Argumentative Penguin
1 min readApr 12, 2023

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I think we have to be very careful here about making a jump from someone collecting something to someone following the ideology of the originator of such a thing. It seems like a slippery slope argument to make that you can make a moral judgment about a person based on what they choose to collect. In this instance, it seems the Harlan guy collects things relating to dictatorships rather than things specific to one ideological view. Hitler and Stalin may have looked like two sides of the same coin but they stood for opposing ideologies and pretty much hated each other from the get-go. Collecting JUST Nazi memorabilia and wearing it round the house, whilst not illegal, might raise a few eyebrows... a collection of disparate objects from multiple autocratic regimes suggests no adherence to any particular ideology but perhaps an unhealthy interest in the psychology of totalitarianism in the 20th Century - but that, in and of itself, is not a terrible thing. I find the idea of collecting Disney things entirely repulsive, plenty of people do it, but that doesn't necessarily make them anti-semitic. Nor does collecting Enid Blyton novels make you racist. Nor does collecting Picasso artwork make you a misogynist.

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Argumentative Penguin
Argumentative Penguin

Written by Argumentative Penguin

Playwright. Screenwriter. Penguin. Fan of rationalism and polite discourse. Find me causing chaos in the comments. Contact: argumentativepenguin@outlook.com

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