Blog Slinger teacher drops H-bomb, two bloggers incensed

It’s an event that causes great pain and grief, divides whole swaths of the political landscape, and leaves in its wake fallout that lasts well after the fact. The “it” in question, of course, is the dropping of the H-bomb. And by “H-bomb,” we mean the use of the word “Hitler” in political discourse. Such was the case recently when a Slinger High School teacher in social studies, John Koszarek, wrote an angry e-mail to Rep. Don Pridemore. In it, Koszarek castigated Pridemore for his political alignment with “Emperor Walker,” and alluded to Washington County as the place “where Hitler would have defeated Reagan had he had the ‘R’ in front of his name on the ballot.”

Naturally, this was not taken as a hyperbolic statement meant to illustrate the conservative leanings of Washington County. No. Instead, Koszarek’s e-mail was interpreted as literally stating that Washington County loves Hitler, and that the only reason it was one of the counties in the state to go against President Obama (and continually reelect Jim Sensenbrenner to Congress) was because of a resigned acceptance of the fact that Hitler can’t be reanimated and paraded around in blaze orange and Packers gear.

But in all seriousness, when you want to make a point about the ideological leanings of a county, you’re digging yourself a mighty big hole by bringing up a man synonymous with genocide and fascism. Clearly, Koszarek could’ve been more mindful of what the H-bomb does in political discourse, especially when it’s spread around on the Interwebs by conservative blogs like so much rage-schmeer on a fear-bagel. Wisconsin Republican Dad—an online chronicle of Dairyland politics as seen from the much-neglected point of view of dads who are conservative—went so far as to call Koszarek’s use of the H-bomb “reprehensible,” and included some creative details in Koszarek’s contact info (the product, no doubt, of tireless fact-finding at The Wisconsin Republican Dad Institute For Tea Party Meme Dissemination).

Hobbies: Playing Dungeons & Dragons in Mommies’ [sic] basement, fantasizing about Rachel Maddow, WWII enthusiast, Likes WEAC on Facebook

In a post entitled “John Koszarek and Hitler,” the blog Freedom Eden asked whether the unfortunate word choice could possibly allow us to believe that Koszarek is “stable enough” to finish his 34th (!) year of teaching at Slinger.

That’s 34. Years. Of teaching. In Washington County.

(Full disclosure: This author was a student of Koszarek’s classes at Slinger High School, but can only vaguely recall one instance, while reading a Kurt Vonnegutt novel, when Koszarek walked by and remarked, “Ah, a fun book.” Then, of course, he walked to the front of the class and hissed, “ALL OF YOUR PARENTS ARE NAZIS!!!”)

So what did we learn? Well, just don’t go around saying “Hitler” to make your point. Don’t say, “Man, I’m chaffing so much it’s like having Hitler between my thighs,” or, “Ooh, take a whiff of this milk. It’s totally Hitler!” and expect your remark to be taken as anything but inflammatory. Instead, you could say something like, “This town loves cookies so much, they would have voted for the 20th century’s most heinous monster. As long as it was the Cookie Monster.”