The Pope plays the Hitler card:
Pope Francis appealed for more tolerance and decried the rise of populism during a speech at a book launch at the Vatican on Tuesday.
He said there should be more efforts to teach young people about the history of World War One and World War Two, “so that they do not fall into the same mistake and know how populism spreads.”
“It is important that young people should know how populism is born. I think of Hitler last century, who had promised the development of Germany. That we know how populism starts: by sowing hate. You can’t live sowing hate,” Francis warned, according to Italian news agency ANSA.
Go here to read the rest. PopeWatch agrees with the Pope about the importance of reading History. He should try it. If he did, he would learn that populism had bupkis to do with the coming of World War I, that populism is a term so broad as to encompass political movements that are diametrically opposed and that his accusation that all populism arises from hate is an example of raw ignorance, bluntly stated.
My wife believes that Pope Francis is not so much evil, but, as you implied in your post, not all that well informed or intelligent, unlike the previous two popes. We should pray that the Holy Spirit gives him insight and thoughtfulness.
“[P]opulism had bupkis to do with the coming of World War I”
Arguably, it was one factor
1. Populism among her minorities meant that Austria knew that, if she allowed herself to be humiliated by Serbia, she could not keep control of them.
2. Populism in her Western provinces meant that Russia, her prestige already damaged by her defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, knew if she allowed her ally, Serbia, to be humiliated, she could well face revolt in her Western provinces, particularly Poland and the Baltic states, from which she drew the bulk of her tax revenue.
3. Popular demand for the return of the lost provinces of Alsace and Lorraine was one reason France went to war in 1914. With her stagnant birth-rate and Germany’s growing one, France knew she could not afford to wait another generation
4. Likewise, there was a strong popular demand in Italy to incorporate Austrias’s Italian provinces (Italia Irredenta).
You are confusing MPS nationalism with populism. Populism simply was not a significant factor in the Europe of 1914.
I doubt the Pope has any opinions that aren’t conventional in a certain social set. Jimmy Carter is more original. Pretty amusing that our Peronist Pope is taking potshots at ‘populism’.
My airborne ranger son calls them brain-washed zombies. I think he’s being too charitable and insults zombies.
Regarding liberals/progressives (marketing!), three traits are universal: low IQ; low-information; and no self-awareness.
My wife’s sister and her entire family show it. She and her husband co-signed son’s student loans. The boy graduated in six years, somehow got a good job, went off the reservation, and defaulted. For the past three years, we have been getting land-line calls (we don’t answer) from a bank. The wife asked her sister about it. She off-hand said she had to give our name and number and “Just ignore it.” FYI – they can pay – vacation in Europe each Summer. And, they think they’re better than us. Liberals.
Donald R McClarey wrote, “You are confusing MPS nationalism with populism.”
Surely, the core of Populism is the belief, summarised by Fichte, that frontiers should be based, not on dynasties and treaties, but on language and nationality. This is at the root of its characteristic xenophobia and opposition to immigration, free trade and open borders.
Once again MPS you completely misunderstand populism. The only aspect of populism common among its multitudinous variants is that the majority within nations should rule. In Europe in 1914 the common belief among almost all the ruling classes is that the elites should rule. This is still the credo of the ruling elites in Europe, and hence the demonization of populist parties by the Pope and others. The Pope, in his way, is as mistrustful of Democracy as any of his predecessors.
Hitler did not win by sowing hate. Hitler sowed the half truth that the Aryan Nation was “super human”, an ordained people to rule the world. Hitler then let the lie spread and infect the people. Hitler then pointed to other groups pf people who were hated because they were not “super human”. Other people then became “lives not worth living”.
In Margret Sanger and Planned Parenthood’s terms “useless eaters” and “human weeds”
The elite or ruling class, communism, socialism and fascism, all believe that they are “special”. The deny patriotism, the good will for the common good. The deny, eschew is a better word, statesmanship, that is, the acknowledgment that they are public servants elected by the sovereign personhood of the citizen to office to serve the nation by representing their constituents, the people who elected them to office.
The elite seize power through their unauthentic and illegitimate power to maintain their control over their constituents instead of serving the people. Instead of serving the people, the elites serve themselves.
Instead of serving their constituents, the elites serve themselves, never realizing that their positions are now enviable and will be taken from them by any power and means. When was the last time you saw anybody force his way to lay down his life for his nation, people, friend.
Father Vincent Capodanno hanged back to fill the positions no one was around to fill.
Our job as citizen and nation is to keep the elite appraised as to their duty. IN GOD WE TRUST
In the words of Force Recon: You must speak softly to the donkey, but first you must hit him over the head with a 2×4 to get his attention.”
Now the Stupids in the news media are comparing Trump to Hitler because he said he was a nationalist. Much clucking that he is a racist because he used the word. They ignore that Socialist was the second word in Hitler’s party.
MPS, We in the USA are hardly a xenophobic nation. We are a nation of immigrants. We have laws for legal immigration and well defined borders. The fact that our government is concerned about an invasion of 8,000 to 14,000 Central Americans at our Mexico border does not make us xenophobic or heartless. How did the rush of thousands N African and Near Eastern men work for Europe?
That which is unsustainable will ultimately collapse. Dr. Milton Friedman, “You can have open borders. And, you can have a welfare state. But, you cannot have both.”
Back to the bombs, reportedly a suspect is in custody. Is he a Bernie bud or a Trumpster?
And, Liz Scheld, “These pseudo-bombs, coupled with the clumsy ‘targeting’ of lefty political celebrities and washed up politicians makes me think this was done by someone really, really dumb or a leftist who thinks that its an October surprise to turn the narrative to Trump’s ‘violence’.”
Of course, liberal imbeciles [redundant] strongly desire hope and change and fundamental transformation. To what end? Venezuela? Guatemala? Cuba?
Like “racist!” brainwashed zombies daily go bonkers over the liberal swear word du jour here “nationalist.”
If it’s a sin to love and honor America and our way of life, I hope to be among the gravest of sinners.
MPS, We in the USA are hardly a xenophobic nation. We are a nation of immigrants. W
My ancestors were (by and large) pioneers, colonists, and conquerors. When they were done clearing the land, chasing off the Indians, building towns, and erecting institutions, others immigrated to the society already built. Of course, all we’ve ever done is give other people a hard time when we weren’t leeching off them. At least that’s what I’ve been told. Ad nauseam.
This is at the root of its characteristic xenophobia and opposition to immigration, free trade and open borders.
Any conscientious person who understands himself as a member and joint custodian of the society in which he lives (and thrives) opposes open borders. The people who don’t are high-class types who feel no kinship with the ordinary working people in the countries in which they live (and, in fact, despise them, see Peter Sutherland) and asperger’s cases like Bryan Caplan who feel no real kinship with anyone. You want to live in a hostel? Go to the Persian Gulf. Most of the population consists of guest workers who circulate in and out on three year rotation.
Geographic segregation is how culturally compatible people thrive and how they negotiate relations with people who are not compatible.
While we’re at it, what specious drivel are you going to serve us explaining why you voted with Alex Salmond and his Peronist claque to secede from the UK?
Pretty much by definition, an American can’t be both xenophobic and a proud supporter of the American tradition.
We’re a bunch of folks from a wide range of nations and cultures that choose the cultural framework of the United States of America; the bits of our ancestor-cultures that conflict are trimmed off, the rest flourishes.
George Washington was a nice example of this in his…well, scold to the folks that were doing Guy Fawkes day, or the ooo-rah letter to the Hebrew congregation in Rhode Island.
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Americans, as a group, don’t care where you were born, where you call home or what race you identify as– we care how you act.
Which is what pisses the activists off, because then they have to notice that culture isn’t funny food and pretty clothes, it’s a world-view.
I just spent this morning with a lady from Trinidad, since she’s the head of our home-school group. Several of the other ladies are also not born in the US. One of them could be my sister, and the only one I don’t like as actually born in the US- she just chooses to live by the culture of Mexico, especially when it comes to “respect my culture, but I don’t have to respect yours.” Even then, I don’t dislike her, must less have an intense and/or irrational dislike of her.