Are We Missing Something, Or Has Baron Bodissey Gone Completely Insane This Time?
It looks like Baron Bodissey had too much root beer last night and made some unwise Google choices, because he’s gone beyond his usual fusty racist paranoia and achieved gabbling lunacy. Let’s poke the wreckage tentatively with a stick.
That Fascist Pledge of Allegiance
by Baron BodisseyFascism and Nazism have deep roots, even in the United States of America.
Apparently so. As we’re about to learn, a hand gesture at the very root of Fascism and Nazism was used in the US long before anybody knew what it meant. And here’s the thing: It’s magical and its effects transcend time and space.
A compelling demonstration of this sad fact can be found in the seemingly innocuous Pledge of Allegiance, which was originated in 1892 by Francis Bellamy. Many Americans are unaware of the fascist origins of the Pledge.
Perhaps this unawareness stems from the fact that the Pledge of Allegiance was published in 1892, or maybe it’s also the fact that Bellamy was merely a Baptist minister hired by the merchandising department of the magazine, The Youth’s Companion, to sell flags to schools.
The photos at the left show American schoolchildren saying the Pledge of Allegiance during the first half of the 20th century. In those days, as you can see, pledging the flag included a gesture known as the “Bellamy Salute”, which was identical to the “Sieg Heil” salute made notorious by Hitler’s Nazi regime!
…Which attained power 41 years after the salute was introduced in America, proving that the Nazis were actually American schoolchildren. . .or was it the other way around?
Untold thousands of American schoolchildren were corrupted by this devious indoctrination until the U.S. government became aware of the practice and put a stop to it.
Whew! End of story, then.
Oh wait, no, there’s more.
According to the Veterans’ Administration website:
Originally, the pledge was said with the hand in the so-called “Bellamy Salute,” with the hand resting first outward from the chest, then the arm extending out from the body. Once Hitler came to power in Europe, some Americans were concerned that this position of the arm and hand resembled the salute rendered by the Nazi military. In 1942, Congress established the current practice of rendering the pledge with the right hand placed flat over the heart.
Obviously, anybody who ever engaged in this kind of proto-Nazi behavior has been tainted by the practice and should be considered unfit for any decision-making position in our nation’s public affairs.
Meaning, everyone who attended school in America between 1892 and 1943. For example, Ronald Reagan. Also for example: Every member of the Eisenhower, Truman, and Kennedy administrations, every living or deceased World War II veteran, and probably Carey Roberts, who graduated high school in 1892.
Most Americans are unaware of — and would be shocked by — how many of their respected political leaders have engaged in this repugnant practice.
Not as shocked as when they find out about the so-called ‘Native Americans’:
Above: NAZOMG!
But wait, it seems like the Baron is about to make his main point — a point that perhaps he was cleverly setting up all along, even when it looked for all the world as though he was just strolling disinterestedly through the vales of history, commenting on whatever took his fancy.
Yes, it does seem like he has a point coming up here.
Historians have tentatively identified at least two current political leaders in the above photos. In the top photo, the boy who is second from the left (in the back) appears to be Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI). In the bottom photo, the seventh child in the fifth row back is thought to be none other than Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA).
I believe I speak for all of us when I say, what the fuck…!??
Is this a joke? I’m looking for a sign that this is a joke. Where am I? Who’s the object of this humor — is it us? Is it Crazy Upside-Down Day today, and Baron Bodissey is celebrating by making fun of something in a bizarre reversal of the natural order of things? (I.e., people making fun of Baron Bodissey.)
Citizens should demand that the leadership of our country be cleansed of former proto-Nazis. There is no place in public office for anyone with this kind of stain on his or her record.
[Hanx! TomMil]
Update: Upon further study, we must invoke #1 on Conservapedia’s instructional list, Examples of Liberal Style:
1. calling conservative humor “unprofessional and meaningless, and degrades the quality of your encyclopedia.”
Baron Bodissey making fun of Little Green Footballs for being too squeamish about allying with neo-Nazi groups is funny in so many ways we can’t count them unprofessional and meaningless, and additionally, conservative humor is very degrades-the-quality-of-your-encyclopedia.
Update II: Holy moly.
Seventh child in the fifth row back? You can’t even see their faces back there!
On the one hand, I wanna think he’s joking. It’s just that he’s even more inept at humor than your average bushbot blogger.
On the other hand, the way the bushbot bloggers are, he probably really believes that Levin and Kennedy are Manchurian Baby Nazi Candidates.
Evidence? Brain seizure, I guess. Brain seizures explain so much about the Republicans these days.
I think — I think — that Baron Mordo is engaging in that beloved right-wing meme of implying that liberals believe that since America has done bad things in the past, it should never be allowed to do anything else ever again. But being who he is, he is doing it in the most ham-handed, clumsy way imaginable.
But I could be wrong. Accessing that guy’s thought patterns, such as they are, is always a risky endeavor.
The mind boggles.
Goddamn, and it turns out the Ancient Romans were all Nazis too – so Nazi they actually invented the damned salute.
And here was me thinking they were just drink-sodden pagan hooligans.
Obviously, anybody who ever engaged in this kind of proto-Nazi behavior has been tainted by the practice and should be considered unfit for any decision-making position in our nation’s public affairs.
It’s like the horror movie where the guy gets his hands amputated and get the hands of a Mu-u-u-r-r-derer grafted onto his wrists, and the hands have a life of their own!!!!!
If you’ve ever extended your arm out in that position, some insidious chemical invades your brain and turns you into a Nazi!!! Even if you did it before there were Nazis!
Just think of how many Nazis populated the earth going back into ancient history. I’ts a good thing they all died before the real Nazis came along.
Is it possible this guy is writing satire? I can’t go over there, really, I can’t.
Read the comments over there – this is his attempt at a sardonic shot at Chaz and LGF over the whole “Ron Paul hangs out with Nazis” brouhaha. Not a great one, but at least it makes sense in that context. That whole fiasco just keeps getter more fun every day.
— TP in UT
“…seventh child in the fifth row back…” is the giveaway. As is, “Historians have tentatively identified…” It’s too idiotic. He must be playing us. But is he that clever?
I wondered where the writer was going with this. I guess this was a long setup to prove once and for all that Ted Kennedy and Karl Levin are the true believers of the Third Reich.
Two things come to mind:
1) Like the flying rodent said, this is an older salute than the writer cared indicate. Yes the Roman military seems to have saluted like this. On an interesting aside, early Christians prayed by lifting both hands up to or above their heads. Clasping the hands together came after that – so that all must mean something nefarious too?
2) There was/is a movement in right-wing circles to bring back this salute when saying the Pledge. Mostly in the Christian reconstructionist movements, white power movements, and other assorted crazies that inhabit the far right side of the spectrum. Perhaps the writer forgot about those instances in the heady zeal to brand two old Senators as junior freikorp members?
Dude, it just HAS to be satire. Not even a consertive blogger can be this completely insane. Well, perhaps I paint with too broad a brush, but in this case it HAS to be satire, it just HAS to be! If you came up with this I’d be laughing so hard I’d soil myself.
Also.. the first sentence you wrote in this thread brought me near to said soiling. You are one of the most hilarious writers out there, and if you aren’t writing a book you had best get your ass in gear and start one now. Maybe it’s all the Simpson’s references, but I think you’re a comic genius.
Yes, indeed, Carl Levin– a Jewish man–is a proto-Nazi. Well done, wingnuts. Well done.
I invoke literal Characteristic #38. Which is rapidly becoming my favorite number ever.
Dude, no one mention to Baron how much Nazi technology is used in the modern US military arsenal. His little head would explode. Seriously. And once blood/grey matter mixes with Cheetos dust, it forms a fast-setting hard mixture not unlike concrete.
EFF!!! That’s “liberal” Characteristic #38. Goddamn piss-shit poor HTML spell check thing.
Update: In the comments, he more or less confesses that it was satire. Said he was too “deadpan”.
fusty racist paranoia
or rusty fascist paranoia — it works either way, really.
“Let’s poke the wreckage tentatively with a stick.”
Genius.
I think that if the Nazis really took their inspiration from early 20th-century American schoolchildren, then its true that Nazi supermen are our superiors.
He’s trolling.
No one can actually believe that, right?
Right?
…. um.
He is attempting to make a funny at Chuckle’s expense.
That’s the problem with these wingnuts. You can never be too sure of their motivations.
Extra Credit: Help historians find the following people in these photos: Alice Cooper, George Soros, George Clooney, Nancy Pelosi, Studs Terkel, Tom Smothers, Billie Jean King.
Think of the possibilities, people! If the Nazis of the 30’s and 40’s turned American schoolchildren of the 1890’s into fascists by virtue of their shared hand gestures, just think of the mischief we could engage in, transforming millions of historical figures into evil-doers by co-opting their hand gestures, hair styles, or dance steps and turning them into badges of iniquity by doing evil with them!!
I for one am ready to start! What hand gestures should we use? How about the Texas longhorns “hook ’em horns?” Oh, no, wait, that one’s already been done.
How about the really annoying Arsenio Hall show “Whoop whoop” with the rotating fist-punch thing? Can we turn that into a commie manifesto?
Or “Talk to the hand” – that one’s so annoying, anyway, if we just have some totalitarian regime use it for a dance move, we can retroactively condemn hundred of female rappers.
Hook ’em horns
Bet you didn’t know UT fans were Satanists, did you? Evil doers!
“deadpan” my ass. I may be less Irish than the Baron (he says his deadpan humor is from his Irish mom), but his satire is just play awful. The jury has been ‘in’ in wingnut humor for years now. It blows.
In comments, the Good Baron states that it was satire. Conservative Humor: so funny, you can’t even tell if it’s a joke. It’s like a feedback Möbius Strip of Hilarity or some shit. THINK ABOUT IT.
I don’t see Kennedy, but I think I found Waldo.
NAZOMG!
Heh. I’ll be laughing at that for days
I thought it was obviously an attempt at satire and then I read the comments and saw I was right. The problem is that it is such a pathetic attempt. Chuckles at LGF objects to associations with people who use this salute NOW as in, “in the present”. People who do such a thing are doing it as a tribute or homage to HITLER and the fucking Third Reich. They are people who don’t have a problem with skin lampshades and people soap. The Baron’s position is “Eh, no big deal. It’s just a hand gesture. See? Even little American kids did it in the early 20th Century. Chuck’s making a big deal out of nothing. You all should laugh at him for it.” I can’t believe I am defending LGF but this guy so goddamn dishonest they look like lambs.
He might as well say, “Oh whats the big idea of ovens for people? My grandmother bakes pie. Everyone likes pie. Is my grandmother a fascist? Heeyuck, HeeYuck !!”
The pledge of allegiance is most certainly fascist. Coercing children into making a show of fervent jingoism is exactly the sort of thing the nazis loved.
Don’t think. Just salute and mouth the words, and obey the fuhrer.
The more codified expressions of patriotism become, the less they mean. It’s a simple method that both american conservatives and german nazis used. Make nationalism big, noisy and simple, until expressing anything more subtle than “we rule, obey the leader” becomes an act of treason.
Surprisingly enough (or perhaps not) this tactic of meaningless ritual is very popular in pseudo-religious cults etc.
It’s like a feedback Möbius Strip of Hilarity or some shit. THINK ABOUT IT.
The fascinating thing about a Möbius Strip is that it starts out as two-dimensional, but ends up as one-dimensional by twisting inwards on itself.
(Nice insert of the dots above the ‘o’, by the way. I copy-pasted yours.)
Bodissey lifted the pledge-of-allegiance-is-fascism riff from the very strange Rex Curry site, which comes to us from deep in the realm of the tinfoil hats. This site does seem to be serious, as far as I can tell. If it’s a joke, Curry has waaaay too much time on his hands.
For those at work, be advised that Curry’s site includes some soft-core flag and swastika porn (hubba hubba!!!) – but those links are clearly marked.
A little bit of awesome from the comments at the “Baron’s” site:
So wait, LGF posters supported Robert Byrd, who showed himself to still be a racist at the end of his life?
Last I checked, Byrd wasn’t dead yet, and LGFers hated Democrats not named Lieberman or Zell almost as much as they hated brown people.
Ya, and that little girl there? On the right, with her arm in front of her face?
Barbara Bush.
It’s true, I tells ya!
Yours is a great post exposing the Pledge of Allegiance.
Pledge of Allegiance pictures http://rexcurry.net/pledge-allegiance-pledge-allegiance.jpg and Swastikas pictures http://rexcurry.net/swastika3clear.jpg expose shocking secrets about American history.
Socialists in the USA originated the Nazi salute, robotic group-chanting to flags, Nazism, flag fetishism, and the modern swastika as “S” symbolism for “Socialism.” http://rexcurry.net/pledge2.html
Much of that history is the history of the Pledge Of Allegiance. A new documentary video movie exposes the shocking facts on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BssWWZ3XEe4
Those historical facts explain the enormous size and scope of government today, and the USA’s growing police state and aggressive military socialism. They are reasons for massive reductions in government, taxation, spending and socialism.
The “Nazi salute” is more accurately called the “American salute” as it was created and popularized by national socialists in the USA. It was the early salute of the Pledge of Allegiance. The Pledge was written by Francis Bellamy. http://rexcurry.net/pledgetragedy.html Francis Bellamy was cousin and cohort of Edward Bellamy. http://rexcurry.net/pledgebackward.html Edward Bellamy and Francis Bellamy were self-proclaimed socialists in the Nationalism movement and they promoted military socialism.
They wanted the government to take over education and use it to spread their worship of government. When the government granted their wish, the government’s schools imposed segregation by law and taught racism as official policy. The official racism and segregation was a bad example three decades before the National Socialist German Workers Party, and decades afterward.
The Pledge was mandated by law in government schools for three decades before, and through, the creation of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. http://rexcurry.net/bellamy-edward-karl-marx.html
Many people do not know that the term “Nazi” means “National Socialist German Workers’ Party.” Members of the horrid group did not call themselves Nazis. In that sense, there was no Nazi Party. They also did not call themselves Fascists. They called themselves socialists, just as their name indicates.
The historian Dr. Rex Curry showed that the early Pledge Of Allegiance did not use an ancient Roman salute, and that the ‘ancient Roman salute’ myth came from the Pledge Of Allegiance. The discoveries have been reviewed and verified on wikipedia http://rexcurry.net/roman-salute-metropolitan-museum-of-art.html
The original pledge was anti libertarian and began with a military salute that then stretched out toward the flag. In actual use, the second part of the gesture was performed with a straight arm and palm down by children casually performing the forced ritual chanting. Due to the way that both gestures were used sequentially in the pledge, the military salute led to the Nazi salute. The Nazi salute is an extended military salute via the USA’s Pledge Of Allegiance.
Media coverage about the discoveries continues to grow http://rexcurry.net/audio-rex-curry-podcast-radio.html
Fan mail for work exposing the Pledge’s poisonous pedigree is at http://rexcurry.net/pledge_heart.html
And listen at http://odeo.com/audio/1747108/view
The Pledge’s early salute caused quite a Fuhrer/furor. The dogma behind the Pledge was the same dogma that led to the socialist Wholecost (of which the Holocaust was a part): 62 million slaughtered under the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; 49 million under the Peoples’ Republic of China; 21 million under the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. It was the worst slaughter of humanity ever.
People were persecuted (beatings, lynchings, etc) for refusing to perform robotic chanting to the national flag at the same time in government schools in the USA and Germany (to the American flag, and to the German swastika flag).
American socialists (e.g. Edward Bellamy and Francis Bellamy teamed with the Theosophical Society and Freemasons) bear some blame for altering the notorious symbol used as overlapping S-letters for “socialism” under the National Socialist German Workers Party.
http://rexcurry.net/swastika3clear.jpg
The same symbol was used by the Theosophical Society during the time when the Bellamys, Freemasons and the Theosophical Society worked together to promote socialism.
http://rexcurry.net/book1a1contents-swastika.html
They also originated and helped to spread the stiff arm salute via the Pledge of Allegiance at their meetings.
As German socialism’s notorious flag symbol, the swastika was deliberately turned 45 degrees to the horizontal and always oriented in the S-direction. Similar alphabetic symbolism is still visible as Volkswagen logos. http://rexcurry.net/swastika-audi-logo.JPG
The bizarre acts in the USA began as early as 1875 and continued through the creation of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (German Nazis or NSGWP). American soldiers used the swastika symbol in WWI (against Germany) and the symbol was used by the American military during WWII. http://rexcurry.net/45th-infantry-division-swastika-sooner-soldiers.html
The NSGWP had clear roots in National Socialism promoted by socialists in the USA. Amazing graphic images that prove the point are at http://rexcurry.net/theosophy-madame-blavatsky-theosophical-society.html
The USA is still the worst example in the world of bizarre laws that require robotic chanting to a national flag in government schools (socialist schools) every day for 12 years. It has changed generations of Americans from libertarians to authoritarians. The government bamboozled individuals into believing that collective robotic chanting in government schools daily is a beautiful expression of freedom. http://rexcurry.net/book1a1contents-pledge.html
Well, at least this explains why Obama doesn’t put his hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance (which was one of those “rumors” the Washington Post was airing yesterday): He’s a Nazi. A Nazi-Muslim! One who does the secret hand gesture instead! Invisibly, too, so no one can see him! Run away!
Dayv: I’ve read a number of wingnuts claim, without irony, that LGF is a “liberal” or “left-wing” site for the crime of being hesitant to sew swastikas onto their brown shirts. So yes, they seriously believe that LGF is associated with the Democratic Party — because their dividing line between left-wing and right-wing now rests on the issue of condoning Nazism.
God help us all.
The problem with doing humor well is to be snarky all the time or almost all the time (think Dave Barry or Gavin M) or you need to make your snark significantly different from your normal beliefs and style.
That’s the crux of the problem here. The baron normally babbles in fear about brown and/or non-Christian and/or sane people, so when he babbles in fear about a salute from the 1930’s, it seems like just more of the same.
Now, if he had writtien a rational and courageous piece, we could tell he was just joking.
I knew there was a reason I stopped saying the pledge in high school!
Or maybe it was because I’d read 1984 too many times and saying the pledge kind of creeped me out. I don’t remember, I was addled by antidepressants in those days.
Djur wrote:
That seems to be the prevailing attitude at Gates of Vienna. Comments like the one Davy quoted permeate the place.
Every time I think the wingnuts can’t get any weirder, they march another thirty miles deeper into the crazy swamp.
“Contrariness is creativity to the untalented” – Dennis Miller’s general observation about liberal behavior”
Takes one to know one
Will anyone help me photoshop Baron? I’m thinking of hosting a contest. Pic available at my place, 3rd post down now at “Gates of Vienna’s Wet Dream”. I just love all of the fantasy fiction he’s posting. His wife is holding a link to my site hostage, which I could care less about as long as I can publicly state that I want nothing to do with them. So I posted her weird email as well. Actually, her comments at LGFWatch recently were good enough comedy, honestly. These guys are REALLY into sending nutty emails.
Holy shit! Someone just mailed me a post by some “Dr. Sanity” person who is also being “threatened”….ROFL….shit, what are they going to do, show up at our doors? These people are so nuts it doesn’t even begin to be covered even in my mocking posts about them! Damn, I think they deserve a wingnut award or something. I wish they’d threaten with real threats in a way, but actually their weird threats, like not “delinking” me unless I come up with another identity (WTF?!?!) to post at their blog with are too funny to ask for a cessation. Oh well. Back to learning photoshop.
Oh, on that topic, I really need to talk to Lobbey….paging Lobbey….PLEASE mail me.
The pledge of allegiance is most certainly fascist. Coercing children into making a show of fervent jingoism is exactly the sort of thing the nazis loved.
Just what I thought. It wouldn’t have surprised me to learn that the Nazis adopted it from the Bellamy salute just for that reason, instead of the time-traveling other way around.
I did figure this was a “joke” on the Baron’s part. God help me, I might be getting some idea of what passes for humor among the wingnuts.
Actually I think the Nazis adopted their infamous salute because the Romans used it. Perhaps it came to them via Mussolini’s Fascists in Italy, who really had the Rome obsession, while the Nazis’ fixation was on an ancient group from Asia.
For what it’s worth, Hitler let the German army use the traditional salute, with the elbow bent and the hand at the brow, until someone tried to kill him during the war. Then he really cracked down and made everyone salute his way.
But yeah, I think the Hitler salute was part of their general nationalism.
Holy moly indeed. Can you say “implosion”?
And Winston Churchill was actually a hippie. That’s why he was going around flashing that peace sign at everyone.
Thanks for Update II. I thought it worthy of some attention. My threat from Baron’s not-so-better-half was just so fucking bizarre that I posted it here. I’m still not sure what the hell to make of her ‘threat’, other than to keep laughing my ass off.
Damn me for changing my blogger display name from “Pim’s Ghost” to my real (nick)name. Boy, I’m so disguised online it’s just crazy!
I love how when the wingnuts get called on their insanity they automatically revert to the “It was just a joke even though Rigel 7 is closer to funny!!!” meme.
Satire or serious-that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever read.
Heh. Dr. Sanity – known for her keen insight into the liberal psyche – with dangerous loonies for friends.
From the link in the 2nd update, Dr. Sanity says, “The world’s greatest intellectual achievements sometimes come about as the result of disagreement–even passionate disagreement. Demanding that we all walk in lockstep on an issue is a sure path to intellectual mediocrity.” Soon after which this quack follows with, “NO COMMENTS WILL BE ALLOWED ON THIS THREAD. NOR WILL I MAKE ANY FURTHER POSTS ON THIS ISSUE. As far as I am concerned, the matter ends here“. Uh, is the statement, “Physician heal thyself” out of line here? My experience is that a significant number of the population that enters the field of psychology/psychiatry do so to figure out what the hell is wrong with them. This woman is a case study.
er does so
Sanity Squad? Who says wingnuts don’t do irony?
My elderly neighbour has a little square moustache and kind of combs his hair to the side. He loves animals and I’m pretty sure he’s a vegan.
The Korean guy who runs the variety store waved at me from across the street the other day. Except it wasn’t a wave…it was the international sign of the proto-Nazi. Surely he can’t believe I’m a fellow traveler?
Now that I think about it, a lot of people gesture in that way from a distance around here. Am I living in the Village of the Proto-Nazis? Who will believe me? I must tell the Prime Minister…but can he be trusted?
Wow. Update II, I mean… WOW
These people could not be bigger losers.
TomMil: completely agree about those who pursue psychology as a career path.
Well, I’ve at least finally been labeled as the “Stalker blog” for GoV (winger speak for watch sites). Boy am I glad that that’s all cleared up….LOL. I must have missed that memo on mockery = stalking. As for their little fan trashing “dregs from the 3rd world” and being in favor of “forced deportations” of said “dregs”, I forget what thread I left the quotes in…..ah well. I still think I’ll host the Baron photoshop contest. Why not.
The Holy Moly link is worth clicking if only to discover Dymphina using the magic phrase
“Belgian intel psyops”
I nominate that as another “Sadly No!” subheading.
The next CJ post should have him with a giant waffle and the caption “Charles Johnson under the influence of Belgian intel psyops”
Of course they consider Lewin a Nazi… on the far right any Jewish person who doesn’t blindly support every action of Israel is liable to be called a Nazi. The insanity of it doesn’t seem to be apparent to these people.
Maybe conservatives REALLY ARE reptilian body snatchers. That would at least explain a few things.
So this guy is a wingnut, he’s just doing a parody of people who say we can’t do the Roman salute in post-Hitler times by showing that people did the Roman salute in pre-Hitler times?
Also, saying the Nazis were socialist is liking saying North Korea is democratic. LOL it’s in the name!
I’m fairly sure this fellow isn’t giving a pre-WWII Pledge of Allegiance salute.
Or this fellow either.