This again…*sigh*

A recent Washington Post article argued that by taking offense to less than perfect analogies between the holocaust and modern-day events, it prevents us from having the legitimate conversations that such analogies intend to provoke. It also argued that requiring such analogies to be perfect also does a disservice to the intent behind the phrase “never again”: if we really meant that we didn’t want the events of the Holocaust to be repeated, we can’t stop people from using it as a comparison, since such comparisons, even imperfect ones, really do allow us to prevent such atrocities from happening in the future.

To some degree, I agree with these points, but I would argue that it is not the imperfection of the comparison that offends me (and perhaps others, though I can only speak for myself). It is the reductive, overly simplified, knee-jerk manner in which it is most commonly employed to which I take offense.

I have made this argument in the past, when conservatives would compare Obama to Hitler, and I am making the same argument now, when liberals compare Trump to Hitler, or compare immigrant detention centers to concentration camps. Analogies to Hitler, Nazis, the Third Reich, or the Holocaust must be nuanced. Not just because we are temporally removed from these events by over half a century, but because they have become more than just components of history. They have since become extremely visceral symbols that immediately and forcefully bring to mind some of the most terrible elements of humanity, including “hatred,” “indifference,” and “dictatorships,” but most of all, “evil.”

It is important for us as a nation to talk about the pros and cons of democratic socialist policies, and also about the dangers of populism predicated on hatred and fear of “the other,” and what happened in Germany in the 1930s and 40s is a useful comparison, but just calling someone a Nazi or Hitler (Obama in the case of the former and Trump in the case of the latter) doesn’t actually intend to start those conversations. Likewise, it is important for us as a nation to address the deplorable conditions at immigrant detention centers and considering the similarities to actions taken by the Third Reich in the years leading up to the implementation of death camps is an important part of that conversation. But simply calling these places “concentration camps” doesn’t actually serve to start that conversation either.

These are all important conversations, and ones we absolutely need to have as a nation. The problem is, those making comparisons to Hitler and concentration camps are not actually interested in provoking the conversations we desperately need to happen. Conversations are long and boring, and voters are too likely to lose interest and passion over the time it takes to have them. No, the people making these comparisons are doing it to win political points. These reductive comparisons do precisely what they are intended to do: make people outraged. Because outraged people take action, and most importantly, vote. Politicians and pundits are trading on the evilness automatically invoked by these terms to make their opposition appear indefensible. Because what outraged people DON’T do, coincidentally, is listen to one another, which is essential in a fruitful conversation. “This person is Hitler! If you disagree, even a little bit, for any reason, then you are defending Hitler! What kind of human being are you!?” If politicians, pundits and policymakers weren’t using a horrifying and tragic historical event as an easily accessible method of political ammunition, they wouldn’t punctuate their comparisons with the implication that if you don’t automatically agree (and react with the appropriate level of outrage, of course) that x event is like the Holocaust, or person y is like Hitler, then you have no soul or humanity.

THAT is what demeans the memory of the Holocaust. Not only does this behavior NOT help solve our problems, but it will prevent us in the future from actually making sure that nothing like the Holocaust ever happens again.