Andrew Potter is a Disgraceful Hypocrite

In his most recent post, "Advice - How to Argue (some examples given
for illustrative purposes)", he sarcastically mocks many common
rhetorical dirty tricks, including "6. Compare your opponent to
Hitler. Gee, that sounds like something Hitler would have said." and
"7. Compare your opponent to Neville Chamberlain." However, Potter
himself, less than two weeks ago, thought it appropriate to bastardise
Martin Niemöller's poem "First they came..." to rage about...the
proposed ban on incandescent lightbulbs. "First they came for your pit
bulls. Then they came for your sushi. Now they are coming for your
light bulbs." is his bastard version of the popular but mildly
inaccurate translation of Niemoller's poem: "First they came for the
Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came
for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a
Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak
out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me and
there was no one left to speak out for me."

Given Niemoller narrowly escaped execution and survived eight years of
imprisonment in the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps for
his opposition to the Nazis, it is frivolous and despicable to
bastardise his poem in this way, as it is probably the best, shortest
and most eloquent indictment of quietism in the face of tyranny,
written by one who knew, having initially made the mistake of
quietism, came to his senses, and paid a heavy price for his
resistance. Potter effectively appropriates the poem to mock...a ban
on a type of lightbulb! In jokingly equating Nazi tyranny and minor
policy decisions in a democratic society, he reduces Niemoller's and
others' resistance to the Nazis to his own travails with Canadian
governments' decisions about pit bulls, sushi and light bulbs. Lacking
all sense of proportion, this self-indulgent analogy demonstrates the
snide vacuity of his "haut en bas" misanthropic intellectualism (sic).

But now we see he is not satisfied with outrageous and despicable
analogies, but then has the gall to mock others for this same fault,
notably those to do with Nazism!

Hypocrisy, the cherry on top of insensitive idiocy. What more can one
say of Potter, but that he is a waste of space, and should be relieved
of his post at Macleans.

To read Potter's bastard version of "First they came..." of April 19:
http://forums.macleans.ca/advansis/?mod=for&act=dip&pid=44862&tid=44862&eid=22&so=1&ps=20&sb=1

To read Wikipedia on Niemöller:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Niem%C3%B6ller

To read Potter's latest hypocrisy:
http://forums.macleans.ca/advansis/?mod=for&act=dip&pid=47372&tid=47372&eid=22&so=1&ps=0&sb=1