Public stupidity:"Muslim terrorists scarier than Nazis were"

I'm not surprised that the republicans rated more delusional, but its still depressing.

At what insane asylum was this poll taken?

Poll of a random sample of Americans, I'm afraid (or a poll like any other one, in short)..

Mid-Feb of this year? You're right, it is scary. And embarrassing.

I'm stunned.

Someone asked me today if I thought my views were representative of most Americans and I said I thought maybe half. Now I have to go tell him how wrong I was.

I think that poll makes sense. The nazis were doing their thing over fifty years ago, and muslim terrorists are today's boogeymen. I think the further in the past something gets, the less "real" it appears to people.

Maybe it was just a knee-jerk answer. But still, the Nazis controlled the government of an industrialized nation -- a democracy. They had a huge army, death camps, and trains. Terrorists have the power (as all criminals do) to disrupt our lives and cause destruction, but they can't control us. A government in the hands of sickos can control us. And that's scary.

Another factor that might have gotten people to choose as they did is that the terrorists are HERE! The Nazis were over there.

Still, ya gotta wonder how people can make this choice. Ignorance ain't always bliss. Sometimes it can be a form of self-delusion.

I suppose (besides that polls can lead to any result) that the time factor is significant ...

The poll is comparing apples and onions and has little significance. The terrorist threat is now and here in the states. While the Nazi's were for most in the long past and something people read about. In addition it never had the impact in the sates as it had in Europe.

What was so scary about the Nazi's in the 1930's?

On reading the question, I had to stop and think about when they came to power and when and why they became scary to the US. For the most part the Nazi's weren't scary in the 1930's. They were a radical government in a far away place. I had to look it up but Neville Chamberlain declared "peace in our time" in 1938. They didn't invade France until 1940.

Putting it in context of the time frame and my initial response to the question to think of 1935 when asked about the 1930's, I guess I would have answered terrorists today or the same.

The Nazi's had a country. You could fly in and bomb a nazi headquarters. If you were on the street with a nazi, it was obvious by the uniform. Nazi's followed the rules of war. Nazi's, for the most part, were mere soldiers drafted into service and forced to follow orders from a single insane maniac. (insert appropriate notes for the particularly sensitive that have to nit pick every single word I type while completely ignoring what is being said. If that applies to YOU, please do not respond to this post.)

Islamic terrorists do none of the above. They hide amongst civilian populations, they have no country to bomb, they only use the rules of war when captured and don't want to die. They send their children off to blow themselves up at random in open civilian areas. Terrorists are religious fanatics that have no care for anything but the destruction of their target.

Terrorists are far more "scary" due to the randomness and violence of their attacks. Ask any victim of their actions their opinion.

I don't think that the nazis ot the terrorists were or are scary. I think they're merely acting out to cover their sadness and the fact that they didn't get enough hugs growing up.

I would like for McGentrix to go give them a hug.

The Muslim extremists are doing the work the Nazi's just wouldn't do.

Be your pizza delivery guy for a while and then blow you up? Sure I'll do that.

so it really is an immigation problem?

Immigration is a scary, scary thing. :wink:

well if it's true that these muslim terrorists are here doing the jobs others won't do.... won't our valiant war president then want to give them amnesty of some sort?

Hell, by the time they were half-finished, they had a continent. How scary is that?

(As scary as that Islamic Caliphate would be that the Islamists pine for, if it ever came to be...)

The Nazis were still scarier - they were highly industrialized and scientific. That's how you discover new and interesting ways to kill lots of people.

Cycloptichorn

Well, at any rate, the Russians were far scarier then either.