Hitler Rap

[harry perkins]

Following on from George's show this morning, is this inspired or distasteful?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpRqvCps_MQ

[Skylace]

I'm moving these topics to the Galloway section as that is where they need to be

[nekokate]

I don't find that offensive or distasteful at all. George would, naturally. I've known of whitestkids.com for months and they are not racists, they just push the envelope to the limit, like Chris Morris of Brass Eye fame, and Marc M of sickanimation.com (which is absolutely brilliant).

The point is it's a parody, and a world where that video is illegal is a world I don't want to live in.

[harry perkins]

I tend to agree, I first saw this a while back and was rolling around laughing at some points, like "my bitch Anne Frank" or "Theres a party down at Schindler's and I'm on his A-list". I don't think George was talking about making THAT kind of video illegal anyway.

ps Sky I can see why this is in the Galloway section now cause it follows on from his latest show, but the other one I thought about and decided not to post here because its not directly related to GG. But I suppose most political stuff is posted here and Iraq is a very close subject to George, so this might be the right place.

[Skylace]

[Mandy]

Why do I have to be the contrarian ? (maybe it makes for good debate).

If George was going to object to this, he might object on the sole ground that it is inappropriate for a kids' audience .. i.e. If on TV, above a revised 10:30pm watershed mark (up from 9pm).

i.e. put it in the category of a video showing a student slapping a teacher, which is something he mentioned in his recent shows.

Would you want your 6 year old to see this video ? Would you want this rap to be played in a school's playground ?


p.s. An analogy is the old British comedy "Fawlty Towers" .. now that was FUNNY, and suitable (I think) for kids viewing.

[nekokate]

[faceless]

I'd say it's just pish rather than inspired.

[Mandy]

I wonder in how many countries in the world would it be illegal under present laws to broadcast or even play this in a private or public place (at any time) ? (even if only you are watching)

At least it can be accessed by the ".de" (German) web site of Google :

http://video.google.de/videosearch?q=Whitest+Kids+-+Hitler+Rap

[Mandy]

After asking the above question, I came across this :
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://fpp.co.uk/docs/Irving/RadDi/2007/070407.html

"MORE seriously, the German Government has quietly admitted that over the last twelve months it prosecuted over 18,000 Germans for offences of "right-wing extremism," of which only a few hundred involved actual violence: i.e. they prosecuted over seventeen thousand thought-crimes -- people unwitting displaying the old swastika emblem, or even worse, National Socialist ideas, and perhaps even "denying the H.""
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

i.e. The video displayed the "old swastika emblem", and there is no exception in German rules for parody etc.

I am also now not comfortable in describing Nazism as "right-wing extremism" .. since it stands for "National Socialism", shouldn't it be "left-wing extremism" ?

Right wingers go for low taxation, capitalism, each person to themselves (with constitutional protection). Left wingers (including socialists) are more society orientated. Nazism takes this too far by being racist in the definition of the group. So how does that make it right wing extremism, as opposed to left wing extremism ?

On this spectrum, the extreme right are the globalists, and the extreme left at the Nazis, with the slightly less extreme left communism. This puts "ordinary" (non-Nazi) socialists and constitutional defenders "in the middle" .. which then chimes with my other postings of the common ground between the socialist "left" and the constitutionalist "right" in the USA.

[faceless]

[Mandy]

[harry perkins]

Nazism is right wing because it is a particularist, racist ideology. Because the real interests of the working class, who are the majority of the world's people, are international and socialist the capitalist class always encourages ideologies that divide people, like nationalism and racism. Fascism and Nazism were the most extreme cases of this, arising when Europe was ablaze with revolutionary agitation following World War 1 and the Russian Revolution. Hitler's personal obsession with Jews fitted the needs of the times because by blaming the Jews the Nazis could pretend to be anti-capitalist (as there were many Jewish capitalists) while staying anti-communist (as there were many Jewish communists). The Third Reich was built on the destruction of the organised left and labour movement, but capitalism survived, albeit with Jewish and anti-Nazi capitalists liquidated. Many capitalist firms profited from the war and the holocaust, right up to the end.

[Mandy]

Thanks Harry. I wonder if this issue which I raised about whether left or right is academic, and indeed left/right descriptions can vary depending on the country.

[nekokate]