Conservatives had a field day over what initially seemed like a perplexing tweet from Ed Schultz. But upon closer review, the tweet was probably inarticulate more than anything else.
The tweet was sent on Monday from the official account for Schultz’s MSNBC program and it included an observation that, by itself, appeared to minimize the plight of the millions of Jewish interned and killed during the Holocaust.
“Gay people were really the ones being persecuted in Hitler’s Germany,” read the tweet, which included a screengrab from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s website.
It was promptly deleted, but conservative journalists picked it up.
“The MSNBC host Godwined himself before anyone else even said a word with a tweet where he informed the world of who was the ‘real’ target of Hitler’s Final Solution,” wrote Breitbart’s Warner Todd Huston.
“Waiting for Ed Schultz to explain that Irish indentured servants were the real victims of slavery,” snarked National Review’s Jonah Goldberg.
Matt Drudge blared the news to his legions of dedicated followers.
MSNBC HOST: Gays ‘really the ones being persecuted in Hitler’s Germany’… http://t.co/g7kXpfdc7b
— DRUDGE REPORT (@DRUDGE_REPORT) May 13, 2014
Was Schultz really suggesting that homosexuals, and not Jews, were the major targets of the Third Reich?
A subsequent tweet from the “Ed Show” account offered a clue of what Schultz (or his team) was trying to say. It provided a preview of an upcoming segment on the program about Rep. Louie Gohmert’s (R-TX) comparison of LGBT advocates to Nazis.
NEXT on #edshow → @replouiegohmert compares #LBGT advocates to… http://t.co/m9Gl1Vwx2F #Pretenders #teamedshow
— Ed Schultz (@edshow) May 12, 2014
In a floor speech last week, Gohmert complained that opponents of same-sex marriage have been labeled “haters.” He said Nazis also gave those they persecuted similar labels.
When Schultz addressed Gohmert’s comments on-air, he used identical language to the deleted tweet and cited figures from the Holocaust Memorial Museum.
“Louie is a little short on his Nazi history. Gay people were really the ones being persecuted in Hitler’s Germany, according to the United States Holocaust Museum,” Schultz said. “Between 5,000 and 15,000 gay men were interned in concentration camps in Nazi Germany. These prisoners were marked by pink triangle badges. According to many survivor accounts, homosexuals were among the most abused groups in the camps.”
“If Louie Gohmert thinks he’s being persecuted the same way the Jews were being persecuted, he can keep on pretending,” Schultz continued.
Thing is, he is not totally wrong. The Nazi’s went after anyone not Arion. Jews were the main focus of his policies and paranoia but communists, the handicapped and homosexuals were treated just the same as the others. Well, to varying degrees. Some were sent to camps, some exiled, executed and so on. But none of them were treated well.
He just really worded that poorly making it seem like it was an absolute statement. I really just do not like people comparing things to facist or Nazi Germany. It is used to much and takes away from what happened. I think conservatives are by far the most guilty with their generalized comparisons, but some liberals are guilty too. The ratio is extremely weighted though.
So…Gomer makes a stupid comment, Ed Schultz is inarticulate and wingnuts who have made careers out of out-Godwin-ing each other make up a story based on inaccurate information in order to blar-har-har at liberals…
In other words, it’s Tuesday.
Pundit class chases own tail, film at 11.
I see the point he was trying to make, but Twitter is not a good place to make a complex argument, Ed. Ever. EVER, EVER. Perhaps pass that nugget along to your team for next time, huh?
Seems pretty clear to me. The King of the Wingnuts takes the position that present day gays are the counterpart of Germany’s Nazis, a total reverse of the proper analogy as the Nazis were the persecutors and current (and past) gays are the persecuted. Schultz simply reminds us of recent history in which the Nazis did persecute gays, and many others, and the mouth breathers go wild. It takes only a pale understanding of 20th century history and the the ability to ‘get’ the point of an analogy, but we’re talking about the modern GOP so…
Another MSNBC moron that needs to apologize? You don’t say…you don’t say…