Friday, May 27, 2011
I DON'T BELIEVE YOU—YOU'RE A LIAR: An interesting question I saw someone pose on a message board recently and I've been batting around with friends: prior to Adolf Hitler, who was America's go-to "so-and-so is worse than [X]" historical comparison in common parlance? Related, before one could be considered as smart as Einstein or a rocket scientist, what individuals and professions were similarly esteemed?
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I'm going to open the bidding with "the Kaiser".
ReplyDeleteI was coming to type the same thing, but that probably only gets you back to WWI. Before that, I wouldn't be surprised if below the Mason-Dixon line it was Lincoln, and, maybe Jefferson Davis in the North.
ReplyDeleteStill trying to parse the Dylan reference - unless that's your guess, Adam?
ReplyDeleteBack when Wilson proposed the WorldStateLeagueOfNations, true patriots matched with signs likening him to George III.
ReplyDeleteRasputin has to get some votes, right? And never forget a classic: Satan.
ReplyDelete<span>Back when Wilson proposed the WorldStateLeagueOfNations, true patriots marchedched with signs likening him to George III. </span>
ReplyDeleteBack when Comrade Wilson proposed the OneStateLeagueOfNations, true Patriots marched with signs likening him to George III. (Indeed, they claimed he was BOTH a monarchist and an anarcho-syndicalist, which makes no sense whatsoever.)
ReplyDelete1. Benedict Arnold?
ReplyDelete2. Ben Franklin?
I imagine there was more demographic variatin prior to the emergence of America as a world power and the revelation of the genocidal madness of Nazi Germany. Satan. King George. The Pope. I'm sure avatars of variously despised minorities (be they indigenous people, sectarian rivals, more recent immigrants, old-world enemies, etc.) had currency in one social group or another.
ReplyDeleteIvan the Terrible? Maybe Genghis Khan.
ReplyDeleteUnless it turns out Edison was a smug jerk with his telegraph and non-tipping chair.
One friend posited that pre-Hitler, there was no one go-to figure of evil and it depended on the type of evil being displayed. For betrayal, it's Benedict Arnold or Judas. For mass murder and brutality, maybe Genghis Khan or Atilla the Hun. Etc.
ReplyDelete"Play it f***ing loud!"
ReplyDeleteLikewise, who was the exemplar of loose morals and slovenly personal habits before Your Mom?
ReplyDeleteEve.
ReplyDeleteI think I remember that in reading Golden Age comic books, they do tend to use "Attila" as shorthand for brutality, so I'll co-sign. Judas is another. Also, "the Jews."
ReplyDeleteYour grandma.
ReplyDeleteThere's also the common phrase "to the right of Attila the Hun," although that seems to me to be a modern invention born of something other than Attila's actual political leanings (which, without getting into verboten topics, don't seem to match up very well with, um, anyone).
ReplyDeleteMerely "liking" this comment (and Emily & Heather K's below responses) feels inadequate for how hard it made me laugh. Well-played, people.
ReplyDeleteDante had Brutus, Judas, and Cassius in the lowest ring of hell, which my iPad wants to spell as he'll.
ReplyDeleteI strongly suspect it was either Ghengis Khan or Napolean -- after the great European wars of the 20th century, people tend to forget that Napolean raised an army that was an order of magnitude larger than anything Europe had previously seen, and that for 10 years, he was totally unstoppable.
ReplyDeleteThe "worse than Hitler" phrasing is very much a concept of postmodern irony. I don't think there's an early twentieth century version. Remember, the idea that satire and other forms of offensive speech merited legal protection is a relatively recent development. There's no 1890s version of Paul Krassner.
ReplyDelete