Stop the Nazi Comparisons
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"As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."The Nazi comparison was evoked, usually in heated debate, on almost any subject, but especially in political discussions. It may be less so now, but only because Godwin's Law has been a successful counter-argument.
The Nazi comparison is the doomsday device in a debate. It is powerful and immediate. It is the apex of human horror. It is meant to swiftly and completely annihilate an opponent's arguments and rebuttals.
I thought about this last night while listening to NPR's Fresh Air. The September 4, 2007 show had two guests discussing with show host Terry Gross the influence the Israel lobby has on the American government. First, author Steven Walt asserted some of the arguments of his new book, The Israel Lobby, which is basically that a loose confederation of Jewish and non-Jewish groups in this country skews this country's Israel policy toward a particularly right-wing, hawkish view of the Middle East that runs counter to U.S. interests--and even Israel's interests. During the interview, he clearly denounced antisemitism and stressed a distinction between the broad range of views held by Jewish people, both here and abroad, and the narrow focus of the Israel lobby.
Walt was followed by Anti-Defamation League national director Abraham Foxman who did everything he could to muddy the debate, including, yes, invoking the Nazis. He also tried to conflate the Israel Lobby with all Jewish people everywhere.
Even though it wasn't a head-to-head debate, Walt was a lot more convincing than Foxman.
1 Comments:
Godwin's Law and its impact on discussion and debate is something I've thought quite a bit about. I wonder if the prevalence of knowledge of Godwin's Law is a net benefit or not in the way internet discussions proceed. It's probably a net positive, because people really are more circumspect about playing the Nazi card inappropriately.
But the flip side is that some situations beg for us to recall the oft heard adage that we should "learn from history". To the extent that pointing out real similarities between some current policy and policies which were employed in the run-up to the rise of Hitler are too readily dismissed out of hand, we risk enforcing a constraint that prohibits our learning from history.
For me the most important lesson from Hitler's rise to power is that we be ever wary of all attempts to concentrate power in the hands of fewer people, to stifle dissent and the free flow and expression of information and ideas. Even if those accruing the power are demonstrably not evil-intended as Hitler, it is the accrual which is dangerous because we can never guarantee that power will remain in the hands of benevolent people.
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