The Use of Adolf Hitler’s Words to Dismiss/Ignore Arguments

A very common method used by Nationalists and anti-Semites to ignore arguments or as a ‘get out of jail free card’ in a debate is the quotation of Adolf Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’. It is important to understand this quotation, because of the frequency of its use to get out of bad positions when debating opponents (or each other), which is usually the result of sloppy research and broad statements being made: without the specific knowledge and/or ability to evidence and clarify them.

This quotation in full (it is often given in part) is as follows:

‘The more I argued with them, the better I came to know their dialectic. First they counted on the stupidity of their adversary, and then, when there was no other way out, they themselves simply played stupid. If all this didn't help, they pretended not to understand, or, if challenged, they changed the subject in a hurry, quoted platitudes which, if you accepted them, they immediately related to entirely different matters, and then, if again attacked, gave ground and pretended not to know exactly what you were talking about. Whenever you tried to attack one of these apostles, your hand closed on a jelly-like slime which divided up and poured through your fingers, but in the next moment collected again. But if you really struck one of these fellows so telling a blow that, observed by the audience, he couldn't help but agree, and if you believed that this had taken you at least one step forward, your amazement was great the next day. The Jew had not the slightest recollection of the day before, he rattled off his same old nonsense as though nothing at all had happened, and, if indignantly challenged, affected amazement; he couldn't remember a thing, except that he had proved the correctness of his assertions the previous day.’ (1)

This quotation might at first glance appear to support the contention that it can be used to ignore arguments. However, if we examine it closely we begin to comprehend Hitler’s meaning. In that when the quotation states the jewish Marxists lost the argument, but then returned again and again with the same arguments the days after, no matter how many times they were defeated or corrected, with the recollection that they - the jews and/or Marxists in question - had in fact won the argument the previous day. What Hitler is actually talking about is repetition of the same arguments that have been answered as in simply repeating old claims without answering objections and/or modifying the assertion/argument in the light of new information.

What Hitler is not saying here is that if a claim/assertion/argument is considered ‘jewish’ by someone - i.e., a wholly subjective interpretation and only partially valid for an expert in the jewish question (i.e., somebody who has spent many years in-depth as well as primary research regarding the jews) - then it can countered/debunked by claiming the person making the claim/assertion/argument is in fact jewish and parroting jews.

This statement of what Hitler is not saying is the meaning often attached by Nationalists - who think he meant what I have stated he did not mean - to the quotation. What Hitler is making here is an observation about jewish and Marxist strategy when debating, which is to make a long series of claims, but when challenged on them. The jew/Marxist in question simply repeats bland assertions without factoring in coherent evidenced critique or answering the objections point by point. Then as an optional point - that again we often still see today - the jew and/or marxist will come back after a time and simply repeat the same old arguments that have been answered without answering or even recollecting the objections (often ignoring them entirely).

This is what Hitler speaks of when he discusses how the claims were repeated, but yet when coherent critique was offered: the arguments made by jews and Marxists seemed to be made of jelly and nothing solid or substantial. By this he means that the jews were repeating the same assertions and platitudes after having admitted they were false the day before having no actual evidence to support them. By using this quotation as an excuse to not answer your critics/detractors you in fact become the same as the jew and/or Marxist that Adolf Hitler is talking about in these very lines.

This quote is not an excuse not to answer your detractors and critics, but rather it is a declaration that you must and that by repeating arguments ad infinitum but not addressing or taking account of counterarguments presented, you are acting like the jews and/or marxists that Hitler so aptly describes. I dare say Adolf Hitler would have been quite sickened by the use of his words to avoid debate with jews and/or Marxists rather than to attack to the eternal enemies of the Aryan race in a measured and rational military manner.

If you have any real respect for Adolf Hitler as a man, as a writer and as an ideal then you would not use the words of this truly great man as an excuse for your own failings. Aryan men and women are honest, true and good: they don’t hide behind the great men of the past and certainly not the hero the Second World War. If you don’t know something or make a mistake then admit it and be honest: do your research and work hard. Please don’t act like a jew and hide in a corner trying to invoke the name of Adolf Hitler to silence your opponent: it is utterly repugnant.

References

(1) Adolf Hitler, ‘Mein Kampf’, pp. 63-64