The leadership of the SA was openly homosexual and Marxist and encouraged (and coerced) both in its ranks. The upper echelons practiced a form of quasi-German paganism, which had nothing to do with traditional Germanic paganism, in that it never demanded genocide or racial purity and it originated some of the concrete institutions that protected the liberties of later Western societies.

Of course, if we follow the implicit logic of this example, then patriotism, martial valor, and German heritage are all damnable for being co-opted in twisted forms by the Nazi party. But let’s also try on a few quotes by Hitler himself:

“I am embarked on a struggle to the death with the Jews for the hearts and minds of men. The Jews have inflicted two wounds on mankind. Circumcision for the body, and conscience for the soul. I am come to free mankind from their bondage.”

“The heaviest blow that ever struck humanity was the coming of Christianity. Bolshevism is Christianity’s illegitimate child. Both are inventions of the Jew.”

“‘You see, it’s been our misfortune to have the wrong religion. Why didn’t we have the religion of the Japanese, who regard sacrifice for the Fatherland as the highest good? The Mohammedan religion too would have been much more compatible to us than Christianity. Why did it have to be Christianity with its meekness and flabbiness?’”

Are we CNN fact-checking SNL skits now?