David Klinghoffer defends Expelled
and supports his assertion that "Darwinism contributed mightily to Hitlerism" (http://www.evolutionnews.org/2008/04/hitlers_debt_to_darwin.html)
by selectively quoting from the following reference. Whether or not the original source supports
or undermines his claim may be judged from is the passage in context: "It was part of his character always
to try to create the impression that he had mastered whoe areas of knowledge
Yet
it seems all too probable that
Hitler had acquired his knowledge of those areas
only from second- or third-hand digests
he went on extracting the elements of
his world view from pseudoscientific secondary works: tracts on race theory,
anti-Semitic pamphlets, treatises on the Teutons, on racial mysticism and
eugenics, as well as popular treatments of Darwinism and the philosophy of
history
In actual fact, knowledge meant nothing to Hitler; he was not
acquainted with the pleasure or the struggle that go with its acquisition: to
him it was merely useful: the art of correct reading of which he spoke was
nothing more than the hunt for formulations to borrow and authorities to cite
in support of his own preconceptions." Joachim C. Fest, Hitler. Harcourt, 2001,
p210.
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