With the release of his newest film, “Inglorious Basterds” (which sees a unit of Jewish-American soldiers, known as “The Basterds,” heading to Europe to scalp, butcher, and intimidate the Nazis), Quentin Tarantino has been accused of revising history, perverting memory, and treading on the sacred.

Critic Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times claims Tarantino created “a self-indulgent piece of violent, alternate history.” Other reviewers echo his distaste, while moviegoers, commenting online, also seem disappointed. One writes, “I find it patronizing that [Tarantino] felt that it was necessary to contrive a story about Jewish blood thirsty revenge to make his point.”

But that’s not why people are angry about Tarantino’s Holocaust revenge fantasy: its critics, I believe, fear the ignorance of 21^st century audiences.

And maybe they should: the news is full of extremists who are convinced President Barack Obama is trying to murder their grandparents, reckless xenophobes claiming the president was not born in the States and is therefore illegally occupying the White House, feckless zealots convinced that Obama is a secret Muslim and socialist. They have called him a friend of terrorists and accused him of being a racist. But most appallingly, a sizeable faction of the American Right is comparing Obama to Hitler.

In a 2008 interview with the Associated Press, one week after Obama was elected president, Congressman Paul Broun strangely likened Obama to both Adolf Hitler, the fascist, and Karl Marx, the father of communism. Prior to Broun’s comments, in April of 2008, Ann Coulter appeared on “Hannity and Colmes” to compare Obama’s autobiography to a “dime store ‘Mein Kampf.’” When Alan Colmes asked her if Obama was a “two-bit Hitler,” Coulter agreed. Colmes then asked: “We should be as wary of Obama as they should have been of Hitler in Nazi Germany?” Coulter forewarned, “If only people had read ‘Mein Kampf.’”

Now as Obama attempts to bring health care to the American people, the vitriol of the extreme right has only deepened. The leaders of this movement have fomented fear in their followers by converting mobs of the Republican faithful into a dangerous anti-health care reform movement. Does the far right hate Obama’s policies, or do they hate Obama himself? As Jimmy Carter dared to argue recently, might they hate that the president of the country they love is a black man?

The rhetoric of four of the top five Heavy Hundred radio hosts (the 2009 rankings of Talkers Magazine put Rush Limbaugh at #1, Sean Hannity at #2, Michael Savage at #3 and Glenn Beck at #5) seems to suggest the latter. The most listened-to radio shows in America are platforms for the neo-conservative agenda, and serve as breeding grounds for fear and misinformation.

Glenn Beck, who has called Obama “a racist,” has also questioned whether the president’s actions are comparable to Hitler’s. Rush Limbaugh has claimed there are “gazillions of similarities” between Obama’s health care plan and the one under Nazi Germany, down to the logo itself (he points to the eagle on both). Michael Savage has accused Obama of planning to form a personal army, similar to the SS (Savage’s hate speeches on other topics, by the way, have gotten him barred from England). Sean Hannity is more or less your carbon-copy hate-spitting ideologue, warping every comment Obama dares to make.

The extreme left also has its culprits. Lyndon Larouche is the one responsible for arming activists with Obama-as-Hitler mustache posters and other propaganda linking Obama to the Nazi party. Larouche goes so far as to compare Obama’s health care plan to the Nazis’ euthanasia program — Action T-4 — which Sarah Palin fed to her Facebook faithfuls as “death panels.”

Following Obama’s health care speech on September 9^th, Palin’s Facebook page was a podium for tirades. When I viewed it, the most recent comment from a Palin fan compared Obama to half a dozen of the world’s worst despots, Hitler included. In the classic Palin style of inventing political “facts,” some Alaskan parents claimed that Obama — by speaking to students on the first day of school — was trying to indoctrinate their children, just like Hitler did. Other conservative parents around the country echoed this cry. (It should be noted that when Bush senior spoke to students nearly two decades ago on the first days of school, he was not compared to Hitler…or any other evil dictator).

The reckless slander spewed by right wing ideologues has mobilized Republican foot soldiers. Those who once shouted “terrorist” and “off with his head” about Obama during the John McCain rallies of yesteryear are now armed with dangerous metaphors at town hall meetings. And they’re not always being contradicted by the politicians hosting the meetings: Barney Frank may have gratifyingly shut down one constituent, but Iowa Senator Charles Grassley let an Obama/Hitler comparison pass without objection.

Town halls were once considered essential to a democracy, places where the public could gather to meet with politicians and have actual discussions about issues like health care. After this past summer, town halls may forever be associated with bigoted lunacy.

Behind the town hall armies are also the myriad conservative bloggers. Googling the words “Obama is Hitler” yields 309,000 results. Try “I Hate Obama” and you’ll find four times the number of links than for “I Hate Osama.”

So, to clear up the confusion, how about a quick review straight out of high school global studies?

Hitler suspended Habeas Corpus and basic freedoms when he took power. Obama has made efforts to shut Guantanamo, a detention camp that violates the American ideal of Habeas Corpus, and he has defended our personal freedoms despite the hate speech and outright lies flooding town halls, websites, and Congress.

Hitler hated Jews. Obama has seventeen Jews high up in his administration, including his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, and senior advisor, David Axelrod, and at the start of Rosh Hashanah, Obama even recorded a greeting to the Jewish people, wishing them “a healthy, peaceful, and sweet New Year” (which you can be sure Hitler never did).

Hitler set up concentration camps. Even though far right radio host and virulent lunatic Alex Jones predicts that Obama will do the same, it should go without saying that, well, he won’t.

Hitler rid himself of the opposition by ordering political executions. Obama has listened to the wrath of the right, and has not retaliated against Republican leaders like Texas Governor Rick Perry (who threatened secession) or Representative Michele Bachman of Minnesota (who is concerned about “reeducation camps for young people”).

Hitler breathed propaganda. Obama is being destroyed by it. Hitler murdered millions of people. Obama is offering health care to millions of citizens.

It seems, sadly, that the only similarity between Hitler and Obama is that their tenure in office led to a rise in hate, though obviously for different reasons. But look: no matter how many times people claim otherwise, Obama is not Hitler (or Stalin or Mussolini). Hitler is Hitler. Relentless, irresponsible comparisons trivialize Hitler’s actual, historically documented actions, and make light of the millions who perished during the Holocaust.

Whether or not these ridiculous, wanton remarks weaken Obama’s administration, only time will tell. But what the past has shown quite clearly is that certain people will alter history to corrupt the present. In the future, this same group may look at films like Tarantino’s violent opus, and call them history.

Photo by John_Stephen_Dwyer