A Texas GOP candidate has drawn scrutiny after video surfaced of him happily boasting about having a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.
(eds. note: glad you specified which Mein Kampf)
Brandon Herrera is the GOP nominee for Texas’ 23rd congressional district after incumbent Tony Gonzales dropped out of his reelection bid following a sex scandal over which MAGA lawmakers called for his resignation. A subsequent ethics investigation ensued after reports surfaced that he had an affair with someone on his staff who later died by suicide.
Meanwhile, Herrera has become the district’s de facto GOP nominee in the wake of departure of Gonzales — who in 2024 called Herrera a “known neo-Nazi” — from the race. (Herrera denied the accusation, saying on X at the time, “This should be obvious, but I am not, nor have I never been a neo-Nazi.”) The firearms manufacturer and YouTuber, who’s known on the internet at “The AK Guy,” went viral on Friday after a video surfaced where he is seen boasting about his copy of Mein Kampf.
Boasting is indeed worrisome, but consider that when my ex and I moved in together, we now had the problem of two copies of Mein Kampf.
We’d both picked up the same translation in adolescence because it was a historical work that offered insights into what passed for Hitler’s thought process.
I’m not saying that’s the case for Herrera by any means, but simply owning a copy does not make one a Nazi.
Owning a copy does not make one a Nazi, correct.
Being a Texas Republican, he was probably a Nazi long before he had a copy.
Fair point.
Neo-Nazi Pulls of Surprise Victory in Long-Held KKK District - The Onion
Average day in the Republican party.
It really depends on how many other books you own along with it. 1000? Possibly not a Nazi. 5? Pretty questionable.
Also libraries exist. You don’t need to keep going back to reference the Fuhrer’s state of mind at different times throughout your life.
i have an ecopy, I have 113,000 ebooks in my Calibre library. I also have Das Kapital, fuck, that’s a dry read, as you would expect of an economics text.
as to the OP, I doubt he’s read the book, just has a copy.
OK, that’s one take. How about I actually slogged through the whole thing? It’s not great writing. but it’s important context.
You don’t need to keep going back to reference the Fuhrer’s state of mind at different times throughout your life.
Considering he lives in the US, the Führer’s state of mind has a pretty significant impact on his life right now. I’d reference it myself now and then if I owned a copy just to prepare for what’s coming next.
The main (Mein?) difference between Hitler and Trump is that Hitler had a sense of humour.
(Seriously, I ended up laughing while reading Mein Kampf while awaiting students at the math study center at UW. Given that my first attempt at bleaching my hair resulted in orange, I’d shaved my head. This turned out not to be a stellar combination.)
owning a copy does not make one a Nazi.
K. Following that same line of reasoning, owning a Bible DOES NOT make you a Christian.
I have a copy of Mein Kampf. When i was twelve i wanted to learn how my enemies think. (Un)fortunately it’s such bad prose that i never made more than a few pages in. -Doesn’t really matter though. I learned more about my enemy by consumimg large amount of media from a wide variety of sources since then. Mein enemy is not that complex.
-Seperately, I’m sure I have at least one bible still lying around that was given to me even though im pretty strongly an atheist/anti-deist
Hitler isn’t exactly remembered for his persuasive writing.
I mean, it was a best seller in Germany and he’s definitely remembered for the speeches he wrote.
Rhetoric is targeted at a specific audience within a specific context. His was pissed off and desperate Germans in the 1930’s, we’re just not going to fall for the same things they did.
What are we falling for right now though that people in a century will consider blindingly wrongheaded?
All of it. Corporate profits ueber alles.
It’s like a Hydra but every time you cut their head a more stupid oneappears.
