Are Nazi Comparisons Sometimes Warranted?

Covid has been exploited to infringe upon liberty and human rights in ways that resemble the Nazi's ascendance in the decade leading up to the Holocaust, but are outright comparisons appropriate?

I thought that in light of the unceasing stream of horrors occurring worldwide, it is worthwhile to rewrite this post from a while back. This is not a polemical piece, rather it is intended to be as unprovocative as possible considering the subject.

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The Holocaust is easily history’s most iconic triumph of pure evil. It stands as a singular event, a testament to the bottomless capacity of human beings to choose unbridled wickedness and depravity. The universal recognition of its status as humanity’s greatest crime despite the Balkanized polarization today - where we cannot even agree on the most fundamental precepts of reality - is a testament to the transcendent nature of its evil character and the degree to which it has been internalized in the collective consciousness of modern civilization. Thus the Holocaust, and its Nazi perpetrators with whom it is synonymous, is rightly considered without any peer to which it can be justly compared.

However, there is more to the Nazis and the Holocaust then the objective and factual stature as the undisputed pinnacle among the pantheon of humanity’s most demonic atrocities. The Nazis followed a playbook to achieve their wicked goals, tactics which can be adapted for other objectives that are evil in themselves despite not broaching the rarified depraved ‘achievements’ of the Nazis.

There is a strong sentiment throughout polite society today that instinctively abhors any reference or comparison to the Nazis or the Holocaust without exception. At the same time, there is a growing sense among a segment of normal and rational people that Nazi comparisons are necessary in light of the contemporaneous political and social realities. (Nazi comparisons were already a favorite of less sanguine characters well before covid rolled around.) This is leading to some degree of confusion at a minimum, such as this article from one of the papers in my community which I saw yesterday (when I first wrote this it was the day after seeing it):

I think is worth exploring to see if this attitude is truly warranted, or whether there are times or phenomena to which Nazi comparisons are useful and indeed appropriate.

To be clear, I am not writing a doctoral thesis here, just presenting a general overview of the arguments for never making Nazi comparisons. All of the following arguments are arguments in degrees - meaning that something is more or less likely or easier to happen - not binary true/false choices. They also intersect and reinforce each other, meaning that in practice, the rigid characterization that I’m making is not as clearly delineated. I am therefore of necessity relying on the readers to exercise judgement in analyzing the arguments presented.

The Case that Nazi Comparisons are Never Warranted

There are 3 basic categories into which can be sorted all of the arguments in favor of “no Nazi comparisons”:

1. Nazi comparisons damage or diminish accurate comprehension of the subject of Nazis and the Holocaust.

2. Nazi comparisons are a potent weapon that will be appropriated to further stupid, corrupt, or evil agendas.

3. Nazi comparisons are hurtful to the victims of the Nazi atrocities and their descendants.

1. Nazi comparisons damage or diminish accurate comprehension of the Nazis and the Holocaust:

The principle here is pretty straightforward: Human nature is that when you compare two things, you project the characteristics and nature of each upon the other (at least to some degree). Any Nazi comparison therefore by definition both dilutes the unique character and atrocities of the Nazis in the minds of people and elevates the perceived evil in whatever is being compared to the Nazis beyond what is appropriate or accurate (“evil” here loosely refers to all of the distinct characteristics typically associated with Nazis). Obviously, there are plenty of other ways to cause these sorts of intellectual confusion (just look at college campuses). There are several categories of “miseducation” that this leads to:

1. The erosion of the distinct sense of the Nazi evil and atrocities, which is a powerful lesson and force that exerts influence over people to avoid anything that looks like “something a Nazi would do”. It’s worth pointing out here that the understanding and clarity of the limitless human capacity for evil is an important and sobering lesson for social and political leaders as well as the citizenry. Recognition of this is important to maintaining safeguards in place to reduce the likelihood of regressing back to debauched evil. The urgency of this imperative is still openly manifest today in some countries - especially Germany - where there are laws banning types hate speech or actions put in place specifically because of the Holocaust.

2. It diminishes people’s appreciation that people sometimes simply choose to be evil and do evil things when calling someone/thing a Nazi is used as a way of expressing extreme displeasure or as a point of emphasis about whatever is being maligned as Nazi-esque. Diminishing the “North Star” emblemizing the reality of human choice to be and do evil erodes the sense or comprehension that human capacity to freely choose evil is a real thing that exists in the world.

3. It tricks people into thinking that other policies, sentiments, and even crimes or atrocities are far more black and white and evil than they are. (That’s how you can get the following sort of twisted logic to catch on: If someone does or thinks “X”, which is the type of things Nazis do or how they think, than “X” is obviously an unspeakable evil that must be opposed by all means necessary and those who do or think “X” are an abhorrent evil cancer on society that must be eliminated”)

4. It destroys people’s basic sense of reality and judgement, especially pertaining to what is and isn’t moral, and what is and isn’t evil. When something is inappropriately labelled as “Nazi-esque”, some people will think that other things that are objectively similar to whatever is being wrongly labeled as “Nazi-esque” are fundamentally dissimilar to it. Conversely, other people will reason that since the appellation of “Nazi” is clearly delusional, other things that it (or even less intense monikers) is applied to are likewise not really evil even though they are in truth objectively evil. (If you call everything racist, then eventually people will assume that even people or things that are legitimately racist are not racist because their experience is that accusations of racism are typically or always false.)

   This sort of aggressive misapplication of “Nazi” characterization can also easily warp one’s sense of reality altogether, since this can bring a person to disregard their intuitive, ingrained sense of reality and truthfulness as wrong and delusional. A person who is detached from their basic human intuition and sense and comprehension of their experiences and prior knowledge is vulnerable to believing almost anything no matter how absurd as they are not meaningfully tethered to reality anymore.

2. Nazi comparisons are a potent weapon that will be appropriated to further stupid, corrupt, or evil agendas:

This is practically self-evident. The odious connotation of “Nazi” means that people will avoid anything (successfully) associated with Nazis, even tenuously, regardless of the merits. The types of harms that flow from this, in addition to the aforementioned four, are:

1. It makes it easier for stupid, corrupt or evil people/agendas to be successful, or successfully enacted or achieved, when the opposition can be damaged (to whatever degree) by categorizing them as “Nazis” or “Nazi-like” in leu of attacks based on merit.

2. It encourages people to be intellectually & morally lazy when they can simply label something they don’t like as “Nazi-esque” instead of having to deal with the actual facts of an issue, which usually are far more nuanced and “gray” than people are comfortable with.

3. It raises the social or societal tensions around an issue. Moral framing of an issue implicates one’s sense of identity and personal virtuousness, and anything that threatens or opposes one’s sense of self/sense of personal moral virtue is automatically going to provoke a mighty emotional response. It can also lead to rapid and dramatic damaging changes in society, as people are going to be far more open to extreme solutions when the problem they are confronting is portrayed as a Nazi-like existential crisis.

4. Ironically, it paves the way for the dehumanization of anyone accused of being a “Nazi”, which eliminates a primary restraining influence that prevents people from committing atrocities against other people.

3. Nazi comparisons are hurtful to the victims of the Nazi atrocities and their descendants.

This one is also pretty intuitive - comparing anything to the Nazis comes across as diminishing what the Nazis did, which can be painful to anyone who has suffered (including losing family members/friends from a generation or two ago) because of the Nazis and Holocaust, as they feel that their personal suffering and experience is being attacked and delegitimized.

These are obviously not arguments that can be lightly disregarded or dismissed by cheap lip service or “yes, but…” rejoinders. Broadly speaking, the Holocaust is a subject that has a sanctity or reverence about it that we should be extremely wary of defiling.

However, I believe that this position has been allowed to run amok without any rational limitations, resulting in an upside-down environment where Nazi comparisons are only passionately excoriated where they might make sense but are routinely invoked for all manner of ridiculous or disgusting applications without strenuous objections (beyond the obligatory but largely meaningless official press releases of various organizations put out in order to maintain the patina of credibility with their constituencies).

The Case for Why Nazi Comparisons are Sometimes Warranted

There are two very distinct dimensions to the Nazis and their atrocities: the moral character, which is the historically transcendent and unparalleled evil embodied by the Nazis; and the tactics they utilized to achieve and implement their abhorrent, evil ideology. The arguments against Nazi comparisons all flow from the first. It is the latter, however, that is the basis for the counterargument.

“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”

The ascendance of the Nazis offers a valuable guide to observe and and understand how such an evil ideology and movement can come to power and successfully prosecute its vile designs on a global scale. While the specific goals and general limitless depravity and evil of the Nazis is unique, their methods and tactics used to gain both political power and the acceptance of their deviant ideology are broadly generalizable to any society and power structure. In fact, there are even broad outlines of how things like genocides are gradually prosecuted, such as the following from the organization Genocide Watch:

Why do we need Nazi comparisons if we already know and have a pretty good understanding about how they succeeded in prosecuting their evil upon the world?

There are several unique aspects of the Nazis that are relevant to successfully conveying the historical lessons that simply cannot be adequately made without Nazi reference. I am of necessity relying on the reader to make more specific applications of the principles articulated below, in order to keep the length somewhat manageable. These can be broadly distilled into the following 4 categories:

1. The simple fact is that the Nazis and the Holocaust are embedded in the collective consciousness and memory of humanity in a way that no other genocide or evil regime is. In other words, across humanity generally, it is (and feels) more ‘real’, immediate, present and impactful. This makes it potentially a more powerful vehicle to convey the hard and uncomfortable reality of its lessons with a grim finality and firmness that is certainly helpful at a minimum.

2. Many of the individual symbolisms or features of the Holocaust have come to be the way or name to which its underlying tactic or methodology is pictured mentally and referred to in language. For example, “yellow star” is synonymous with and powerfully conveys the manifestation of the tactic of ‘dehumanizing the targeted group by marking them in a humiliating manner’.

3. The Holocaust is extensively documented in a manner unlike any other remotely comparable atrocity or evil regime, which provides a degree of clarity and unequivocality not found anywhere else.

4. Many core societal institutions of Western civilizations were organized or restructured to manifest and promote “anti-Nazi” moral and practical principles. The pure, unadulterated evil of the Holocaust and the Nazis has been immortalized and engraved upon and within the structure and norms of modern society, such as the Nuremberg Code. The internationally shared recognition of this led to numerous treaties and conventions that established standards and laws aimed at preventing a similar travesty from ever rising up in the civilized world. This provides a unique and potent moral imperative and moral authority to exercise extreme vigilance in avoiding anything that carries even a remote resemblance to or possibility of taking a risk that can open the door to the ascendance of a new evil regime.

Covid Policies and Nazi Comparisons: Are they Warranted?

The covid pandemic has been exploited by many politicians and leaders to infringe upon basic liberties on an unprecedented scale, the sheer scope of which would have been entirely unthinkable prior to the pandemic. What is relevant to adjudicating this question is the reality that exists, not a theoretical or abstract ideal or notion of what “should” be. Thus, there are (at least) 3 general arguments that strongly militate in favor of employing reasonable comparisons of current “covid” policies and actions to their progenitor Nazi incarnations:

1. It is obvious that there is no limiting moral principle restraining political or societal policies or actions from committing atrocities against segments of the population being systematically dehumanized and segregated in threats and in practice. Thus it is of vital importance to communicate this effectively. Nazi analogy offers the most intellectually and emotionally accurate and potent means by which to clearly articulate this reality.

2. The unfortunate reality is that the taboo against Nazi comparisons is at this point a largely mythical beast. Compounding this development is the perverse instinct of many “mainstream” pundits and influential people to only take genuine umbrage at Nazi comparisons when they are invoked against something that at minimum can be rationally defended, or against something on the political left. This is not just Nazi comparisons, it includes any decisive moral argument against the radical progressive’s view of “social issues”. But it is the same basic worldview and instinct at root behind the selective opposition to Nazi comparisons and other moral arguments against the prevailing social causes masquerading as “civil rights”. Allowing this to stand is leading people to internalize delusionally distorted notions of morality and reality. The invocation of Nazi comparisons to support immoral causes at minimum requires the invocation of Nazi comparisons for things genuinely analogous to the Nazi’s ascendance to political and ideological dominance, if only to provide the clarity of ironclad distinction between the progressive’s war on reality and an alternate worldview.

3. The decades-long crusade against Nazi comparisons has resulted in a world where there is a distinct sense that the type of threat posed by the Nazis can’t possibly reappear in any form. Critically, this is extended to include the tactical steps and strategies employed by the Nazis to gain power and prosecute their evil ideology, despite the obvious truth that they are generalizable to any time and place. This is perhaps best embodied in the derisive dismissal of the various arguments that government tyranny is an ever-present threat by the left, the political establishment (of practically all mainstream political parties everywhere including Republicans), and the super-wealthy that is the modern incarnation of the gilded aristocracies of old.

4. “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” If we are not allowed to study the history of the Nazi’s political and ideological rise to power, it is inevitable that we will ultimately be doomed to allow another genocidal regime to rise up eventually.

On the other hand, the arguments in favor of not making Nazi comparisons, though powerful in a vacuum, are not particularly convincing as applied to the current political and social climate that exists today:

1. Holocaust education is almost nonexistent in society (just look at the polls asking about Holocaust-related subject matter).

2. The impulse against Nazi comparisons is not really rooted anymore in genuine moral outrage that the argument is diminishing the singular evil of the Nazis, rather it seems to be more a function of superficial political doctrine that “Nazis are always the worst ever”. Critically, the point of this political doctrine is to avoids having to grapple with the very real specter of Western governments becoming/being tyrannical and evil, which is considered gauche to mention by mainstream society.

3. Nazi comparisons have already become fairly routine in society (something that was already fairly common amongst Bush haters, and is now a popular Trump comparison by many on the left).

4. While it is true that Nazi comparisons can be distressing to survivors and the descendants of Holocaust victims, it is not making light of the Holocaust to make good-faith comparisons that are factually sound. Despite the importance of not insulting or hurting people, there is a limit how far this can be accommodated (this is akin to the requirement for airline pilots to have perfect vision, we do not care that this policy might cause distress or offense to people lacking perfect vision).

Ultimately, we are at a crossroads in history where there is a distinct possibility for the ascendance of evil regimes in previously civilized societies that will inflict unimaginable atrocities, and with modern technology potentially on a hitherto unachievable scale. One only need look at the suppression of covid treatments that has resulted in millions of needless deaths around the world, where these decisions to suppress covid treatments were made in full knowledge and awareness that this would be the inescapable consequence. One major factor that allowed for the Nazis to become so powerful that is definitely being repeated today was the unwillingness by the rest of the world to see the Nazis and the attendant political/social realities for what they were.

At a minimum, it is certainly reasonable for rational people in good faith to conclude that Nazi comparisons are warranted and necessary to properly convey the shocking abridgement of basic human rights and liberties over the past 20 months.