Right-Wing Insanity: Turning Mickey Mouse into a Nazi

 By David Starr

 

Admittedly, the following is silly to write about. But the right-wing in the United States has come up with some zany assertions. And the following is yet another example of that zaniness. As bizarre as it sounds, Daily Wire host Michael Knowles came up with an idea to turn the iconic Disney character Mickey Mouse into a Nazi.

 

The idea is to make Mickey Mouse repulsive to children. But this may be hard to come by since the character has been popular among children for decades. Thus, the absurdity of it. 

 

But Knowles has an objective based on his anti-LBGT+ obsession. He is firmly against the LBGT+ community and would not bat an eye if they were to become second class citizens. To Knowles, the Disney company is an enemy because it has the nerve to promote diversity and inclusion. Knowles has the crazy idea that trans people, for example, will go after children and convert them into perverts, thus, destroying their innocence.

 

And Disney is a “blatant perpetrator.” It wouldn’t be surprising if Knowles thought Disney was going to have orgies in the streets with kids.

 

Media Matters published a transcript of Knowles’ show demonizing Mickey Mouse. It included the following (I added in my replies):

 

“Mickey Mouse has to become a Nazi. He has to. Because Disney is a very, very evil corporation that wants to trans your kids and fill their heads with all sorts of crazy ideas, and Disney’s gotta go. Disney’s gotta go, guys.”

 

Knowles of course should know about crazy ideas as proven with his suggestion. To him, Mickey Mouse is evil incarnate, and the evil mastermind is Disney.

 

“We’re not gonna turn Mickey into a Nazi because Nazis are good. You see, I’m quite anti-Nazi. I assume you are as well. In fact, being a Nazi is the worst thing you can possibly be today. So, we need to turn Disney into the worst thing it can possibly be, and it can be done.”

 

Strange how Knowles says he’s an anti-Nazi given the fact that the right-wing agenda has bordered on the fascistic: anti-LBGT+, racist toward undocumented immigrants, Islamophobic, anti-union, hardly any concern for the environment and climate change, and an ultranationalist foreign policy. (Actually, neoliberals and neoconservatives are basically the same when it comes to foreign policy.)

“Mickey Mouse has become the most odious kind of symbol in the entire world. And we have the ability to do it, not using any major institutional power, just through the power of memes by pseudonymous accounts on random internet boards. That’s what’s gotta happen because Disney’s bad, and Disney’s gotta go down.”

 

Knowles is sure assuming a lot by calling Mickey Mouse “the most odious kind of symbol in the world.” He makes it sound as if his scheme has always been effective in the public eye. Whether he succeeds is quite another matter.

 

Quoting David Badash in his article published in Raw Story, “We’ve entered the era of right-wing agitators, activists, influencers, and provocateurs setting the agenda for America’s national conversation.” I would not be that sure of the right-wing’s overall success in setting a national conversation. It’s a continuing battle, a struggle. And it will go on. 

 

Badash asks, “Why does Mickey Mouse have to ‘become a Nazi”’? He makes my earlier point, writing, that Mickey Mouse “of course, is the iconic, now 95-year-old cartoon character, the beloved brainchild of Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks.” (Whoever Ub Iwerks was.) Disney, of course, had no nefarious intentions of making his character another Hitler. And that makes Knowles’ attempt to discredit even more ridiculous. 

 

Does Knowles really understand what Nazism is? Mickey Mouse was never portrayed as a supporter of Aryan supremacy myths, and didn’t think that other races were inferior. Politics wasn’t existing in the portrayal of this character. And yet, Knowles uses immature imaginings to try and make this a political issue.

 

Disney became a pariah to the likes of Knowles because the former went against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ “Don’t Say Gay” law. The company has sued DeSantis, citing the right to free speech. And justifiably so. This “law” is another example of the (putting it mildly) ignorance that the right pathetically exercises.

 

Mickey Mouse is now in the public domain where the character can be used freely. And leave it to Knowles and the right to take advantage of a famous icon of children. 

 

Badash writes, “This is, of course, merely the far-right’s attack on America, on American ideals of equality, dignity, kindness and respect.” (Which the U.S. has violated more than once.)

 

Badash concludes, “…they’re not just targeting programs designed to expose and combat racism, or programs to improve diversity…They’re targeting truth itself.”

 

Knowles and the right can’t handle the truth. So, they conjure up absurd conspiracies to try and discredit those who are closer to truths and facts.