A recently surfaced video depicts a Texas college professor making a shocking analogy during a lecture on the rise and fall of Nazism. According to the South Texas College student who recorded Dr. Blake Armstrong’s remarks, he was inspired to turn his camera on after the psychology professor ridiculed Sen. Ted Cruz.
The student explained that Armstrong had already “insulted Republicans about three times before this video was recorded,” explaining that just before the recording began, “he called Sen. Ted Cruz a bastard for using the last name Cruz to win his election.”
When Armstrong began discussing Nazis, however, it became clear how much he despises the Tea Party movement that precipitated Cruz’s senatorial bid.
By 1931, he alleged, the Nazi movement had worn out its welcome after 11 years.
“They’ve won seats,” he said, “They’re like the Tea Party! That’s such a good example.”
Apparently recognizing the potential for backlash inherent in his incendiary rhetoric, Armstrong urged his students to keep his comments in the classroom.
“Don’t tell anybody I said that,” he urged.
His concern regarding how his comments might be received did not prevent him from continuing his anti-conservative tirade, however.
Armstrong asserted that “eventually people realized, ‘Oh, these Nazis are a bunch of nuts.’ ‘These Tea Party people are a bunch of nuts.’ I mean the analogy is a really good analogy.”
Comments added to the video on YouTube include an array of criticism, including suggestions that Armstrong, not the Tea Party, shares traits with those who employed Nazi tactics.
“This professor is a Nazi,” one user wrote. “How is calling a group of small government, personal independence, and liberty like the national socialists?”
Another commenter pointed out “the way he lies and deceives the students for his own agenda” as evidence that he might have been influenced by Adolf Hitler.
BCN editor’s note: This article first appeared at Western Journalism.