Civic duty

I'm trying to follow the logic here.

It's not nice to call people "Hitler." I get that, really. That much makes sense.

Adolf Hitler was a mass-murderer and one of the worst tyrants in human history, so not only is calling someone "Hitler" not nice and not conducive to civil discourse, it's also ridiculously inaccurate. Thus, of course, by equating someone as gravely, devastatingly evil as Hitler with some opponent of yours who is unquestionably less devastatingly evil, you are in a sense demeaning the suffering of the real Hitler's victims.

I get all that. Quite reasonable.

It's the subsequent leap of illogic that's screwy.

Quite a few otherwise reasonable people begin with the principle described above and go on to say that one must never, ever, in the course of any discussion refer in any way to Adolf Hitler or his Nazi regime and one must absolutely never make any comparison between that regime and any other act or policy of any other state or government ever.

Except maybe Stalin. Stalin was so bad, these folks say, that you're probably allowed to compare Stalin to Hitler. But that being the case, the prohibition against comparing all other states and their policies to those of the Nazis is also therefore extended to apply to similar comparisons to Stalin.

Whether you call this "Godwin's Law" or an appeal for "civility" it doesn't make sense.

And it is not just nonsense, it's dangerous nonsense.

This prohibition, as it is currently practiced and enforced, requires that we cloak two of the worst evils in human history in silence. It demands that we never allow ourselves to learn from them. It forbids us from what such evils, in truth, demand: That we constantly compare every state, every policy, every action to their perverse example. This is our duty. This is what we learned, or should have learned, from the 20th century. Humans are capable of such things. We are capable of such things. And we must be vigilant to ensure that we not allow them to happen again.

This is part of the point that Israeli historian Avi Schlaim was making when he wrote: "The issue isn't whether or not we are the same as the Nazis, the issue is that we aren't different enough."*

To prohibit any comparison to Nazism in the name of "civility" is absurd. Civility, indeed civilization, requires that such a comparison be kept before our eyes at all times as a signpost, a warning. To keep such warnings silent and out of sight is recklessly arrogant. We used to know this — consider, for example, this 1946 educational film on the dangers of "Despotism." That we seem to be forgetting it only shows that such warnings are more important than ever.

If we really want civil discourse, we must never forbid "Hitler references." We should be making more of them.

* (Thanks, Scott, for finding that quote.)

UPDATE: It is occasionally the case that after posting something, I'll surf around and find that one of the Nielsen Haydens has already posted on the topic with greater style and more insight. That's not the case here. This time, it seems, they've both already posted on the topic with greater style and more insight. Here's Patrick. And here's Teresa.