← Back to context

Comment by ethanhunt_

9 years ago

Over the years, a common argument I've heard against the tactic of calling all kinds of right-leaning people Nazis and Racists was that one day we might really need to identify Real Nazis as Nazis and then nobody will believe it (the boy who cried wolf).

And here we are.

I understand in these tumultuous times, life comes at you fast. Let me give you a quick guide on how to recognize a real nazi. Is your subject:

- Waving a flag with symbols associated with nazi imagery?

- Deliberately using the "heil"?

- Chanting, "Jews will not replace us!" while making a salute?

- Wearing a conical white hood, open or closed, and white (and possibly scarlet) robes at torchlit rallies?

- Calling themselves neo-nazis?

Who is actually confused? Are you?

  • That's not the problem. The problem is that for many, the years and years of calling your run-of-the-mill Republicans and whatnot "nazis" has diluted the term, just like GP mentioned.

    So, now, when people try to get others to understand that the Nazis we now have are almost exactly the same we had in Germany way back then, people don't really make that connection (even if they say they do) on emotional level. Instead, they associate the self-professed Neo-Nazis with the "nazi Republicans" and the not-really-a-nazi-alt-righters that have been cried at in the 2000's.

    Source: many acquaintances who are clearly very, very confused on the matter.

  •     > - Chanting, "Jews will not replace
        > us!" while making a salute?
    

    Sounds like an idiot anti-semite to me

        > - Wearing a conical white hood, open
        > or closed, and white (and possibly
        > scarlet) robes at torchlit rallies?
    

    Sounds like a Klan member to me

    They're all deplorable, and I'm sure there's a great deal of overlap between groups, but why sacrifice accuracy by calling them Nazis?

    • They're calling themselves Nazis. They wave flags, with Swastikas.

      I do understand that GWB wasn't a Nazi. And maybe there was a bit too much wolf-crying. But even if the boy has had this annoying habit at crying "wolf" every day–does that render you unable to recognise a wolf when he's staring you in the eyes?

      1 reply →

    • Wellll... I mean I gave a list of things to watch for in a collective group. If a collective group is doing all these things, on camera, proudly... you're probably safe calling them Neo-Nazis and "Nazi" for short.

      While the Klan has a long and inglorious tradition, it merges seamlessly with the pro-Nazi elements of the US in world war 2, for the most part. And Nazis are what folks had in mind when they say, "Anti-semite".

      So I'm curios if YOU were ever confused. Or if this is for the rhetorical masses (who by and large don't seem too confused once they see a picture, that I can discern).

      2 replies →

  • The problem is that real Nazis will not do anything of the above. What you describe is just the behavior of the plebs and not of the leaders.