Hey Everyone: Stop Freaking Out That Mein Kampf Sells Well As An eBook

from the know-thy-enemy dept

Wed, Jan 29th 2014 1:00pm — Timothy Geigner

So, hey, you guys remember that Hitler guy from a while back? You know, the one who occasionally is posed as the KFC colonel, or who can be found ranting about the DMCA process, and is somehow worked into every bad argument about anyone with whom people are in a disagreement? Well, it turns out he was also a guy who, years back, was a real bastard and sometimes enjoyed writing down exactly how and why to be a bastard just like him. Those writings were called Mein Kampf, the manifesto that later became the blueprint for the Nazi party, who, as you know, were organized around the idea that a political party could, in fact, personify evil. Then America, all by themselves, with absolutely no help from Britain or Russia, dismantled Hitler's Germany and restored all that is right and beautiful to the world (history, as I learned it in American public schools...). After that period, reading Mein Kampf, or owning it, became taboo. Efforts were made in Germany, in fact, to ban the book outright. Being seen in public with a copy would be tantamount to accepting its ideals, because we humans apparently don't understand anything at all.

But now, in the era of eBooks, it turns out that Mein Kampf is a hit once more, and it has certain well-meaning advocacy groups chasing enemies that don't exist.

"While the academic study of Mein Kampf is certainly legitimate, the spike in ebook sales likely comes from neo-Nazis and skinheads idolizing the greatest monster in history," World Jewish Congress CEO Robert Singer told ABC News in an emailed statement. "We think that responsible companies shouldn't profiteer from the sales of hate books, or at least should donate the profits to help the victims of anti-Semitism, racism and other like bigotries," he said.

Put more simply, popularity of the book as recorded by sales numbers means that the Nazi movement is returning and no company should allow the book to be sold. Or, if they do allow it, they should donate all profits to those who fight bigotry. Bigot is an interesting word however, which is in part defined as "a person who strongly and unfairly dislikes other people, ideas, etc." You know, like someone who would label anyone buying a book of bad ideas and immediately decide those same people were deficient enough to not know they're bad ideas. Freedom of speech and thought is most important when it concerns speech and thought that is downright dastardly. After all, how are we to know who the bastards are if we don't allow the bastards to tell us they're bastards? Even more to the point, how are we to learn they're bastards if we don't listen to or read them? The entire phrase "Know thy enemy" apparently eludes Mr. Singer.

Which, as it turns out, is almost certainly besides the point. People aren't buying Mein Kampf on eBooks because they're neo-Nazis. They're interested in one of the most well-known historical figures of our time and they can finally read the book, while disagreeing with it, on the subway without everyone else looking at them like they were the scum you clean out of your bathtub.

"The popularity of the digital Ford translation of Mein Kampf has surged due to academic interest in the subject." Elite Minds President Michael Ford told ABC News in an email. "With digital readers, no one faces the stigma of having a copy of Mein Kampf on their bookshelf or risks it being seen on a table and having visitors make false assumptions about their reasons for owning it. They can read it in the subway without fear of being mistaken for a racist just because they want to learn about history," Ford said.

It's so obvious, I can't believe anyone actually missed that. Because guess what else became hugely popular on eBook platforms? 50 Shades Of Gray, and I'm thinking it's highly unlikely that most folks reading that novel are into that level of kinky sex. It's a controversial book that some might find embarrassing to read in public with a huge book cover broadcasting the undertaking. Just like Mein Kampf.

So quit it with the moral panic. You can't claim to understand the genesis of the Nazi party, or really even World War 2, without reading that book. Yes it's evil, yes it's wrong, and yes it was the ravings of a mass murdering lunatic. But reading it doesn't make you the same and knowing the mind of an enemy is more important than burying hateful speech.

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Filed Under: ebooks, hitler, mein kampf

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Nate (profile), 29 Jan 2014 @ 1:14pm

As one author showed us, Mein Kampf wasn't actually selling very well. This story was more clickbait than journalism.

http://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/2014/01/16/fake-controversy-alert-hitlers-mein-kampf-w as-not-a-digital-bestseller
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jan 2014 @ 1:32pm

oh God! not 'reds under the beds' all over again, is it?

Hoover proved to be a real bad guy and there were numerous complaints about his tactics, tactics that are being acted out again now, but this time by the NSA. everyone in government was afraid of him back then and it appears that the same fear has re-manifested itself today
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Luke, 29 Jan 2014 @ 1:38pm

"Efforts were made in Germany, in fact, to ban the book outright." -> Not just efforts, the book is actually banned in Germany (as are most Nazi traditions, writings and insignia). You can buy old books in antiquarian book stores, but you can't sell any new editions (both based on the copyright owned by the Bavarian government until the end of next year, and hate speech laws). The only thing allowed is research or quoting parts embedded in academic commentary for stuff like high school textbooks.
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BentFranklin (profile), 29 Jan 2014 @ 1:44pm

If World Jewish Congress wants the profits from sales of Mein Kampf World Jewish Congress should just sell it. By sock puppets of course. They might get some flack for that, even from themselves maybe! But they will know everyone who buys it, which might be useful later.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jan 2014 @ 1:48pm

Fuck mein kampf and hitler...
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David (profile), 29 Jan 2014 @ 1:51pm

I have read Mein Kampf and I don't see any problems reading works by historical leaders. Yes, the guy was a wacko that had almost no redeeming values but you can learn a lot from reading his works. The more you know about this kind of person, the easier it is to fight them.
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madasahatter (profile), 29 Jan 2014 @ 1:51pm

Knowledge
Reading any historically importany work is valuable in understanding history. While I have not read Mein Kampf, I can see value in reading to understand the Nazi ideology. People jumping to conclusions is the problem; reading ideological work does not make one an adherent.
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anonymous dutch bastard, 29 Jan 2014 @ 1:56pm

just try it
I have a digital copy downloaded from a very dodgy islam site. IMPOSSIBLE to read, pompous crap! They should give it as a mandatory read to every skinhead alive. That will show them!
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Sea Man, 29 Jan 2014 @ 2:18pm

"history, as I learned it in American public schools..."

Funny, I went to American public schools, and we learned that we did not defeat the Nazi's alone. You must have went to some shit schools...that, or you just wanted to inject some unrelated liberal hogwash into your story. Either way, that entire sentence had no place in this article.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jan 2014 @ 2:21pm

say tim ?
So do you think its funny to make light, and have jokes in regard to Hitler, who he was and what he did?
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jan 2014 @ 2:24pm

The real issue here is that most people talks about this book as if it were written by the devil and its purpouse is to convince people to burn every bible in the world.

You should have a look at the good things he did because there are a lot of those too.
btw Israel took a lot of advice from uncle Adolf so it cant be that bad.
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nobody important, 29 Jan 2014 @ 2:31pm

scare tactics and strawmen
What this article misses, is just how much of Mein Kampf is still valid today.
While the points where the author's bias has prevailed (Versailles Treaty and antisemitism), it talks about problem of strong, but somewhat excluded, social groups that are unwilling to integrate with the rest of the society, they live in and political/financial groups of international influence range, that may have interests contrary to the countries they work in.

These are a hot topics even today - in Europe and USA both (and not only there). I'd say that even on this blog the later topic is a reoccurring one.

The fact, that the solutions presented were flawed doesn't make the problem bogus.
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Jay (profile), 29 Jan 2014 @ 2:39pm

Re: Knowledge
You might want to read about Goebbels and Edward Bernays. They're the ones that taught him to be a propagandist.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 29 Jan 2014 @ 2:55pm

Re: say tim ?
"So do you think its funny to make light, and have jokes in regard to Hitler, who he was and what he did?"

Do you not? Entire blockbuster movies and Broadway plays have been based on that very notion....
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Mason Wheeler (profile), 29 Jan 2014 @ 2:58pm

Re: scare tactics and strawmen
This. Too many people don't seem to understand the difference between a bad idea and a bad implementation of a good idea.

Ask any doctor, particularly an oncologist: Just because you can correctly diagnose a problem doesn't necessarily mean you know how to treat it effectively. But having a bad treatment plan, or even an utterly disastrous one, doesn't mean that the diagnosis was wrong.

See also: Karl Marx
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nobody important, 29 Jan 2014 @ 4:12pm

Re: Re: scare tactics and strawmen
See also: Karl Marx

Well, utopian socialism (just like (probably) original Christianity) was actually an unworkable idea, as it ignored the fact that there will be people willing to play the system and the system has no way to compensate for it past a very low margin.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jan 2014 @ 4:28pm

Re: Re: Re: scare tactics and strawmen
Original Christianity? What does that have to do with utopian society? Christians actually understand there is evil in this world and utooia will never exist here. Your attempt to somehow equate Christianity with nazism fails miserably.
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David, 29 Jan 2014 @ 4:51pm

Re: Knowledge
The main problem with this kind of book is that it works. It's easy to forget that intolerance is a natural impulse that's more easily and readily evoked than its counterparts.

In today's world, the danger that reading such a book will make you an adherent to Nazi ideology is not all that large. That it will teach you how to hatemonger for fun and profit is a larger danger, and the "war against terror" and other "national security" nightmares are to a good degree pulled almost straight from the book.
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John Fenderson (profile), 29 Jan 2014 @ 5:28pm

Re: say tim ?
The bigger the evil, the more important humor and ridicule is.
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John Fenderson (profile), 29 Jan 2014 @ 5:29pm

Re:
It doesn't matter what good things, if any, Hitler did. Doing good deeds does not make your evil deeds any less evil.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jan 2014 @ 7:12pm

Re: Re: Knowledge
Yet, the bible, one of the biggest selling works of hate and intollerance is sold everywhere.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jan 2014 @ 7:17pm

Re:
yep, the authors 1 data point (Amazon) proves it.

Got a reliable source?
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jan 2014 @ 7:24pm

Re: Re:
So you believe that the church is evil. Does not matter what good, if any they have done?

The church has been responsible for everything from child molestation and the following cover up to protect the perpetrator to mass genecide?

So, none of their good deeds deserve to be recognised?
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jan 2014 @ 7:30pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: scare tactics and strawmen
lets see, both are based on intollerance. Both are filled with hate speech.

How can you not see the similarities?

Why don't you ask the population of Sodom or Gammorrah how Christian tollerance of different cultures works?
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jan 2014 @ 7:46pm

Mein Kampf is a disgusting book by a disgusting mass-murderer, and anyone who reads it as anything other than a cautionary tale of insanity and bigotry is dangerous - and yet, I would never support censorship of this or any other such book.

But how utterly ironic it is! The people who complain about a book "idolizing the greatest monster in history" should probably consider ACTUALLY reading a different book that quite literally "idolizes" someone who, only through an accident of history, didn't HAVE the tanks and planes and battleships that Hitler had, but still managed to commit genocide on a scale previously unknown, using only swords.

For just ONE example, this book says "These be the words which [redacted] spake unto [redacted]... Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to fight at Ja'haz... and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people. And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones, of every city, we left none to remain. ... Then we turned and went up the way to Ba'shan, and Og the king of Ba'shan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Ed're-i. ... And we utterly destroyed them, as we did unto Sihon king of Hesh'bon, utterly destroying the men, women, and children of every city."

Disgusting book, not just by and ABOUT a disgusting mass-murderer, but a book that enthusiastically PRAISES him (no surprise, since he supposedly wrote it). Where are all the outraged protests about THIS one being popular as an ebook, eh?
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Atkray (profile), 29 Jan 2014 @ 8:50pm

Re:
Deuteronomy......

..........there will be no school today.
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nobody important, 29 Jan 2014 @ 10:07pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: scare tactics and strawmen
I've never compared Christianity (the social movement) to Nazism.

Now, comparing Catholicism (in any of its forms - be it Orthodox, Roman or Protestant) to Bolshevik Communism is on the other hand quite fitting. Both are are cults of One God in Many Persons (clergy and party, respectively).
Protestants may distort it a little by not having a central node, but that just shifts control/benefits to the local authorities.
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Eol, 29 Jan 2014 @ 11:39pm

It is popular because it is a taboo
It is a fact that there is a lot of idiots in the world, which means a lot of people reading such a book will not look at it with criticism and some may even agree with the ideas. I�ve met people like that: �if it�s written then it surely must be true�.

And this is precisely why it shouldn�t be banned. Banning things, especially books, is counterproductive. It makes people curious. It makes people want it. There are many examples of books being a success just because they have been banned, not because of their overall value. So I�m always surprised when it happens, over and over again. Because people have known how it works for a long time now (e.g. the whole Adam and Eva business, if we talking about books), and still they keep making the same mistake.
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PaulT (profile), 30 Jan 2014 @ 12:54am

Re: say tim ?
Don't you have a production of The Producers to protest?
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PaulT (profile), 30 Jan 2014 @ 1:07am

Re: It is popular because it is a taboo
"Banning things... is counterproductive. It makes people curious. It makes people want it."

This needs to be repeated whenever possible. As someone who grew up in the 80s video nasties scandal of the 1980s in the UK (and thus obtained crappy 5th gen VHS copies of everything on that list before my 18th birthday), it amazes me that people think that whining loudly about something actually achieves anything.

Then, of course, there's the old adage - "those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it". In that light, we should all have access to the roots of Nazism, to allow the ammo needed to stop them from growing.

Also, I've not read the work itself, but are there qualities worth looking at other than its author and legacy? As a cinema fan, it's fascinating to watch thematically and politically disgusting works like Birth Of A Nation and Triumph Of The Will due to what they achieved artistically.
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David, 30 Jan 2014 @ 1:14am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: scare tactics and strawmen
"Sodom or Gammorrah[sic] how Christian tollerance[sic] works"?

Uh, Sodom and Gomorrha were not exactly destroyed at a time where "Christianity" was on the horizon. According to the Bible they were destroyed by The Being One rather than by religious practitioners. Actually, Lot begged to have them spared.
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AvidReader, 30 Jan 2014 @ 1:24am

Necessary tidbit to remember
If any politican declares that this new law must pass 'because of protecting the children', then You too will know that they are actually copying idea from Mein Kampf.

Tell cizizens that it will protect the children and they will accept in masses...
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Jan 2014 @ 3:33am

"... likely comes from neo-Nazis and skinheads..should donate the profits to help the victims of anti-Semitism, racism and other like bigotries,"

So he believes anyone getting the book should get a full refund since hes being bigoted towards them?
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Niall (profile), 30 Jan 2014 @ 4:59am

Re:
Isn't it usually the conservatives complaining about the 'crap and liberal bias' of American public school teaching? Oh wait, they're usually the ones pulling the revisionism (we won the war single-handly and the slaves loved plantations) crap.
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Niall (profile), 30 Jan 2014 @ 5:00am

Re: say tim ?
He's ridiculing who he was and what he stood for, NOT what he did or who he hurt. Ridiculing dictators, tyrants and general pompous idiots should be mandatory, comrade! ;) Certainly an essential component of free speech.
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Niall (profile), 30 Jan 2014 @ 5:01am

Re: Re: Re:
Are you saying the Church has the same balance of good-to-evil that Hitler did?
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Niall (profile), 30 Jan 2014 @ 5:04am

Re: Re: Re: Re: scare tactics and strawmen
I think NI just equated the idea of utopian socialism (i.e. Karl Marx's leftist ideas, rather than Nazi rightist ideas) as an unworkable system with the idea of the original Church as an unworkable system - he didn't directly equate them. So two reading fails there!
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John Fenderson (profile), 30 Jan 2014 @ 6:07am

Re: Re: Re:
I'm saying the church did evil, and no amount of good works undoes that evil. That's a different thing than saying the church is evil.

So, none of their good deeds deserve to be recognised?

That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying none of their good deeds makes their bad deeds OK.
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MacCruiskeen, 30 Jan 2014 @ 6:42am

Well, obviously one needs to have a copy of Mein Kampf at hand, if only so that when some dumbass creationist tells you Hitler was a Darwinist you can point out the creationist passages in his writings.

Also, the book enters the public domain in a year or two. Good luck keeping it out of circulation after that.
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Pragmatic, 30 Jan 2014 @ 7:55am

Re: say tim ?
Better not watch Mel Brooks's "The Producers," then.

*Struggling to get "Springtime For Hitler" out of head*
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Alt0, 30 Jan 2014 @ 8:03am

Banning Hitler
Hmmm... Hitler was able to rally an entire nation behind him through this writing and his eloquent oratory.
Simple ideas / ideals followed by snappy inspiring speeches.
There is another modern leader who was able to obtain that same goal just recently, let me see...
Gah, name eludes me at present.
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Pragmatic, 30 Jan 2014 @ 8:03am

Re: Re: Re: scare tactics and strawmen
See also: Minarchist Libertarianism and the Austrian School

Unworkable, impractical and underdeveloped past "Taxation = theft" and "The market will provide."

They keep forgetting that the market isn't free and that, to access it, you need to have money and that money needs to circulate.

The only thing they say that I do agree with is the Golden Rule: He who has the gold makes the rules. I don't like it, but it is true.
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Alt0, 30 Jan 2014 @ 8:07am

Re: Banning Hitler
Oh, and Hitler actually tried to follow through with his promises. I don't agree with his ideals or the way in which he tried to force them on the world.
But then, I didn't agree with that other fella either.
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Dances With Goats, 30 Jan 2014 @ 10:12am

the dogshit rule
So if you get your scooper out and pick up dogshit, put it in a box, tape the box shut, wrap it in plastic then bury it, the contents turn toxic, nasty, slimy and stink like you would not believe.*

Light and air turn dogshit into inoffensive dry, white chalky crumbly things that fall apart when you try to scoop them up.

Dangerous, uncomfortable or unpopular ideas are like that. Bury them and you won't like what you get when they come back to the surface. Expose them to light and air, so they can either enrich the social soil, or dry up and crumble like so much dogshit.

*(At least that was true until commercial dog foods turned into corn and soy goo with meat flavoring and byproducts.)

The
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Anonymous, 1 Feb 2014 @ 6:29am

Re: Re:
Reminds me of those T-shirts that say, "What about all the GOOD things Hitler did?" and "HITLER WAS RIGHT. Donuts ARE delicious!".
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Anonymous, 1 Feb 2014 @ 6:31am

Re: Re: Re: Re:
I've always wondered how Darth Vader's killing of the Emperor made up for a lifetime of evil.
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