Philippines president: You know who I want to be like? Hitler

Most observers of politics recognize it's among the cheapest of ploys to compare your political opponents to Hitler. Not only is just about never accurate, but when that's what you have to resort to, you show yourself completely incapable of defending your own ideas or explaining the problems you have with your opponents' ideas. Comparing another person to Hitler is simply pathetic, idiotic and wrong. But what about comparing yourself to Hitler? Well that's a . . . novel approach, to say the least. But you do you, I guess. Apparently Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte sees a bit of the old Fuhrer in himself, and he's not afraid to let the world know it:

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Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday likened himself to the Nazi leader, saying he wants to kill millions of drug addicts, just as Hitler killed Jews during the Holocaust. "Hitler massacred three million Jews. Now there is three million, what is it, three million drug addicts (in the Philippines), there are," he said in a speech in his hometown of Davao City "I'd be happy to slaughter them. At least if Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have (me). You know my victims, I would like (them) to be all criminals, to finish the problem of my country and save the next generation from perdition."

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A bit of context here: Duterte has established a tough-on-crime-on-steroids persona as his basic political identity, and he's also the kind of guy who will respond to his critics by upping the ante - both in terms of rhetoric and action - as opposed to backing down. In that respect he's bit like Sheriff Joe Arpaio, or even Donald Trump, at least insofar as criticism only prompts him to double down on whatever he's being criticized for. But there's no defending this statement, and the invocation of Hitler is not even the worst part of it. The worst part is to comparison of the Jews killed in the Holocaust to the drug dealers Duterte wants to target in his anti-crime purges. I'm not saying it's OK to round up drug dealers and summarily execute them, although I will make no bones about my belief that drug dealers are detestable people who deserve no quarter. If the Phillipines wants to handle crime and punishment as Duterte suggests, that's their business. I'm glad we don't do it that way here. But the Jews who were slaughtered by Hitler were total innocents, and they don't deserve to be mentioned so cavalierly in the same breath as criminals who are wreaking havoc on society. If Duterte thinks he glorifies himself by comparing himself to Hitler, I think he's insane, but at least he's only staining himself. He should leave Hitler's victims out of it. The Philippines is a weird damn place.

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