What's Going On With all the Politicized Nazi Counterfactuals? Steven Colbert Weighs In

The list is a long and growing one.

Politicians Ben Carson, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Jeb Bush have all commented on "what ifs" pertaining to the Nazi past in recent weeks.  I commented on Carson's invocation of the Holocaust in explaining his opposition to gun control a few posts ago.  I was interviewed on NPR last week about Netanyahu's implied counterfactual that if Haj Amin Al-Husseini had not met with Hitler in November of 1941 that the Holocaust would not have happened (click HERE).  Meanwhile, Jeb Bush went public on the The New York Times Magazine question from last week: "would you go back in time to kill Hitler as a baby?" saying "hell yeah."  (I was interviewed about this very issue by Mother Jones the other day; click HERE for the interview).

Thank goodness we have Steven Colbert to put together a mashup commentary on all the inanity.
To watch the hilarious clip, click HERE.


As for the deeper meaning of what's going on, I suspect it reflects an ongoing desire to seek moral certainties in a time of ongoing upheaval and political polarization by invoking what still counts as the benchmark of evil: Hitler.

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