Let’s stop using the term Nazi to besmirch public figures, no matter how divisive. It trivialises the Holocaust and dishonors the memory of the millions who died in World War II.
We need to talk about the N-word. No, I don’t mean the appalling ethnic slur directed at black people, but rather the other one, associated with wartime Germany.
This exceedingly offensive term, linked with the deaths of millions, has – wrongly, in my book – somehow become a weapon of right-on liberals of late.
I don’t know how anyone can even think it’s an acceptable insult to fling at every Tom, Dick… or Donald. In the latest instance, I read that Madonna has branded the US president as a card-carrying member of Hitler’s party.
Clearly a classy woman (not), the 61-year-old singer took to social media to say, “I’ll take Sleepy Joe Biden any day over this White Supremacist [PIG EMOJI] Aka Nazi Aka Sociopath that’s in the WHITE HOUSE! Time to wake up. #vote #biden #nojusticenopeace #blacklivesmatter.”
Now, I don’t want to get bogged down in a debate here about either of these two clowns. But, sorry – the last time I checked Trump had threatened to build a wall, not gas chambers. Yes, he did advocate shooting looters. Despite looking like an Aryan-race cliché with his dyed golden hair, he’s no mass-murdering Nazi.
No matter how much you may hate Trump and his ilk, the Nazi comparison only desecrates the memory of those who were brutally butchered by German SS commanders in the bloodiest conflict in history. Millions upon millions died at the Nazis’ hands, right across Europe, from east to west, in World War II.
The Nazi insult appears to be widespread these days, with even Trump leveling it against – surprise, surprise – the US intelligence agencies, and with his election campaign recently running into trouble for using associated imagery. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also disingenuously used it once, to have a pop at the EU during the nightmare Brexit negotiations. And there have been hundreds of other examples, such as Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon being depicted as Hitler on a banner – an offence that’s currently being investigated by the cops.
I know, I know… the argument goes that it’s used because it just so happens to be the “most available historical event illustrating right versus wrong.” Fine. I get it. But I have to say, it’s a wholly unoriginal slur to fling at any public figure.
Also on rt.com United States officially REWROTE history this V-day when it IGNORED Soviet Union's role in defeating NazismIt only helps to water down the true horror of evil by comparing an overweight old American billionaire with a bad combover to that of a vicious little Austrian with an odd moustache named Adolf Hitler, who liked to be called Der Führer. The Twitter addict is merely a harmless buffoon in comparison to the mass-murderer.
By the way, I’m not the only one who thinks along these lines. Such “misplaced comparisons trivialise this unique tragedy in human history, particularly when public figures invoke the Holocaust in an effort to score political points,” according to the CEO and national director of the US’s Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Jonathan Greenblatt.
I know there are not that many Holocaust survivors still with us, but for those who are, along with their offspring, I’m sure it must feel like rubbing salt into an open wound every single time the Nazi word is used outside of its proper context in the mainstream media.
We should reserve the use of this particular N-word at all times for only those white supremacists actively wanting to carry out the same sort of atrocities we saw in World War II.
There’s an old TV advert that used to say, “Please think before you drink and drive.” I think we should be using a new one these days, pleading with people to “Please think before you tweet and twist.”
I’d even argue that social media giants should have a ‘three strikes and you’re out’ rule when it comes to posters who use “Nazi” inappropriately.
I’ll leave the last word to the ADL, which once posted this headline on its website: “No, Donald Trump is not Adolf Hitler.” Enough said.
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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.