{"id":4729,"date":"2010-07-27T12:11:00","date_gmt":"2010-07-27T12:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2010\/07\/oliver-stone-part-1.html"},"modified":"2010-07-27T12:11:00","modified_gmt":"2010-07-27T12:11:00","slug":"oliver-stone-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2010\/07\/oliver-stone-part-1.html","title":{"rendered":"Oliver Stone, Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The first thing worth looking at is what Oliver Stone actually said that caused the uproar. As <\/span>reported by the New York Times, <\/span><\/a>Mr. Stone said the following:<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cHitler was a Frankenstein, but there was also a Dr. Frankenstein . . .German
industrialists, the Americans and the British. He had a lot of support. Hitler
did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people.\u201d Mr. Stone then
proceeded to discuss what he called \u201cthe Jewish domination of the media,\u201d adding
with an expletive that Israel had messed up \u201cUnited States foreign policy for
years.\u201d <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And, if quotes are accurate, he didn\u2019t say \u2018messed\u2019 up US foreign policy for years. But this is the 21st century, so let\u2019s move on. There was more, as quoted in<\/span> this story at news.com.au<\/span><\/a>, which gives a better breakdown of Stone\u2019s comments, though again, only the juicy parts:<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t judge people as only \u2018bad\u2019 or \u2018good\u2019,\u201d Stone said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c(Hitler) is the product of a series of actions. It\u2019s cause and effect.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople in America don\u2019t know the connection between World War I and World War II.<\/p>\n

\u201cHitler is an easy scapegoat throughout history and it\u2019s been used cheaply.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stone compounded the controversy by claiming Stalin had \u201ca complete other story\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot to paint him as a hero, but to tell a more factual representation \u2013 he fought the German war machine more than any person,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been able to walk in Stalin\u2019s shoes and Hitler\u2019s shoes, to understand their point of view.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot approach history unless you have empathy for the person you may hate.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The uproar went viral overnight, prompting Stone to issue this apology as reported in the Mail Online:<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u2018In trying to make a broader historical point about the range of atrocities the
Germans committed against many people, I made a clumsy association about the
Holocaust, for which I am sorry and I regret. Jews obviously do not control
media or any other industry.\u2019 <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

OK, now we have enough to unpack this thing and see what\u2019s what. The first post is going to look at what he said about Hitler. Was he right, wrong, what? Then we\u2019ll look at his increasingly common take on Stalin and the Soviet Union\u2019s part in the Second World War. Finally, when we get around to it, we\u2019ll kick around his apology, what he apologized for, and why he said what he said in the first place. Was it anti-Semitic? Was it anti-American (hard to imagine!)? Why do we only hear about the Holocaust? What was wrong, right, and really no big deal. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first thing worth looking at is what Oliver Stone actually said that caused the uproar. As reported by the New York Times, Mr. Stone said the following: \u201cHitler was a Frankenstein, but there was also a Dr. Frankenstein . . .Germanindustrialists, the Americans and the British. He had a lot of support. Hitlerdid far […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nOliver Stone, Part 1<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The first thing worth looking at is what Oliver Stone actually said that caused the uproar. 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