'Nazi' and 'Fascist' Labels Abuse History for Personal Gain

Fascist and Nazi are now labels bandied about with little concern for their true meaning. In fact, I would wager that most people who toss the terms about could never properly define Fascism or Nazism or specify who is a Fascist or a Nazi.

Today, these terms are simply used to describe someone with a political view that is other than yours. I think it is time to set the record straight.

Today, the terms are used as ad hominem attack. And ad hominem attacks are one of the lowest forms of argumentation. The lowest form is name calling. There is only a smidgen of distance between the two.

In Latin, where the term comes from, ad hominem means ‘to”, or in this case “against the human.” The expression is a condensed version of the Latin term “argumentum ad hominem” which means argument to (against) the person.

Instead of arguing a case against an idea, one reverts to personal attacks against the arguer. As a consequence of that line of argumentation, almost all cases of ad hominem arguments are fallacious, if only because they do not address the central issue at stake in the argument.

The style of argument has been around for centuries. Aristotle was probably the first to identify and attach a name to this form of argumentation. The great philosopher was the first orator to call an attack an ad hominem attack. He described it as attacking the arguer, not the argument.

The true purpose of argumentation is to discover and unravel truth. To pursue the best path forward. It is not just to prove someone right or wrong but to come up with better solutions to big problems. Calling a person with whom you disagree either a Fascist or Nazi does not, quite obviously, further the pursuit of truth. It does not move the dial.

Calling someone a name and attacking them and their character is running away from the argument. It is using base and ineffective methods of argumentation rather than an honest attempt to discover underlying truths.

Fascism and Nazism are powerful labels.

Fascism and Nazism represent true evil.

Fascism and Nazism are responsible for the murder of tens of millions of people. Bantering those labels around, tossing them about to designate your political opposition is an exaggeration that is an abuse of them in historical context. It is, in fact, a form of Holocaust denial.

Anyone who truly believes that Donald Trump is like Adolf Hitler and that “MAGA Republicans” are like Nazis is seriously removed from any sense of historical reality. (If you noticed I did not write: “Is Hitler or “are Nazis”.)

Trump is a populist. He loves big rallies. That does not make him a Nazi.

Populism is a common political tool today. Many, if not most successful politicians, use it as a devise to educate and convince the voters. The defining trait in populism is distilling complex ideas into simple solutions. Populist messages are easy to convey and easy to understand.

So, in addition to being ad hominem attacks, calling a foe a Fascist or a Nazi is also an exploitation of the populism tool.

The great social political philosopher Hannah Arendt was sent to Jerusalem in 1961 by The New Yorker to cover the trial of Adolf Eichmann. Arendt sent her reports back as a series of essays which later became a seminal work on the trial and on Nazism titled “Eichmann in Jerusalem.”

In her work Hannah Arendt describes how, in Nazism, evil became banal.

Having already written a three-part work titled “The Origins of Totalitarianism” which published in 1951, her work was widely read and universally praised. Arendt’s work was and still is the most insightful educational tool in the world on Fascism and Nazism.

And she went to the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem in order to put her theories and analyses to the test. She had a front row seat to see how her theories of the movement of totalitarianism measured up to the real live specimen.

Before the War, Eichmann was a vacuum cleaner salesman. During the War he was in charge of transportation logistics. Ultimately, Eichmann was responsible for the transportation that brought millions of Jews to their deaths.

This reallif-e Nazi argued that it was simply a job, that he was single cog in a wheel, one piece in a huge factory. Justice and morality proved otherwise.

Calling someone with whom you disagree names is immature and reprehensible. Resorting to calling your political debate partners, on the other side of the aisle, in a democracy, is not just wrong, it dilutes the true evil that those words represent.

Shame on those who abuse history for personal gain.