Hitler would most certainly be proud.
on August 9th, 2012 at 12:31 pm
Leah, I believe this to be the best article I’ve ever read on Hatewatch. Even though you included that hack illusionist David Copperfield ;)
(I own a magic shop whose name can be easily found online. I don’t want to readily mix business and private opinion.)
If I had a dollar for every time I’ve had to explain that the NSDAP really WASN’T Socialist, and that the Democrats of yesteryear are the Republicans of today, I would be a lot wealthier than I am at the moment.
on August 9th, 2012 at 12:33 pm
Also, just an aside: David ‘Copperfield’ Kotkin is Jewish :D
on August 9th, 2012 at 12:58 pm
I did a post on my blog about the Nazi part of this, and it includes some thing not in this post which I think might be helpful to include when arguing with people like Fischer. That post is at- http://devlin-mcaliskey.blogsp.....right.html .
As for the Democrats part, I have nothing to add. Although, Hatewatch did a great post about this and Ann Coulter, it’s at- http://www.splcenter.org/blog/.....inst-dems/
Tom
on August 9th, 2012 at 1:48 pm
My daughter was pulled over by a cop saw my 3year old and 18 mo old grand daughters in the back seat and he proceeded to let my daughter see him put his gun away and then said: Ni%%% lover. A cop! She is afraid because he has her address. Her husband has a great job they are getting ready to buy a third house rents out the other two. That cop had no idea! They are involved in the community and also help people who are down and out oh yea they are GOOD Christians. It hurts to know what my grand children will face in the future look at now!
on August 9th, 2012 at 2:58 pm
The deal that brought Hitler to power was mainly arranged by Franz von Papen, but yes, he had all kinds of ties to the aristocracy and especially big industrialists. In an economic crisis, industrial capitalists come into conflict not only with labor(especially in those days when Communism was looking good to a lot of the world) but also finance capitalists who call in loans and tighten their purse strings.
As for the term socialist in the NSDAP, Hitler openly boasted(in Mein Kampf) about using symbols traditionally claimed by leftists and specifically Communists. It those days, with WWI in living memory, traditional conservative and nationalist parties couldn’t get working class support. They had to sell patriotism in conjunction with their own definitions of “socialism”, depending on the country in question. Hence, “national socialism.” But these definitions had nothing to do with actual socialism, and were the diametric opposite of Marxist socialism. There is also a strong argument that even Hitler’s MUSTACHE was an attempt to sell himself as a man of the working class.
Henry Ford was no socialist. He was a delusional anti-Semite who helped arm Nazi Germany.
on August 9th, 2012 at 3:18 pm
Ruslan, many times I have tried to read Mein Kampf, and developed a splitting headache every time. I congratulate you on your fortitude.
Von Papen, if memory serves me, was rather a weasel who saved himself from liquidation several times by foregoing pride and principles both. Schleicher at least had enough character to get killed.
I have always suspected that Hitler’s toothbrush mustache was supposed to distract from some facial feature he didn’t want analyzed (Fritz Gerlich met an ugly death for publishing “The Trial of Hitler’s Nose). In fact, photos taken before he became Chancellor compared with those taken afterwards suggest such feature was whittled a bit.
Again: any non-Naziform who could read that demented tome through without developing acute physical or mental distress has my unstinting admiration. You must be a man of iron.
on August 9th, 2012 at 3:27 pm
Ruslan, it was a joke (read the entire post again and see if you get it this time) :P
on August 9th, 2012 at 7:09 pm
Hm! I read Mein Kampf in high school and remember it as quite readable and snappy, as one might expect from such a gifted orator.
Mad, incoherent, filthy, abhorrent and bleakly astonishing in how precisely he followed his explicitly published plans without being stopped, but readable.
on August 9th, 2012 at 7:53 pm
According to some historians,the reason behind Hitler’s mustache is much more mundane.Seems that the handlebar mustaches favored at the time woukd not fit under gas masks,whish were a necessity in the First War.
on August 9th, 2012 at 11:49 pm
In fact, the pamphlets available for free at Ford dealers in the 1920′s were compiled into the Nazi book, “The Eternal Jew”.To be fair, the German army had a lot of big Chevy trucks made by Opel. That money trail, if there was one, would be hard to find today.
on August 9th, 2012 at 11:55 pm
It is said that the Nazi book, “The Eternal Jew” was a compilation of the un copyrighted free pamphlets available at Ford dealers in the 1920′s. To be fair, the German army had a bunch of big Chevy trucks made by Opel, but they probably just took over the factory.
on August 10th, 2012 at 12:09 am
Mr. Roehm always showed up at party events with an attractive younger man. I’ve always wondered if he escaped to a safe country. There’s a movie script there.
on August 10th, 2012 at 12:55 am
Don’t forget George Wallace. Late in life he got nice but in 1968 ran on a Law and Order platform ( pronounced Lawn Order). His dedicated followers were completely insane but he almost stole enough votes from Nixon to elect Hubert Humphrey.
on August 10th, 2012 at 9:07 am
Hypocee, maybe you didn’t get it enough at the time to get it. But as Hitler originally wrote it, it was less cogent. Certain of his henchmen visited him at Landsberg and helped him make better sense, if you want to call it that, out of his wharrgarble.
No doubt he could write stylishly when he chose. That does not decrease the headache factor that comes, I suspect, from trying to parse the…er…logic. That was not consistent even internally.
And then it may just be that, through the depths of space and time, I caught the whiff of Zyklon B.
on August 10th, 2012 at 10:30 am
Hitler may be dead, but his legacy of hate lives on in our world. One would have figure with all the information out there about the Nazi holocaust, Why would anyone in their right mind deny the existence of the holocaust.
In regards to Mr. Fischer. He is complete idiot and has absolutely no idea about the REAL world out there. it’s too bad that many so called ‘christians would get caught in the whirlwind of Fischer’s lies and propaganda.Lastly.
i am sadden about the shootings in Colorado and Wisonsin.
on August 10th, 2012 at 11:00 am
The toothbrush mustache was supposedly a sign of working class fashion protest against the flowing Kaiser mustache(which was often favored by the aristocracy of many European countries of those days), so Hitler trimming the mustache like that certainly made him look like a number of socialist figures of the time. But there’s another story, never quite confirmed(though I want to dig deeper into it), where one of Hitler’s first major industrialist backers told him that he needed an image. He showed him a poster with Lenin on it, and explained how easily recognizable Lenin was all over the world: Bald head, pointy mustache, beard. In any case, all signs point to more deliberate theft of socialist imagery and propaganda techniques- but without socialist ideology or policy. Hence, they weren’t socialist.
Ford and GM were able to reclaim their factories in Germany and were paid compensation by the US government for damages.
on August 10th, 2012 at 11:24 am
I think you guys are reading into the issue. Maybe Hitler just had bad taste?
on August 10th, 2012 at 2:06 pm
Per Sam Malloy:
As a matter of fact, General Motors acquired a majority stake in Adam Opel AG in 1929, becoming full owner in 1931–just in time for rumours of GM being associated as it was with the Nazi regime, coopting with them even.
on August 10th, 2012 at 4:04 pm
Hitler did, indeed, have a mustache from early on. There is a photo taken of him in a public square in 1914, so beside himself with glee at the declaration of war as to look insane (¿Well?). His mustache at the time looked a deal shaggier.
Like just where he went over Niagara Falls without a barrel, when he formulated a distinct intent to murder the Jews, what he did with his niece, Geli Raubel, whether he had a nose job, etc., why he chose that type of mustache must remain a mystery. It surely has something to do with the image he thought he was projecting to the outside world.
on August 10th, 2012 at 4:22 pm
Oh puhleaze, everyone knows that Satan told Hitler to grow the mustache because otherwise how would people be able to tell he’s Hitler. Duh!.
on August 10th, 2012 at 4:56 pm
HITLER AND STALIN WERE THE SAME PERSON!!!!1!1!1111!!
THAT EXPLAINS WHY STALINISM AND NATIONAL SOCIALISM ARE ALSO THE SAME THING!!!!!!!11!!1!!
(Happy Friday, friends :D )
on August 10th, 2012 at 5:17 pm
Yeah, you’re right, Erika. I might make up some gold, silver, and bronze toothpicks for the Pickayune awards, and you can award them to us mustache-pickers as you see fit.
Sharkies for you, this week.
on August 11th, 2012 at 9:16 am
Actually, Erika, though Ruslan, John, and I all weighed in on Hitler’s mustache, I am the only one who picked on Hitler’s nose. I daresay that sets me up for a Nosepickayune (I know. If I don’t stop it, I’ll go blind).
on August 11th, 2012 at 6:29 pm
Aadilia, excuse this if it’s a double post. My posts keep going to Mars. There was a New Yorker article about Hitler’s mountain retreat, the Eagle’s Eyre, after we took it over. It went on and on about he awful taste and mismatched hodgepodge of styles. Their embassy in London, built or maybe extensively remodeled during his tenure, survives as an over the top, grandiose monstrosity. From what I’ve seen it at least all matches well and, if you forget who built it, is at least impressive. The best German designs, the Bauhaus style, was simple and elegantly timeless. Hitler really hated it.
on August 12th, 2012 at 8:44 am
Incidentially, when the Republican of Teabagistan exists the history exams at their public schools* will be much easier – for example at a typical Teabagi school, the Jack T. Chick Elementary School students sole textbooks will be Chick Tracts**. The future students will know that they only need to know two things to pass their exams:
Everything bad – caused by Satan fooling people
Everything good – caused by God.
Okay, they will have to know three things – the dinosaurs went extinct because there was no room on Noah’s Ark :)
* rich Teabagi parents will of course send their children to private schools which teach actual education because they want their children to be able to get into someplace besides Bob Jones University or Liberty University.
** Teabagi high schools such as Bryan Fischer High School will add the King James Bible, Glenn Beck and David Barton books and field trips to the Creation Museum for science class. So poor Teabagi parents will be glad to know that their children will be able to know as much about history as Bryan Fischer does :)
on August 12th, 2012 at 9:13 am
Reynardine, between living in the Bible Belt and my mother going through a religious right phase during my childhood I’ve had plenty of exposure to some of the weirdest branches of Christianity.
I guess it shows :)
on August 12th, 2012 at 9:27 am
Aron, you know according to Jack T. Chick both Hitler and Stalin were both controlled by Satan. So it naturally follows since Hitler equals Satan and Stalin equals Satan that Hitler does in fact equal Stalin. And since Satan was behind them both, they were in fact the same person. And that is what they will teach all of our children the U.S. gets converted to the Republican of Teabagistan.
on August 12th, 2012 at 3:29 pm
That’s why you never saw Hitler and Stalin in the same room together. Just like Superman and Clark Kent.
Also Osama Bin Laden and President Obama. ;)
on August 13th, 2012 at 8:46 am
Reynardine, you definitely have proven yourself worthy of the gold nosepicyune award :)
Aron, it is all part of the Satan Transitive Principle. Since everything bad equals Satan than it necessary follows that everything bad equals each other.
on August 13th, 2012 at 8:58 am
Erika,
Salient points all. Just the other day a kindly neighbor worried about my soul’s very likely trajectory toward perdition left a little pamphlet on my door warning that when things go bad, it could be a demon.
Such things as divorce, job loss, and other maladies were covered. Apparently if this happens once it might just be bad luck, but twice or three times? Well, we all know what’s behind that…demons.
on August 13th, 2012 at 9:54 am
Aadilla, if it was a cartoon it was likely a Chick Tract. They feature ultrafundamentalist Christianity at its most intolerant (there is a reason why the SPLC has Chick Publications listed as a hate group) and if you have any sense of irony at all they are ultrahilarious. Even as a child my reaction to the entire fire and brimstone school of Christianity was wanting to laugh at it.
Of course, I learned very quickly as a child what happens when you fail to suppress your laughter at that sort of thing (especially in Sunday School and Church) when you have parents who followed the [very bad] parenting advice of James Dobson. Ouch! :(
on August 13th, 2012 at 11:52 am
Yes, I know the Chick Tracts well.
Go ahead and check out the Chick Tract on buddhism above, called “The Tycoon”. As a buddhist I can say without reservation it doesn’t offend me, it just makes me laugh. I actually agree with him about venality in religion, but this is not exclusive to buddhists. It’s not accurate about Christianity either.
Especially the part about “Reincarnation is a LIE!!!”.
How strange, since St. John the Baptist was, according to Christ, as referred to three times in the Bible, the reincarnation of Elijah (Matt 11: 12-14). And I thought the scriptures were infallible, Chick?
Also I would like to point out we don’t “bow down to Lord Buddha”. We put aside our ego, drop everything so to speak, and one ritual form that takes is prostration, but we don’t worship the buddha image. It’s just completely ignorant to think that.
on August 13th, 2012 at 2:08 pm
Aadila, it looks like either my computer or Chick Publications website is not letting me in to read any of their tracts.
I think its Satan’s fault ;)
on August 13th, 2012 at 2:36 pm
Aadila, considering that Jack T. Chick is someone who thinks that the vast majority of Christians in the world are not real Christians and in his fundamentalist Christian view a person has no obligation to help others as long as he converts to his extreme right wing brand of Christianity it is hardly surprising he is ignorant of other religions.
In fact, in many ways hardcore fundamentalist Christianity is the perfect religion for the rich and powerful – both to keep people in their place and to justify greed since according to the fundamentalist theology faith is all that is required to get into heaven. That removes any sort of works requirement or requirement to help the poor and downtrodden.
Historically all one really needs to know about the ethics of fundamentalist Christianity is that John D. Rockefeller was a fundamentalist Baptist and the major bankroller of fundamentalist Baptist churches.
Personally, I’m a Christian Socialist :)
on August 13th, 2012 at 4:21 pm
Here you go, Erika: the link:
http://www.chick.com/reading/t.....016_01.asp
If you can’t download it once, it might just be bad luck. But twice or three times…
on August 13th, 2012 at 4:33 pm
Where to begin — I am joining this thread rather late in the day, and I think that the commenters have already covered most of it.
Bryan Fischer is a loathsome man. I am hoping that, perhaps, he may face some of the marvelous reversals for his lies and bleatings as the hideous David Barton. (It’s adjective day, folks — so I am doling them out). If some of you don’t yet know, David Barton’s Christian publishing house is shutting down production of his latest fantasy work on Thomas Jefferson (painting him as, in fact, a devote Christian), after — wait for it — finding that this Best Selling Non-Fiction book is indeed highly fictitious! Apparently, in addition to other historians, who have grumbled about his misrepresentations for years, this time, several well-known Christian historians have had enough and blew the whistle on Barton.
This is heartening to me–even though I am not a Christian. The gentlemen who spoke out (and apparently, others are now piling on), said that they were going so in part because the scholarship was so misleading and bad that they were concerned that it could hurt the reputation of other, serious and reputable Christian scholars.
Good for them — as it is good for anyone to point out willful falsehoods, whether they emanate from the Right, Left, or somewhere else.
I have in the past said that I wish that reasonable Christians would begin to speak out against the abuses and misinformation spread by the likes of Fischer and Barton. I know that many Christians don’t agree with these guys. Perhaps now that other, well-respected Christian historians have taken a swipe at Barton’s outrageous lies and misrepresentations, some will consider taking a swipe at Fischer’s as well.
Criticism is typically considered a lot more valid when it comes from within a movement or organization, rather than from without.
on August 14th, 2012 at 6:43 am
Still doesn’t work for me :(
Anyway, in general I prefer Jack T. Chick’s everything which someone in the past found to be fun is evil and going to send you straight to Hell tracts. My favorite probably is the one (“Angels”) which says that playing in a Christian rock band will cause you to die of AIDS because Satan controls the music industry (actually, maybe he’s on to something since the music industry is controlled by large corporations – perhaps Jack T. Chick is actually a Communist!).
I also admire the fact that Chick Tracts exist in some sort of time warp which makes many of them charmingly outdated. I especailly like that Jack T. Chick somehow thinks that teenagers are still playing Dugeons and Dragons and listening to heavy metal music – which I’m pretty sure really hasn’t been a concern since I was in elementary school. In fact I am convinced that Dugeons and Dragons existed solely to scare children because outside of one Futurama episode I’ve never ever heard anyone mention Dugeons and Dragons outside of church where of course they said it was Devil worship which would cause you to kill yourself in a ritual sacrifice to Satan after perhaps killing your parents first (just like the Chick Tract says!). Apparently he also thinks that Black people are still running around wearing big afros and listening to disco music (wait, was that even the same time period?) judging by his “aimed at Black audience tracts.”
on August 14th, 2012 at 6:49 am
CoralSea, there is actually a lot of condemnation of the Christian right from other Christians – however, because they lack the media resources of the crazies (which control the “Christian” television and radio networks) their voice often gets drowned out.
Its good to hear that people are calling out Barton for his lies and distortion. Too bad that for his audience it won’t make a difference. The fact is his books would still be required reading in Teabagi high schools and the fact that mainstream historians condemn it merely adds to the appeal.
Did you know that in Utah the law at least used to require teachers in their public schools to teach that the founding fathers of the U.S. were divinely inspired by God.
Someone is funneling a lot of money to the Christian Right – that enables them to get their message heard and appear numerous despite being a small minority of Christians.
on August 14th, 2012 at 8:47 am
@Erika
Try a web search for “The Tycoon”?
If that fails, I think we’ll just have to chalk it up as a demon.
on August 14th, 2012 at 9:23 am
I am unfamiliar with the Chick tracts, but they sound hilarious. Like a spoof from Mad Magazine or Cracked.com. I will definitely Google them. It’s so nice that the gentleman chose to feature other religions, as well. I’m sure, from what I’ve read here, that his representations are quite balanced (said with sarcasm, in case someone who is oddly literal is reading this post).
on August 14th, 2012 at 9:28 am
Erika,
‘Angels’ is probably my favorite tract as well. And I think you first turned me on to the infinite humor of Jack Chick with that exact tract in an earlier post.
I wonder what he thinks about the Jewish Jehovah?
I mean, if Allah’s a ‘Moon God,’ what does that make Jehovah? The god of corned beef sandwiches*?
*Incidentally, the God of Corned Beef Sandwiches would be AWESOME.
on August 14th, 2012 at 11:50 am
CoralSea, its important to remember that the Chick Tracts are not parody* and the people who hand them out really believe them. In some ways that makes them funnier – its likely impossible to make parody that effective..
* unless Jack T. Chick is in fact the most brilliant satirist in all recorded human history
on August 14th, 2012 at 12:46 pm
Erika –
Yes, I’ve gathered from your and aadila’s posts that they are not parodies — I threw that line in because we have some rather literal minded readers, such as Annie, on another thread, and I didn’t want her to think that I thought so (apparently, I failed, if you thought so).
I return to my original suggestion to those whose homes are frequented by religious folks just itching to deliver the word of God (re: strange religious tracts): let wasps or bees nest near your front door. This has managed to keep me religious-tract-distributor free — at least as long as I stay in the house or near the front door.
They are really afraid of wasps. Me, not so much. I go about my business, and the wasps go about theirs, and we’re cool in a fine, symbiotic relationship involving my providing a nice nesting spot, and them providing security services!
on August 14th, 2012 at 1:20 pm
Though I hate to admit it, the surreal artistry of Jack Chick is pure genius. I admire these drawings and shocking storylines even though the message is so predictably wicked. They are very helpful to understanding the hard-core worldview of the religious right, if you can call that a worldview. They show humanity at its worst, accurately painting the mind of the red-as-a-beet, vein-throbbing, bible-thumping, all-American reactionary.
on August 14th, 2012 at 2:22 pm
Aadila — you make these pamphlets sound positively scintillating!
I have been on a tear, writing short ghost/horror stories (more like vignettes — this is something I always get interested in doing at this time of year into fall. This year I am actually following through in my spare time). I think that I DEFINITELY need to check out these Chick things to come up with some highly ironic twists for my tales of darkness. Thanks to you and Erika, too!
on August 14th, 2012 at 4:39 pm
Seems like we have a lot of writers here. I’m finishing up something big myself. Curious how writers, intellectuals, and generally well informed people tend to side with the left. Even DeepEcology with all his narcissistic sophistries was intelligent enough not to come right out and support the right wing.
As a caveat, please don’t interpret my comment as an endorsement of anything Chick (even ahhhhhh! Chick-fil-A). I view Chick Tracts in the same category as Little Black Sambo, where there is cultural value mostly as a cautionary tale. Plus I dig the art.
on August 14th, 2012 at 4:46 pm
Speaking about distortion of history by the Christian Right and attempts at indoctrinationization in hilariously bad ways, have any of you seen the right wing “history” cartoons for children that Mike Huckabee is currently peddling?
on August 15th, 2012 at 9:15 am
Aadila, don’t worry nobody will mistake you with someone that you agree with Jack T. Chick. But maybe you should be careful because if you read them enough one day it may hit you like a bolt of lightening and next thing you know you will be campaigning to ban the teaching of evolution because the fossil record was planted by Satan to fool people – just like it says in the Chick Tracts ;)
Incidentially while I seem to misplaced the most recent actual Chick Tracts which someone was kind enough to leave under my windshield wiper I do have a copy of a devilish deliteful parody of same entitled “Devil Doll” – Aron especially should seek it out because he would no doubt appreciate the fact that the “Goose Gander” religious tract (a dead ringer for Chick Tracts including the same loopy beliefs) which is used to convert the teenager involved a Satanic college fratnerity cult. The main way to tell its not a real Chick Tract is the fact that real Chick Tracts do not tell people to bow to Virginia Beach four times a day to pray.
on August 16th, 2012 at 11:03 am
Erika,
While I have been unable to find the Goose Gander tracts, I did come across these gems:
http://foo.ca/wp/chick-tract-satire/
on August 16th, 2012 at 1:23 pm
Aron, I think that the “Goose Gander” tracts only exist within the confines of “Devil Doll”
on August 16th, 2012 at 8:48 pm
Speaking as a former holder of an elective office in a (more or less) Southern state (Texas), albeit a very minor elective office, I can attest that if you wanted to win an election in the South, up until about 1980 you ran in the Democratic primary regardless of your political philosophy or lack of political philosophy. Many candidates who were ideologically simpatico with the GOP ran as Democrats because they wished to get elected.
on August 18th, 2012 at 9:05 am
Aron, thank you for the link even though I’m sad to say that most of those parodies were not any good – in fact, some of them were downright terrible :(
In fact, many of them truly missed the point – especially when one considers that Chick Tracts themselves may well qualify as a parody – since at least according to Wikipedia Jack T. Chick took his style almost entirely from “Tijuana Bibles.” The humor of Chick Tracts comes from their air of absolute certainty, the loopy ideology, and the fact that Jack T. Chick feels the need to add footnotes to explain things that tend to be pretty obvious. Thus, most of those tracts totally missed the mark – simply because they missed what makes the Chick Tracts such works of anti-genius.
Having said that, the MST3K does Dark Dugeons was absolutely priceless, I laughed quite a bit at the anti-Goth/industrial music tracts (I dock the guy some for using Jack T. Chick’s artwork rather than drawing his own, but at least he had the right “I am absolutely right and if you disagree you with me you are wrong” attitude), the Church of the Subgenius is as always delitefully weird (and much closer to the feel of a true Jack T. Chick tract), and Christians and Crusaders was a good idea but poorly executed.
You really do need to find a copy of “Devil Doll?” – it is by far the best Jack T. Chick parody I’ve seen. I’m guessing that due to copyright reasons its not available online
on August 19th, 2012 at 7:31 am
I should also add that the notion that people should be killed based upon what type of music they listen to is sufficiently repellent to be worthy of Jack T. Chick himself.
Earlier I said that “Angels” is my favorite Chick Tract – that was only because I was not aware of “There Goes the Dinosaurs” which has the extremely awesomely hilarious theory that Dinosaurs were in fact aboard Noah’s Ark but went extinct due to there not being sufficient oxygen from plants after the Great Flood which made them slow and easy for humans to kill to eat brontosaurus burgers. While that theory alone is great – and when I was a child, I wish I would have heard it because it would have been so much fun to see how that Bible School teacher who told me that dinosaurs went extinct due to not being on Noah’s Ark would have reacted to it.
But my absolute favorite part is the drawing of the typical college professor discussing why dinosaurs went extinct holding a picture of a dinosaur watching a comet across the sky and saying “yipes” – Haw Haw!
But the real reason why “There Goes the Dinosaurs” is now my favorite Chick Tract is that it returned my love to them after I made the mistake of actually reading his most infamous tract “Lisa” which turns out to be approximately 583 trillion times more tasteless and offensive than any description of it can possibly convey. It actually upset me to the point where I felt physically ill. Please, no matter how curious you might be, do not read it under any circumstances!!!
on August 20th, 2012 at 12:33 pm
Erika,
Naturally the instant I read your comment I went to find it. Is this really what they believe?
Ugh!
on August 22nd, 2012 at 9:39 am
wait, did you actually read “Lisa”?
Sadly, the answer is yes. Okay, maybe not about the part of looking the other way no matter how terrible of a crime if someone asks Jesus into their heart, but the other really horrible stuff, yes. Fortunately, its a relatively small number of people.
on August 22nd, 2012 at 10:13 am
Erika, you said don’t read Lisa. So what did you think I would do? Of course I read it.
on August 22nd, 2012 at 11:16 am
I guess I should have noted that I was being serious when I said that reading it made me feel so upset that I got physically ill. As such, I was merely trying to warn people not to read it.
on August 22nd, 2012 at 5:36 pm
It’s icky.