8/2/09

The BOBA Digest, Part 4: The Reductio ad Hitlerum Awards

Please note that this essay will now be housed in True Freethinker’s section on Adolf Hitler / Nazism / Communism
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Posted by Ken
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9 comments:

  1. ReynoldAugust 2, 2009 at 9:03 AM

    Mariano, you are the last person on earth to give out "awards" for the Reductio ad Hitlerum fallacy!

    Do what your own "holy book" says and take the plank out of your own eye first.

    Here you go again:
    Just check his website where his hordes virtually “Ya vol!” anything he states particularly the more preposterous, unscientific statements.
     
    Good grief. And here you go again. So now anytime someone agrees with whatever Dawkins says, you've just compared him/her to a Nazi? And your whine about Dawkins in this post is about what, again?


    Interesting to ponder that I have yet to hear of any atheist complaining that he never responds to comments to his website.
     
    Actually, Dawkins does post in the forums on that website, so that's maybe why you don't hear of that complaint. Not that the truth concerns you in any way.

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  2. FroggieAugust 2, 2009 at 10:06 AM

    See Godwin's Law.

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  3. AnonymousAugust 2, 2009 at 10:08 AM

    Good points Mario keep up the good work !

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  4. Joé McKenAugust 2, 2009 at 11:34 AM

    Mariano, the only thing that stuns and scares me more than your eagerness to attack atheists with every word they say, despite said words not having the slightest incriminating factor to them and thus making you look like a total fool, is your complete inability to comprehend the most basic of English.

    1) He never compared Boteach or D'Souza to Hitler. He's said so himself, forcefully, over and over again. He compared their knack to YELL and SCREECH to that of Hitler's. NOT their views. Read this over and over a few times until this penetrates your thick skull.

    2) He never called Boteach a clown. He said Boteach, whilst screaming like Hitler (which, again, is by no means a "reductio ad Hitlerum", no matter how you stretch it), Boteach still tells very good jokes and gets lots of well-deserved laughs. He was complimenting the guy, not insulting him.

    You scare me almost as much as you make me, and the world around you, laugh in derision. Not to sound too insulting, but you seriously need more English classes.

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  5. AnonymousAugust 2, 2009 at 9:36 PM

    Another irony-meter gone ... Mariano, you can't keep doing this. You can't just go around saying that atheists do this, atheists do that, when you do those things yourself. You go lengths trying to prove those things, and forget to look at yourself for a second.

    Reduction ad Hitlerum is one of your favorite moves. Yours and other fundies like yourself.

    Keep breaking my irony-meters. I will send you the bills.

    G.E.

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  6. KenAugust 5, 2009 at 7:18 PM

    Thank you all for your comments:

    Reynold,
    You should know that “Ya vol!” means “Yes sir” in German. You seem to overlook the parallel that I was drawing.

    Joé McKen,
    Please re-read the post; Dawkins likened the manner in which Boteach and D'Souza shriek to the manner in which Hitler shrieked—I made this clear in the post, so did Dawkins, so did Boteach and so did D'Souza.

    Please re-read the post; I never claimed that Dawkins called Boteach a clown. I took Dawkins’ comments about Boteach being a good comedian and referred to this as being like a clown. No, he was not insulting the Jewish Rabbi at all by stating “…as a good comedian should. But throughout your speeches you periodically rise to climaxes of shrieking rant, and that is just like Hitler”—no, not at all.

    Referring to my usage of need of English classes is an ad hominem: if you must know; not only is English my second language but I am also dyslexic—thanks for the empathy.

    get_education,
    Reduction ad Hitlerum is one of my favorite moves: please present your evidence.

    All: I find it fascinating and very saddening that Dawkins refers to virtually everyone with whom he disagrees as Hitler, Nazis or Nazi sympathizers and all you can think to do is criticize me—my oh my—no wonder he gets away with it.

    aDios,
    Mariano

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  7. Joé McKenAugust 5, 2009 at 7:41 PM

    // Please re-read the post; Dawkins likened the manner in which Boteach and D'Souza shriek to the manner in which Hitler shrieked—I made this clear in the post, so did Dawkins, so did Boteach and so did D'Souza. \\

    What part of this refutes anything I said? I'm saying that comparing the way someone speaks/screams is not a reductio ad Hitlerum as you claimed it is. Here, your own words:

    // In one of his top indiscretions with regards to the reductio ad Hitlerum Richard Dawkins compared Rabbi Shmuley Boteach to Adolf Hitler—and threw in Dinesh D'Souza for bad measure:
    [...]
    What would you prefer: someone who yells “Love your neighbor” or someone who calmly likens to virtually everyone with whom he disagrees, including a Rabbi, to Hitler? \\

    Right there. In your very own words, you just said Dawkins was likening them and comparing them to Hitler, aka employing reductio ad Hitlerum. I assure you, I read (and understand what I read) quite well.

    // Please re-read the post; I never claimed that Dawkins called Boteach a clown. \\

    Again, in your own words:

    // That certainly clarified matters: Rabbi Boteach is only somewhat like Hitler yet, more like a clown. \\

    Which means: "Dawkins says Boteach is like Hitler, and that he's a clown". Which Dawkins specifically did not say. If that's not what you meant, you might wanna consider rephrasing what you write, because that's exactly what it sounds like.

    // No, he was not insulting the Jewish Rabbi at all by stating “…as a good comedian should. But throughout your speeches you periodically rise to climaxes of shrieking rant, and that is just like Hitler”—no, not at all. \\

    Indeed, he wasn't. He says the guy *shrieks* like Hitler. It's not an insult unless it's specifically made, formulated or intended to be degrading, which this obviously isn't. Saying someone screams like a madman, is NOT the same as saying that they are a madman, or are like a madman. It's completely different.

    // if you must know; not only is English my second language but I am also dyslexic—thanks for the empathy. \\

    First, while I do sincerely sympathize, you cannot expect me to be sorry for something I had no way of knowing (you being dyslexic), so that guilt trip ("thanks for the empathy") doesn't work on me. And second, your problems here stem not from mixing up words and letters (as dyslexia does), but simply by continually misconstruing what you're reading. Huge difference.

    // I find it fascinating and very saddening that Dawkins refers to virtually everyone with whom he disagrees as Hitler, Nazis or Nazi sympathizers \\

    Once again, all together now: he does not. He never did. He said they YELL in similar ways (in the case of D'Souza and Boteach), not that they were IN ANY OTHER WAY supporters of Hitler, or "Nazi sympathizers".

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  8. Joé McKenAugust 5, 2009 at 7:42 PM

    ... Reading that, I do however apologize for the mammoth comment. My writing, she gets away from me. -_-

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  9. ReynoldAugust 9, 2009 at 7:24 PM

    Mariano said...

    Thank you all for your comments:

    Reynold,
    You should know that “Ya vol!” means “Yes sir” in German. You seem to overlook the parallel that I was drawing.
     
    What I'm pointing out to you, as if you didn't already sodding know, is why you chose to say that people who agree with Dawkins as saying: "Ya Vol" instead of "Yes Sir" in your little screed. You use the same phrasealogy as the nazis themselves used.

    Your parallel was obvious...you're just trying to deny it now that you've been caught out.

    As to your last comment:

    All: I find it fascinating and very saddening that Dawkins refers to virtually everyone with whom he disagrees as Hitler, Nazis or Nazi sympathizers and all you can think to do is criticize me—my oh my—no wonder he gets away with it.
     
    Where in fucking hell did Dawkins refer to anyone as a Nazi sympathizer, please? As I said, you are the one who's trying to actually compare people to Nazis.

    Please read Joé McKen's remarks to you again.

    It's always like this with you, Mariano. You bullshit like crazy (ex. your post about Eugenie Scott where she's supposed to be the head of an "anti-theist" organization that teaches "atheism" in schools) and never admit when you've been caught out. This behaviour is typical of you evangelical types.

    To top it off, you have this "superficial politeness" thing going...you thank people for their comments, etc. so you look polite to the casual reader, yet the stuff you say is both false, and makes heavy use of ad-homenim, poisoning the well, and yes, reductio-ad-hitlerum that any belief in your good nature is blown to hell.


    Evangelicals like you is one of the reasons I don't believe in your god...his servants are shown to be consistent bullshit artists once time is taken to examine their claims. You, Hovind, ,Comfort, AIG, WND, Coulter, the DI people, the Robertsons, Kennedys, Falwells, fuck it, there's just so much bullshit coming from your camp that there is no bloody way that any god who is supposed to hate lies like the xian god is, could allow it.

    He has to be non-existent.

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