I seem to be grouching about US conservatives a lot here lately, and I feel kind of bad about that, but I have a limit as to how many stupid comments I can listen to, and the righties are just dancing on my last nerve.

Fox News chairman goes on record about NPR:

They are, of course, Nazis. They have a kind of Nazi attitude,” Ailes said of NPR. “They are the left wing of Nazism. These guys don’t want any other point of view. They don’t even feel guilty using tax dollars to spout their propaganda. They are basically Air America with government funding to keep them alive.”

Ok, I really hope that was taken out of context. Because that? That’s just stupid. See, here’s the deal: when people describe mere political differences in histrionic terms, then that suggests to me that they don’t know what REAL oppression looks like. And unfortunately, real oppression exists all over the world, and in terms of oppression, the human race has much bigger fish to fry than NPR.

Nazis are people who support state-sponsored socialism through the totalitarian military state, and, in terms of social reform, actively pursued policies of racial hygiene. They also believed in state-controlled capitalism, a variety of corporatism.

Now, I don’t love many commenters on NPR. I don’t listen; well, I do sometimes. It’s incidental, if a friend of mine is on it, for example, I listen.

However, here’s a field guide and comparison: I report, you decide.

Adolf Eichmann

–developed the plan to concentrate Jewish residents of Europe into Poland, and in particular Warsaw
–orchestrated and promoted the death camp at Auschwitz
–personally oversaw the death of over 600,000 Jewish men, women, and children at Auschwitz.
–associated with the deaths of over 5 million innocent people
–Genuine, real-deal, evil

Frank Deford, NPR

—left-leaning, believes in big government
— needs some moisturizer
—could benefit from a better tailor

Amon Goeth, Nazi

—Commandant of the forced labor camp at Plaszow
—killed over 2,000 innocents constructing and populating the camp
—closed down camps by ordering the murder of thousands of innocent inmates
—oversaw slave labor
–general, real-deal evil portrayed in Schindler’s list

David Brooks, NPR

—pompous
—strikes me as not being very good at math
—describes self as a “liberal before I came to my senses” (yeah, that means NAZI, clearly)
—SAYS he’s a third-wave feminist but has not convinced me he’s anything another than a plain-old garden variety misogynist
—totally needs to get better advice on matching his eyeglass frames to his face shape

Adolph Hitler, Nazi

—used political influence and the pervasive threat of violence to create a legal dictatorship which consolidated the legislative and executive powers of the republic in his office;
—then proceeded to wage a genocidal war that would immiserate millions of his own people, millions of people abroad,
—alienated and killed off his talented generals, and
—through inept military strategies, enabled Joseph Stalin to extend a brutal regime across eastern Europe that would kill an estimated 20 million people.

Linda Werthheimer, NPR

—has a German last name
—is married to a campaign reform advocate
—has been with NPR since its beginning
—looks kind of shifty to me