January 12th, 2009
Reading over CJ’s post from December 30th reminded me of one of my many pet peeves in modern discourse– the casual use of references to Nazism, fascism, and Nazi Germany. CJ quoted the MLA Radical Caucus as saying that David Horowitz “is not a scholar but a liar of the Goebbels school.”
Really? Goebbels? Joseph Goebbels? Reichspropagandaminister of the Third Reich? “Total War” Goebbels? That one?
This might just be me (I’m writing an honors thesis on Nazi propaganda), but the misuse of such emotionally charged terms is bothersome and offensive.
David Horowitz is a guy who writes books and runs a think tank. Joseph Goebbels single-handedly reconceptualized propaganda and furthered the anti-Semitic, anti-Slav, anti-Western ideology of the Nazi Party, gaining a considerable amount of power and becoming second only to Hitler. Not the same thing. Not even remotely close.
Its a common tactic of radicals on any side of the political spectrum to use Nazism as a weapon against their opponents, and its time that we agreed to stop. Fascists are fascists, Nazis are Nazis. That’s it. Hermann Goering: Nazi. Benito Mussolini: Fascist. Easy, right?
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