Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:45 pm
One of humanity’s weakest links, Fox News’ Todd Starnes, objects in a column posted to his website, to Mormon Tabernacle Choir conscientious objector Jan Chamberlin, who resigned rather than perform at Trump’s inauguration, which she compared to “throwing roses to Hitler.”
She could have simply chosen to not go rather than resign, but she has the courage of her convictions and said the performance would taint the choir.
Todd Starnes, a fan of shrieking man-boy Donald Trump, whose “bigly” hissy fits are an almost daily source of mockery for those on the left, gets a little shrill himself when he says,
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
“Ms. Chamberlin’s shrieking is similar to the hysterics coming from Radio City Music Hall – where several Rockettes pitched a hissy fit over their participation in the inauguration.”
I’m pretty sure nobody who supports Trump is in a position to point a finger at somebody else over “shrieking” or “hysterics.
What really got Starnes’ goat, however, was comparing Donald Trump, who gives the Hitler salute and demands personal oaths of loyalty and repeats Hitler tropes in his speeches, to well, Hitler:
“For the record, President-elect Trump has never invaded a sovereign nation, nor has exterminated millions of innocent people.
“And to compare the next president of the United States to Hitler is not only intellectually dishonest – it’s downright repulsive.
“President-elect Trump is no Nazi, Ms. Chamberlin – but your argument is a few notes shy of a stanza.”
Wow. He must have forgotten all those times President Obama was compared to Hitler and Stalin, and even the anti-Christ. In some cases, all Obama had to do was stand for gun control.
In fact, Starnes himself has compared atheists and non-religious people to Nazis. He is not really standing on any high ground here.
It goes without saying all the intellectual dishonesty here is coming from Starnes himself. Sure Trump hasn’t invaded anybody. He’s never run a country before. But give him time.
Besides, he likes arms races. Hitler liked arms races too. And Hitler also wanted nukes. And nukes do exterminate a lot of people and can be set off by a single irresponsible tweet.
There is also the little matter of Trump’s Nazi supporters. Sure, you can’t pick your supporters but you can denounce them, and Trump has declined to denounce Nazis of all things. If there is anything in this world you should always denounce its Nazis.
No, what is repulsive is not comparing Trump to Hitler but Trump giving Hitler salutes and repeating Hitler’s words in his speeches. THAT is repulsive.
And Starnes, ignoring all the facts of the case, is being intellectually dishonest is pretending there are no comparisons to be made.
If Trump and his supporters don’t want to hear him being compared to Hitler, the best thing to do is to stop sounding like Hitler.
Until then, Starnes needs to stop whining.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
