7 Signs It’s Past Time for Hitler Comparisons
Because it’s almost too late.
“As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Hitler approaches 1”; that is, if an online discussion (regardless of topic or scope) goes on long enough, sooner or later someone will compare someone or something to Adolf Hitler or his deeds.” — Godwin’s Law
Attorney Mike Godwin wrote that in 1990 on Usenet.
I remember the first time I encountered a reference to Godwin’s Law. It was many years later, before Twitter and Facebook, when the preferred arena for arguing anonymously with people was still comment-boards and blogs.
By that time, it had become an ingrained tradition to say that once “Godwin’s Law” plays out and a Hitler comparison is made, the thread is finished and whoever made the comparison has lost the debate.
In other words, the first person to call his opponent “Hitler,” loses.
I remember thinking a few things in ominously unfolding succession:
That’s pretty funny.
Yep, seems true enough.
But that was quickly followed by a realization.
Oh my God… what have we done?
Because - even though no one in the comment section of some random post about “South Park,” or even about abortion or gun control was advocating for fascism or some other brand of authoritarianism, and certainly no one was talking about genocide - by banning the comparison to Hitler and Nazism from all topics, we were taking one of the last steps on the pathetic journey towards forgetting what we are never supposed to forget.
We were removing one of the easiest, most peaceful methods for never letting it happen again. That is, calling it out when we see it.
In the aftermath of 9–11–2001, warning flags went up everywhere when George W. Bush’s White House formed a Department of Homeland Security. Still more warnings came when the government was granted legal authority to spy on Americans. And, of course, even more, warnings when the majority of the United States and the world were against Bush’s War in Iraq, but we did it anyway.
But when “fascism” or the “H” word came out, the argument was lost. We had all collectively agreed to take away a powerful and peaceful solution, to simply point out the danger before the fighting begins. Back then, the apologists and appeasers called it “Bush Derangement Syndrome.”
Since the correct assessment of what Bush’s actions would probably one day lead to — namely authoritarianism — was deemed a losing argument from the beginning, the scaffolding necessary for that-thing-we-are-never-supposed-to-forget was put into position without much trouble.
As a direct result, for over fifteen years we’ve had all the tools and conditions in place for a new Hitler, just waiting for him to show up.
But what exactly do we mean by “letting it happen again?” What is “it,” exactly?
Okay, a brief word on Hitler. Hitler didn’t start out by telling the citizens of Germany that he wanted to start another World War, destroy their society and country, and murder 6,000,000 people in a racially motivated genocide. If he had, they might have been able to avoid it. Avoid him.
Unfortunately, that’s not how authoritarianism arrives.
So the “it” that we need to be on guard against is not a guy promising mass murder coming to power.
We need to watch out for someone who will do what early 1930’s Hitler did. We need to watch out for a guy who will subvert our own ability to govern ourselves.
- Someone who will corrupt our Department of Justice.
2. Someone who will militarize our police and who will deploy our military inside our own cities as a political gesture to his supporters. Even over the objections of states and local authority.
3. Someone who makes certain his supporters are frightened and distrustful of their fellow citizens.
4. Someone who makes all citizens distrustful of their own government, so that he appears (at least to some) as the only person who can make it work.
5. Someone who is willing to subvert our democracy, to make our already dysfunctional system even more dysfunctional.
6. Someone who is willing to create scapegoats of American citizens for his own political gain.
But here’s the thing… All of those things add up and up and up to a terrible picture, but it’s still a lot of facts and words to wade through. There is a simpler message we could be sending to each other, in our online discussions if we must, but more importantly, in our daily conversations with friends and family. Even if ruins dinner.
That message is this…
7. It’s happening again.
And it looks like a 53-year-old graduate of the Naval Academy asking masked, armed thugs working for the Department of Homeland Security, “why have you forgotten your oath?”
It looks like this…
It looks like a line of mothers putting their own bodies on the line to defend peaceful protestors, to try to shake some sense into these violent, unasked for, and unwelcome representatives of the government… only to be fired upon with tear gas.
Yes, if you don't know already, you read that right. Not “violent anarchists.”
If there is one thing I would like to make clear for any American who thinks there is something patriotic or in any way noble about what those unaccountable, armored and armed thugs hiding behind DHS authority are doing to our neighbors in Portland, or threatening to do in Chicago and Kansas City and anywhere else, it’s this:
In the winter of 1944 and 1945, my father flew 35 missions in a B-24 over Germany. He bombed cities, smashed buildings, and most certainly killed people just like those men so that brave Americans they beat with clubs like Christopher David, and the mothers they gassed could ask them today, “why have you forgotten your oath?”
That’s what the world was compelled to do when people let it happen then. It’s past time we started using stronger words before it happens again.
Because if we fail to stop it when we have the chance, we will deserve what we get. Every bomb somebody drops on our heads, every drop of spilled blood.
If you are an American and you are flying a Trump flag in your yard or behind your truck or your boat… it’s past time to take it down.
Look at the courage of Christopher David. Look at the courage of those mothers breathing tear gas. Remember the sacrifices of Americans who died and who killed in World War Two.
Look at the cowardice and the violence of those men pretending to represent us… think long and hard about what you are supporting, about what you want for your children and grandchildren. Because what we all do now will most definitely be remembered.
The final word goes to Mike Godwin, who is sorry we took his joke too far. He sent this out in 2017, after Charlottesville when the President of the United States saw “very fine people on both sides.”
