Last week in the Mail Peter Hitchens wrote an article claiming that Nazis were actually left wing, the headline read: “End this crude smear against conservatives – Hitler’s Nazis were in fact left-wing racists… Gary Lineker knows as much about politics as I know about football.”
This was met with a fierce backlash.
His is one of many responses to his piece.
Hitchens also tweeted: “And now for something completely different. @garylineker . You referred to Ms Braverman using ‘language that is not dissimilar to that used in Germany in the ’30s.’ Which of Ms Braverman’s words do you refer to, and, more crucially, which language used by Germany in the 1930s?”
Writer Michael Rosen replied to him and this tweet might sum it up for you?
“If you want to see the definition of being “owned” on Twitter, take a look at Michael Rosen’s masterly response to the foolish Peter Hitchens. This is just the start of it…”
Rosen wrote: “By repeatedly declaring people ‘illegal’ before they’ve been tried, is ‘not dissimilar’ to ‘Willensstrafrecht’ . This was a punishment for criminal intent, not the crime itself. The law was called ‘Täterstrafrecht’.”
Viral
But it was this fuller explanation of the language used that has gone viral.
Rosen assembled a checklist of words used in the 30s in Germany, to support Gary Lineker’s claims on Twitter, that took over the media last week.
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Related: Daily Mail columnist said ‘Nazis weren’t fascists’ – is sent packing online
