Tea at Trianon: Comparing Trump to Hitler

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Comparing Trump to Hitler

It would be a waste of time to deign to acknowledge such a stupid comparison, except for the fact that such a comparison minimizes the fates of the millions imprisoned, tortured and murdered by Hitler and the Nazis. A woman born in Nazi Germany speaks out. From The Independent Journal Review:

Professors shouldn't be telling their students to go after freedom of speech. They should be telling them that this is the greatest country in the world. The demonstrators can't tell you why they're demonstrating. I'm not a Republican. I'm not a Democrat. I just want the country to be at peace. I see what is happening here reflecting some of the things we saw in Germany, and it's terrifying. It's sad. But it's not because of Trump. It's because of poor education. Trump is not like Hitler. The theory that he is is propaganda. Yes, I lived through some of Nazi Germany, but all you have to do is read some books about that period to see how wrong that theory is. (Read more.)