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It's Holocaust Remembrance week. 6 million Jews were murdered. Their descendants still carry the trauma.
Recently there's a been a barrage of accusations that various leaders or people in America are 'Nazis,' or 'Hitler' or 'Fascists.'
It's such a weak, misguided argument to label political opponents as 'Hitler' because it's been used by both Democrats and Republicans are various times. Remember when Obama was called Fuhrer for taking on gun control? Chose a different history, or better yet, label opponents with current-day names.
In this week's podcast I lament this false equivalency.
American business leaders are not capitulating like in Vichy France. It's not 1939. Trump is a flawed character, but he's not a 'king,' or 'autocrat' and nor is his presidency 'imperial.' Wrong labels, wrong time, wrong analogies.
Whether you like Donald Trump or not, or agree with his policies, he has a mandate from a majority after massive democratic election. Cherrypicking Holocaust history to pigeonhole this moment in American history is foolish, short-sighted and a hugely disrespectful to the memory of the Jews who died at the hands of the real Nazis in a systematic genocide.
The Use and Abuse of History was a pamphlet written by Nietzsche and it's so relevant now. Use history to understand trends and critically assess the moment. Don't use history to specifically re-engineer, revision the arguments of now.
Let's be smart about politics and discourse, and keep the Holocaust out of it.
May their memories be a blessing.
Robyn