Okay, this is starting to piss me off...

I've seen this picture on one blog too many now and I must comment.
This is sort of related to something that I've seen American libertarians do too so I can talk about that too..

The sign reads “Would we have allowed NAZI GERMANY TO HOST THE OLYMPICS?”

First of all, in rigorous debate, it's usually in bad taste (i.e., I will think less of you) to make comparisons to anything related to Nazis. It's just too easy. Too emotional.

But anyways, what these bloggers are all doing I guess is pointing and you know... “heh heh... you idiot we already let the nazis do that...”
That is assuming that “we” means humanity... or something...
But I'm pretty sure that that's not what this sign means... They couldn't be that stupid... and anyways, there's a logical explanation... I'm pretty sure that “we” means us. You and me. Us. people right here and now. Yes the International Olympic Committee and the governments of the world then made a mistake and let the Olympics go on in Nazi Germany but that wasn't us. We're not going to do that. We're going to say no.
That's what I think that sign is saying.

I don't think it means “Did we let Nazi Germany host the Olympics?”
It would have said that if it meant that...
Saying would sort of poses it as a question to the reader here and now... not some sort of eternal question for all times and all the people who ever existed and ever will exist...

And of course if you've spent much time around Americanlibertarians you gotta ask “what do you mean ‘we’?”
I don't really worry about that much... I mean it's a good point to make—yes that is an interesting sociolinguistic phenomenon... but I'm not going to be a dick and run around correcting people whenever politics comes up... I mean when people are talking about this stuff they're working within a paradigm that assumes you agree with them on some basic principles... so it's not that absurd... and then if they keep saying it out of habit...

Yeah..

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