Stop Calling People Hitler
It’s a go-to for so many social media keyboard warriors, calling someone Hitler or comparing them to Nazis. Honestly, it’s been done so often over the years the insult has almost lost all meaning. And it’s become ever more prevalent during the era of the Israel-Hamas conflict and Donald Trump.
Folks, it just might be time to retire this one. Why? The simple matter is that Hitler was one of a kind. We have not seen his like since and hopefully never will again. As such, a comparison to him should only be reserved for the most serious of situations.
Who was Hitler and What Did He Do?
If we’re going to go around comparing people to Hitler, let’s take a second to talk about the man in question. Adolf Hitler was born in Austria and rose to power in Germany, rebuilding the Nazi Party. He became a dictator and incited World War II by invading Poland.
Hitler is closely associated with the Holocaust, an attempt at killing any group the Nazis deemed unworthy. This included Jews, Russians, people with disabilities, members of the LGBT+ community, and more. All told, the Holocaust took an estimated 17 million lives.
As a leader, Hitler was a charismatic and convincing speaker who peddled the idea that these “lesser people” were to blame for all of Germany’s woes. That’s a simplistic version of his horrifying rhetoric. Really, he just hated anyone who wasn’t White, straight, and male.
Without question, Hitler was the full embodiment of evil. The war he instigated between the Axis powers and Allied powers would ultimately result in the deaths of more than 85 million people. These numbers include soldiers and civilians on both sides.
The Legacy of a Madman
Hitler committed suicide with his wife Eva Braun in a bunker towards the end of World War II in 1945 to escape capture. There are people who believe that they actually survived and fled to Argentina, though those claims are unsubstantiated at absolute best.
The Nazi movement has continued in one form or another since then. It has found a home in ultra right wing politics around the world, with some of its worst ideas being parroted by the likes of Donald Trump. His comments on other races have certainly drawn comparisons to Hitler.
But the world “Hitler” as a term has become a key, and often overused, portion of our international lexicon. It’s used when trying to describe someone as a dictator with racist and evil overtones. In reality, it’s a pretty nasty thing to call someone.
It should be, at least. People on the political left use it so often to describe someone they don’t agree with that calling someone Hitler has become borderline innocuous, even if the comparison is apt. Trump does have some Hitler-esque leanings, though the Donald is thankfully not as charismatic, intelligent, or competent as Hitler.
Knock It Off with the Hitler Slams
The problem is that everyone will happily bust out Hitler during any old Twitter argument, which rarely makes any sense. We’ve definitely seen that term thrown around in reference to how Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government are currently treating the Palestinians.
Yeah, it’s bad. Really, really bad. The Palestinians have been trapped under a brutalist form of apartheid for decades and are now experiencing ethnic cleansing at the hands of the Israelis. The IDF isn’t killing Hamas only. Palestinian civilians are being slaughtered by the thousands.
None of that makes Netanyahu into Hitler nor does it make the Israelis into Nazis. I’ll admit that even I was guilty of making those comparisons early on in the conflict but I can see that it’s not correct, now. What’s going on in Israel is a lot different from what happened in Europe. It just is.
Save comparing someone to Hitler for when it really makes sense. For instance, use it in the case of a failed business man and reality TV star who keeps quoting Hitler then claiming it was an accident. That’s when we should bust out that slam. On the other hand, your landlord is not Hitler for asking you to pay your rent.
