Austria Responds to Arnold’s Smear
Dan Weintraub links to this Frisco Chronicle story purporting to debunk Arnold Schwarzenegger’s childhood memories of Soviet tanks in Austria. Unfortunately, like the Snopies and the Martini Republicans, they don’t do a very good job.
“It’s a fact — as a child he could not have seen a Soviet tank in Styria,” the southeastern province where Schwarzenegger was born and raised, historian Stefan Karner told the Vienna newspaper Kurier.
Neat. It’s also a fact, though, that Arnold never claimed to have seen any Soviet tanks in Styria, and in fact made it quite clear they were not. Had Mr. Karner bothered to read a transcript of the speech before weighing in to debunk it, he would have had his Emily Littella moment upon reading this:
I remember the fear we had when we had to cross into the Soviet sector.
Granted, Arnold did not come out and say “oh, by the way, for the benefit of you strawtards in the back, the Soviet sector did not include Styria. Thats why we had to cross ‘into’ it. You don’t must cross in, if you are already in, ja? Don’t be a illogical girlyman.” Still, I think his point was clear enough for those who were trying to understand it rather than looking for an excuse to deliberately misunderstand it.
Meanwhile, the Vienna Kurier reports that Austrian Interior Minister Ernst Strasser, a member of the conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), has responded to Arnold’s description of Austria as a “socialist” country by urging the Governator to learn his history, even while conceding that it was an “understandable mistake” given how badly the Social Democrats have fouled things up in the interim. The theory, for what it’s worth, is that Austria couldn’t have been a “socialist” country when he left in 1968, as the ÖVP, not the SPÖ, was in power then.
This is a problem of transatlantic semantics. As one who spent two years under two “conservative” Western European governments (Germany, 1987-88 and Austria 1989-90), I can assure you that both countries are and were much, much more economically regulated than the U.S. was under its most Democratic leadership. So from an American perspective, or from that of an Austrian national itching for American-style freedoms, Austria was, like most other Western European nations, a “socialist” country, whether or not it happens to be governed by the major party with “socialism” built into its name.
This potential for miscommunication is increased by the fact that Western Europeans, or at least the German-speaking ones, generally refer to members of their center-left party as “Social Democrats,” and not simply as “Socialists.” The latter term is generally reserved for the real socialists, to whoem we ‘Mercuns generally refer as Communists. Remember, Gorby’s evil empire was officially known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, not the Union of Soviet Commie Scumbags. Similarly, the ruling party in East Germany was called the “socialist unity party of Germany” (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschland, or SED), not the “communist party” per se (though one of the two parties “unified” into the SED had been previously known by that name). Given that, I can understand why Arnold’s fellow Austrians might have been confused by his description of his former country as “socialist.”
Anyone who’s still unclear as to what Arnold did or didn’t mean when he described Austria as “socialist” should be reminded that he used the term not only to describe Austria, but also to describe the policies advocated by Hubert Humphrey in 1968. I don’t think anyone intepreted that statement as equivalent to calling Humphrey a communist.
September 3rd, 2004 at 3:30 pm
Nice job. I had just sent a long email to spoons on the very same article and then had to write back and tell him you’d already handled it.
I don’t blame Karner for not reading the speech, though.
If you were an Austrian Learned Historian and a reporter for the Associated Press called you up and asked you to comment on a particular aspect of an American politician’s speech, wouldn’t you assume the reporter was describing the speech accurately?
September 3rd, 2004 at 4:55 pm
Good point. I don’t trust the Ass. Press as far as I can throw it, but I can’t expect someone from Austria to know that.
September 4th, 2004 at 11:40 am
The Sounds of Scrabbling Toe Nails in the Morning — Kerry on De Fence
like Moonbats in the attic… In my email come more Moonbat droppings [eww - hand me the lysol] from MooreOn MoveOn.con claiming that “much of [Zell] Miller’s speech was cribbed from a long-circulating (and false) email chain letter.” Whaaaa? They’…
September 4th, 2004 at 8:21 pm
I Think We’ve Heard this one Before
U.S. Near Seizing Bin Laden, Official Says.
‘twould be nice, but I shan’t hold my breath.
Of course, if they do capture him, it will be fun to watch certain folks go bonkers (I mean, if they are all apoplectic over Zell (see here for a more ext…
September 7th, 2004 at 11:20 pm
Submitted for Your Approval
First off… any spambots reading this should immediately go here, here, here, and here. Die spambots, die! And now… here are all the links submitted by members of the Watcher’s Council for this week’s vote. Council links:Tr…
September 9th, 2004 at 8:31 pm
The Council Has Spoken!
First off… any spambots reading this should immediately go here, here, here, and here. Die spambots, die! And now… the winning entries in the Watcher’s Council vote for this week are It
September 9th, 2004 at 11:30 pm
The Council Has Spoken!
First off… any spambots reading this should immediately go here, here, here, and here. Die spambots, die! And now… the winning entries in the Watcher’s Council vote for this week are It
September 20th, 2004 at 8:32 pm
[...] Ubique Patriam Reminisci Patriotism, and the Lack Thereof – Four Right Wing Wackos Austria Responds to Arnold’s Smear – Damnum Abs [...]
September 24th, 2004 at 6:09 am
Excuse my bad english I’m austrian.
“american style freedom”, you mean more freedom like in austria. HAHA I as an austrian i think i have a little bit more freedom like you. Because when police tapes my phone they still have to ask a judge. I can say what ever i want about my government, without getting a visit from police or land on a No-fly lists or that my neighnour, friend whatever denounces me at the police (but I`m envy on that freaky DDR feeling you will get with the time ). I can gotravel to every country on earth without having fear to get linched my locals. I can go to my lawyer or doctor and i know that no one else will know, what i told him. The police can`t arrest my longer than 12 hours without an arrest warrent and they have to inform my lawyer.I can fuck my girl friend in the ass. (Texans arn`t allowed to).The only freedom you got, which you got and I don`t is the right to wear guns. But a don`t need this. I prefer getting punched by some asshole to getting shout by some asshole.
September 24th, 2004 at 6:52 am
Your English is fine, it’s your facts and logic that are off. Having lived in both countries myself, I can assure you that there’s more overall freedom here, particularly on the issues Arnold was talking about. Without exception, you were wrong about each of the freedoms you assumed Americans don’t have, including Texans. And if you think you can safely travel to hotspots like Iraq, you’re in for a rude awakening. Even the French aren’t safe in Iraq; what makes you think Austrians would be?
I found it particularly amusing that you think it’s great that cops in Austria can arrest you for 12 hours without an arrest warrant. That nearly happened to me once, over a trivial parking violation. It would never happen here. Criticizing the government? Ha! We have a free media, not a state-run one that can make sure we never learn what the government doesn’t want us to know. I don’t know what your media is like now, but if it’s anything like what existed when I was there, it’s nothing to be proud of.
As for the right to own guns, you’re fooling yourself if you think that the bad guys will never get them just because you can’t. Bad guys don’t play by the same rules as the good guys. You can still get shot, you just won’t be able to shoot back - and the bad guy knows this, too. The bigger issue is whether or not law-abiding citizens have a right to protect themselves. If so, they should have a right to own a gun if they want to. If not, forget about your freedoms and human “rights.” You have none.