Wednesday, January 05, 2011

World Net Daily trying to exploit criticism of book linking gays to the Nazi party

Last week, it was discovered that the right-wing site World Net Daily is selling a discredited book which accuses the gay community of being behind the Nazi Party in Germany during World War II.

This week not only is World Net Daily continuing to sell the book, The Pink Swastika, but it is also trying to capitalize on the recent controversy by claiming that the gay community is trying to silence the book's "findings." The site calls The Pink Swastika:

 a book that is disturbing, compelling and persuasive on its major point – that homosexuals dominated the German Nazi Party from its birth through its catastrophic demise.

It's a book that is vilified by America's "gay" activist establishment.

The Pink Swastika hasn't just been vilified by the the so-called "homosexual establishment." It's been vilified by everyone with a working brain and seen for what it is - the latest attempt by a homophobe (i.e. Scott Lively) who has carried his vendetta against the lgbt community to the corners of the globe.

The biggest criticism of  The Pink Swastika is that Lively and co-writer Ken Abrams committed several distortions in formulating their theories. According to the site Box Turtle Bulletin:

Dr. Warren Throckmorton, an associate professor at the Christian-based Grove City College, has continued to add to his online series debunking The Pink Swastika. His latest installment is probably the most devastating, where Throckmorton catches Lively lying about his source information virtually red-handed. Throckmorton was joined in this endeavor by associate professor of history, Dr. Jon David Wyneken, whose Ph.D. is in modern German history with a focus on the period between 1933 and 1955. Together, they have undertaken a methodical exposé of Lively’s shoddy scholarship.

Throckmorton has written extensively regarding the errors behind The Pink Swastika, all in devastating detail.


Of course World Net Daily editor Joseph Farah  would probably disagree with Throckmorton. He claims to have read the book and found it to be accurate:

They say this book has been discredited," Farah says. "But I've read the book and I've read all the criticism. The book more than stands up to all the attacks I've seen, most of which are completely baseless."

However, based on Farrah's past and present history of exploiting conspiracy theories, one could easily guess that his vouching for The Pink Swastika has less to do with its supposed veracity and more to do with how much money it could potentially put in his pocket.

According to an article in the Huffington Post,  in 1996, Farah helped to promote a video pushing conspiracy theories about the death of Clinton White House counsel Vincent Foster at $35 a pop.

The same article also says that Farrah is behind a cottage industry of exploiting birther conspiracies regarding President Obama (i.e. the notion that Obama is not a United States citizen) including the sale of bumper stickers, yard signs, postcards, and videos.

To put it in cynical terms, Farrah can be described as a sort of degenerate P.T. Barnum, seeking to reap the benefits of fear, xenophobia, and homophobia.

No doubt he will probably make his money and there is really nothing anyone can do about that. But the question should be asked just how many Congressional leaders will show up should Farrah and World Net Daily put on another "Taking Back America" conference.

We should all pay attention to that. It would definitely give new meaning to the term "lying down with dogs."


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7 comments:

AOG said...

Well, I haven't read the book, and I don't know who the author is, but this is not the first time that the idea has been put forth. In fact, a lot of serious academic research says that there was a large gay influence in the Nazi party, starting with Hitler himself, who many German authors believe was gay. I think the evidence in favor of this idea is overwhelming.
Quite frankly, if there were gays in the Nazi party, I don't think we should hide it. It is only recorded history.

However, if the author is using that information to incite homophobia, then I understand how we should take notice of it, and him. Otherwise, no big deal. I'm sure there are gays in the Republican party too.

Mykelb said...

Maybe we should start comparing GOProud and LCR to those gay Nazis? Makes sense to me. Both groups are self hating fags who want nothing but power and money at the expense of their own community.

Ireyon said...

Er, no. I live in germany, and the only ones who say that Hitler was gay are the same type of idiots with conspiracy theories as the author of said book. He was married to Eva Braun (admittedly for a short time).

While there where probably some gays in the NSDAP (like there are in the catholic church or the republican party, you get my point I hope). Ernst Röhm, one of Hiler's close f, that is not what made theme "extreme". Ernst Röhm, one of Hitler's friends, was in fact gay. Hilter denied these rumors for as long as Röhm was useful to him, and then had him murdered around 7.1.1934. However, the thesis that homosexuality was somehow disproportionately dominant amongst the ranks of the Nazi Party is utter bogus. That's my polite opinion.

My personal opinion, with all due respect, is that anyone who argues that the Nazis were gay should take Lively's book and shove it up their ass. I don't care much if americans want to falsify their own history, it is amusing me even, but stay the hell away from europe. If your politicans continue with this garbage it's only a matter of time until some nutcase over here starts spreading that lunacy in hope of making money (in fact, I think that already happened, that book however was virtually rend asunder by historians in berlin).


@Ynot And about that "It's not the first time someone says that": two and two will always be four, no matter how many people on fox news or somewhere else insist that is five, kay? ;)

Mykelb said...

Ireyon: I didn't mean to say that the Nazi Party in historical Germany was dominated by gays. That's a ridiculous statement considering we are only 3% of the total population (according to the conservatives). How could less than 3% of the population, who would have been in the military at the time, have any influence is beyond ignorant.

My point was that if there were gay Nazis, they were probably hiding in the ranks, just like the Republican closet cases do in present day America (i.e., Mark Foley, Richard Curtis, Larry Craig) and they are comparable.

Ireyon said...

@Mykelb

I didn't think that this is what you wanted to say either, what I said is just a reaction to the nonsense some of the conservatives in your contry spout at a regular basis. If you tell any half-way competent historian in Berlin that Hitler was gay he'll either politely tell you that there is no proof of that or he'll go into an angry rant and throw something at you. There were gays in the NSDAP, and they should (and probably were) killed, but to go around spreading fiction like this would give anyone involved in german history seizures.

As you might imagine we aren't really proud of what happened back then, even though anyone who lived at that time and could have done something about it is dead now. But because we are so sensitive about our past it is maddening to see someone from another country distoring the history of our country to further some political agenda or make money.

And to think that I wouldn't even become aware of these issues if I didn't stumble across this block. (google is your friend, apparently)

To tell you the truth I'm a bit irritated. The impression most people in europe had was that america was a progressive and innovative nation. Then the financial crisis happened, before that the oil spill in the gulf of mexico. That kind of put a dent in my image of america, and I began researching, evetually coming across LGBT issues and this blog.

And THEN I found out about the various crazies you have in your country (our conservatives haven't quite reached that level of fail ...yet), from Fred Phelps to mormons with magical underwear with Prop 8. I sometimes lose sight of the fact that my country isn't the only one with incompetent politicans and religious zealots. In germany, people (at least the christians) were still trying, and failing, to wrap their mind around the concept that the pope, someone from our country, covered for a pedophile.

And about DADT, it was high time that you abolished that monstrosity. Even Russia allows gays in their military (at least officially) and it should worry americans if RUSSIA of all countries is more progressive in anything than them.

Speaking of military, and I hope this isn't too off topic: that Wikileaks incident I read about on another blog isn't such a big deal as you make it out to be. We don't idolize our politicans, and everyone and their mother in germany knows that Westerwelle is incompetent as a minister of foreign affairs.

I do hope that this post isn't too long, sorry I tend to ramble.

Ireyon said...

@Mykelb

I didn't think that that was what you ment either, it's just my reaction to the idiocy the conservatives in your country are spouting. (long live google and youtube, the heart and lung of information)

Trust me, if you go to Berlin and tell any self respecting historian that Hitler was gay, you will either get a polite explanation that there is no factual basis to that OR a violent rant and a kick to the balls as a parting gift. We are rather sensitive about our past, seeing that it is less than glorious, and even now that everyone somehow infolved in that crime against humanity is dead it is maddening to see that someone from another country is twisting and molding our history to his liking to make money and further some morally banrupt political agenda.

Perhaps it is the general consensus in germany that made me think critically about anything concerned with moral values. Freee spech in america gave you Martin Luther King Jr., we in germany got Adolf Hitler. He'd been in jail before could say 'Heil!' if there had been any hate-crime legislation at that time, and the crisis would have been averted. There is a reason why our politicans are hesitant up until now to hop onto the homophobic bandwagon, because they now that they'll get kicked out of office with a spiked boot to the rear if they do. Free speech is a good thing, a glorious thing, but sometimes I think that certain people who use that right would be better off in a mental institution or in jail.

Also, the reactions to anything in america from germany will be rather muted (DADT repeal etc.) because our dear local church goers are trying (and failing) to wrap their brains around the fact that our pope covered for a pedophile.

Said pope is supposed to speak in Berlin before parlament, dear Angela is despreately trying to find a way out of having to utter the word with "S" or "P". (S stands for schwul, germans equivalent to gay, and if you read a few lines above this you should be able to guess what P stands for.)

Ireyon said...

I apologize for the double post, my computer is being a bitch again.