A Thought Experiment on What and Who We Like to Call "Nazis"?

How ‘bout a law that says you can’t make eye contact with the guy ladling out your soup or you go to the back of the line?

(a) is the only one that includes a death by committee clause.

(b) includes banishment, but not death

All things considered, I would call the first one democrat, the second one law enforcement

Have you ever noticed that the names that people (the “us”) call the other people (the “them”) often say more about what’s lurking inside “us” than it says anything at all about “them”?

Case in point: people who hate gays so very much, except when they really want to meet one in a public bathroom.

Because of this, I listen to the words people use. They help me learn the nature of the speaker.

The term “Nazi” is being thrown around very loosely here. The mandatory carrying of identification documents due to random checks based on arbitrary criteria was also practiced in Soviet Russia and by Japanese soldiers during WWII, but obviously neither of those parties were Nazis. Excessively controlling to some, perhaps, but not Nazism in any sense of the word.

This could get ugly. I’ll just watch for now.

I wouldn’t call either example Nazi like. When I hear the word Nazi I think of genocide.

I would love to know where you get the phrase, “a very unclear and vague set of criteria.”

BTW… calling Obama a “Nazi” is not only absurd, but disrespectful, but it comes NOT from his wanting to pass new healthcare laws, but from his wanting people who don’t WANT healthcare to pay fines for NOT carrying it. This smacks of coercion and of being a bit dictatorial.

Neither, really. And for the record, there is no death by committee clause in the health care bill, “dr” bill.

I think its dumb that we should be expected to be afraid of the word Nazi.
If I call someone a grammar nazi, the nazi part is for emphasis.

I think that “Nazi” is the second N-word that has been defused by over-use. I mean, it doesn’t have quite the same punch as it used to/

I actually took the time to ask family members that are holocaust survivors before answering this.

They said “neither”. The second reminds them of persecution they suffered but not specifically a Nazi trait.

The first they love and actually made a joke about the blatant lie still perpetuated that mentions “death panels” or “death by comittee” which not only was not included in the healthcare reform bill, it was never about ending a patient’s life! It was a political ploy to try and scare a specific group. The actual bill concerning end of life education was a BIPARTISAN bill that allowed doctors to discuss a patient’s wises for the end of their lives in terminal situations, not euthanasia mind you but paliative treatment meant to maintain a certain comfort level at the end.

The funniest thing about it is that Sarah Palin made up the “death panel” BS even though she signed a bill during her brief stint as governor allowing exactly this in Alaska. Talk about hypocritical propaganda… Come to think of it… Scare tactics in propaganda remind me of somehting ;)

B is fascist, that’s for sure. Totalitarian, perhaps. The Nazis were just one of many governments that used such tactics.

A, on the other hand, is a social policy carried out by many democratic governments around the world, and the insurance companies in other countries still manage to make a profit, so I don’t see its connection to anything fascist. The so-called death panels was a Big Lie bit of propaganda carried out by people with a sour grapes-based agenda.

Your thought experiment shows the level of projection of our own right-wing. I think they know they are trending ever more toward fascism as the veer further right, because the US right is engaged in a revision of history now to recast Nazis as left wingers.

@ETpro I know. It the notion of a “left-wing” Nazi is at once kind of cute and hokey in its absurdity. Then it’s terrifying once you realize people actually believe it.

@Rsam It’s downright Orwellian.

The a and b examples are both a distasteful disgrace and a terrible insult to all real victims of real Nazism.

Ultra-conservative activism and the invention of health insurance conspiracy theories are not damaging the political opponent, they are damaging American democracy itself. Well, you know, Obama, Hitler, ah, we can’t really tell the difference.

I said this before. I can tell you almost all political commentators in Europe are very worried. The politicians are a bit more careful, but secretly they are very worried too. It’s far more serious than during Vietnam. The political future of the whole country is at stake. I would expect from respectable conservatives like Colin Powell to stand up and tell the GOP: “That’s enough! We’ve got to put a stop to this. We’re all democrats deeply committed to our free society respecting the vote of the American people. We love our country including the people who disagree with us. Let’s not put all of this in jeopardy.”

I love America too. My kids are American citizens. I want America to find its true soul again. A country which cherishes honesty, trust, respect, integrity, love, kindness, temperance and fairness.