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A lot of times these days you see people online analogizing the Bush Administration to the Third Reich in its early days. While they may seem to be appropriate (note: I said seem -- the situation is far more nuanced than that), I actually think my compatriots on the left gain nothing -- and lose much -- by such comparisons.
Fascism as it existed in Germany under Hitler is viewed by a lot of people as being an aberration. Therefore it does no good to say "the Nazis started this way," because the rejoinder which most people will come back with is that "They were Nazis. We would never do what they did." (I actually think that is a load of hogwash: I think any society could end up where the Germans did, given the right conditions.) The slippery slope argument carries little weight with the other side. (As it shouldn't. After all, we don't accept it when they use it about the effects of "creeping liberalism.")
There is a much stronger reason not to use the analogies to Hitler. There is an implication in such analogies: the Nazis started out like this and see where they ended up and if we do likewise we will end up just like them. In other words, the bad behavior now will cause some horrific future harm.
We should always be concentrating on why these things are wrong in the here and now. Whether or not the Nazis started out curtailing civil liberties and taking away rights from homosexuals is immaterial: what matters is that it is wrong independent of any future actions. Even if the country wandered no further down the road of fascism it would still be wrong.
Analogies to the Third Reich are not merely irrelevant, they are inflammatory. There is a reason Godwin's Law exists: people do not talk rationally when Nazi Germany is invoked. And when people stop talking to each other, there is really no hope of ever changing hearts and minds.
Fascism as it existed in Germany under Hitler is viewed by a lot of people as being an aberration. Therefore it does no good to say "the Nazis started this way," because the rejoinder which most people will come back with is that "They were Nazis. We would never do what they did." (I actually think that is a load of hogwash: I think any society could end up where the Germans did, given the right conditions.) The slippery slope argument carries little weight with the other side. (As it shouldn't. After all, we don't accept it when they use it about the effects of "creeping liberalism.")
There is a much stronger reason not to use the analogies to Hitler. There is an implication in such analogies: the Nazis started out like this and see where they ended up and if we do likewise we will end up just like them. In other words, the bad behavior now will cause some horrific future harm.
We should always be concentrating on why these things are wrong in the here and now. Whether or not the Nazis started out curtailing civil liberties and taking away rights from homosexuals is immaterial: what matters is that it is wrong independent of any future actions. Even if the country wandered no further down the road of fascism it would still be wrong.
Analogies to the Third Reich are not merely irrelevant, they are inflammatory. There is a reason Godwin's Law exists: people do not talk rationally when Nazi Germany is invoked. And when people stop talking to each other, there is really no hope of ever changing hearts and minds.
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