Stop with the Hitler Analogies

the AZEL PERSPECTIVE Commentary on Cuba's Future, U.S. Foreign Policy & Individual Freedoms - Issue 359 B   José Azel's latest books "On Freedom" and "Sobre La Libertad" are now available on Amazon.  Stop with the Hitler Analogies (Previously published) Share Tweet Forward Reductio ad Hitlerum, for reduction to Hitler, is a term coined in 1951 by University of Chicago Professor Leo Strauss (1899-1973). With Reductio ad Hitlerum Professor Strauss sought to show that playing the Nazi card is an attempt to invalidate someone’s position on the basis that the same view was held by Adolf Hitler or the Nazi Party. For instance, Nazi Germany was against smoking; so are you, therefore you are a Nazi. Or Hitler was a vegetarian, so vegetarianism is bad. Essentially, Reductio ad Hitlerum is a technique for undermining debate by accusing the opponent of being a Nazi.  Jose Azel in Auschwitz Memorial & Museum - Former German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp. According to Strauss, a view is not refuted by the fact that it happens to have been shared by Hitler, and Reduction ad Hitlerum proposes a rationale of guilt by association. If a policy is similar to one advocated by Hitler, then that is proof that the policy is undesirable. Reductio ad Hitlerum also takes the form of deliberately impugning certain ideas by implying that Hitler held similar ideas. Commentator Glen Beck is often criticized for his use of Reductio ad Hitlerum, for example by comparing the U.S. Government’s National Endowment for the Arts to Hitler’s Propaganda Ministry under Joseph Goebbels.  At times, both sides of an argument unreflectively accuse each other of Hitler-like behavior. Pro-gun advocates of the Second Amendment point out how Hitler, the dictator, carried out mass confiscation of private firearms; while gun control supporters accuse their pro-gun adversaries of Hitler-like behavior in wishing to deregulate gun ownership. It turns out that, when Hitler assumed power, German gun ownership was restricted under the gun control provisions imposed by the 1919 Versailles Decree, and Hitler deregulated the acquisition and transfer of long guns as well as of ammunition. Germany was officially disarmed under the Allied Occupation at the end of World War II.  There is even a rule for the use of Hitler analogies. Godwin’s Law -promulgated by American attorney and author Mike Godwin- is an internet adage asserting that: “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Hitler approaches 100 percent.” In other words, regardless of the topic, if a discussion goes on long enough, someone will compare someone else or something else to Hitler-like behavior.  Godwin introduced this principle as a memetic tool hoping to reduce the incidence of inappropriate hyperbolic comparisons to Hitler. A tradition has now developed, in news groups and other discussion forums that, when a Hitler comparison is made, the discussion is finished and whoever made the comparison loses the debate - great idea.  Both President Trump and President Obama, were victims of Reductio ad Hitlerum accusations. Users intend their accusations as a stand-in for pure evil. But the problem with Reductio ad Hitlerum accusations in political, and other everyday debates is that it trivializes the real pure evil of the Holocaust. As such, Reductio ad Hitlerum accusations are offensive to the Jewish community, and to those that have suffered the consequences of Nazi ideology.  Nazi ideology brought together elements of anti-Semitism, racial hygiene, and eugenics. It combined these abhorrent concepts with pan-Germanism and territorial expansionism. Reduction to Hitler is a lazy, unimaginative accusation. It is not intellectually acceptable to demonize political opponents over inconsequential policy differences by associating them with the horrors of the Holocaust.  I have visited the concentration and extermination camps in Auschwitz and Brzezinka where at least 1.1 million people died, 90 percent of them Jews. I have walked in somber silence among the exhibits and the barracks recalling the Nazi brutality passionately exposed in the first- person accounts of Auschwitz survivors like Elie Wiesel and Viktor Frankl. And I find it appalling that we should elect to criticize someone’s political views with reference to the atrocities of Auschwitz.  During World War II, the Allies failed to act on early reports of the barbarism taking place at Auschwitz. It is ironic that, once again, we are rhetorically dismissive of Nazi barbarism with our frivolous use of Nazi analogies. It is time to retire Reduction to Hitler from our speech and writings.  Please let us know if you  this article. We welcome your feedback. Abrazos, Lily & José (click on the name to email Lily or Jose) José Azel, Ph.D. José Azel left Cuba in 1961 as a 13 year-old political exile in what has been dubbed Operation Pedro Pan - the largest unaccompanied child refugee movement in the history of the Western Hemisphere.   He is currently dedicated to the in-depth analyses of Cuba's economic, social and political state, with a keen interest in post-Castro-Cuba strategies. Dr. Azel was a Senior Scholar at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS) at the University of Miami, Jose Azel has published extensively on Cuba related topics. In 2012 and 2015, Dr. Azel testified in the U.S. Congress on U.S.-Cuba Policy, and U.S. National Security.  He is a frequent speaker and commentator on these and related topics on local, national and international media.  He holds undergraduate and masters degrees in business administration and a Ph.D. in International Affairs from the University of Miami. José along with his wife Lily are avid skiers and adventure travelers.  In recent years they have climbed Grand Teton in Wyoming, trekked Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Machu Pichu in Peru.  They have also hiked in Tibet and in the Himalayas to Mt. Everest Base Camp. They cycled St. James Way (El Camino de Santiago de Compostela) and cycled alongside the Danube from Germany to Hungary and throughout southern France.  They have scuba dived in the Bay Islands off the Honduran coast and in the Galapagos Islands. Most recently, they rafted for 17 days 220 miles in the Grand Canyon.  Their adventurers are normally dedicated to raise funds for causes that are dear to them.  Watch Joe & Lily summit Kilimanjaro. Books by Dr. José Azel José Azel’s writings are touched with the wisdom of a master, and the charm of an excellent communicator. Anyone who wishes to understand why countries do, or do not, progress will find in this book the best explanations. And, from these readings emerge numerous inferences: How and why do the good intentions of leftist collectivism lead countries to hell? Why is liberty not a sub product of prosperity, but rather one of its causes? If it was in my power, this work would be required reading for all college and university students, and I would also recommend its reading to all politicians, journalists, and policymakers. With his writings Azel accomplishes what was achieved in France by Frédéric Bastiat, and in the United States by Henry Hazlitt: Azel brings together common sense with intelligent observation, and academic substance. Stupendous, Carlos Alberto Montaner                                                                    BUY NOW Los escritos de José Azel están tocados por la sabiduría de un maestro y la amenidad de un excelente comunicador. Cualquiera que desee entender por qué los países progresan, o no, encontrará en este libro las mejores explicaciones. De estas lecturas surgen numerosas inferencias: ¿Cómo y por qué las buenas intenciones del colectivismo de izquierda llevan a los países al infierno? ¿Por qué la libertad no es un subproducto de la prosperidad, sino una de sus causas? Si estuviera en mis manos, esta obra sería de obligada lectura de todos los estudiantes universitarios, pero además, le recomendaría su lectura a todos los políticos, periodistas y policy makers. Con sus escritos Azel logra lo que Frédéric Bastiat consiguiera en Francia y Henry Hazlitt en Estados Unidos: aunar el sentido común, la observación inteligente y la enjundia académica. Estupendo. Carlos Alberto Montaner                                                            Compre Aqui "Liberty for beginners is much more than what the title promises. It is eighty themes touched with the wisdom of a master, and the charm of an excellent communicator. Anyone that wishes to understand why countries do, or do not progress, will find in this book the best explanations. Stupendous" Carlos Alberto Montaner Buy Now "Libertad para novatos es mucho más de lo que promete el título. Son ochenta temas tocados con la sabiduría de un maestro y la amenidad de un excelente comunicador. Cualquier adulto que desee saber por qué progresan o se estancan los pueblos aquí encontrará las mejores explicaciones. Estupendo." Carlos Alberto Montaner Compre Aqui In Reflections on Freedom, José Azel brings together a collection of his columns published in prestigious newspapers.  Each article reveals his heartfelt and personal awareness of the importance of freedom in our lives.  They are his reflections after nearly sixty years of living and learning as a Cuban outside Cuba. In what has become his stylistic trademark, Professor Azel brilliantly introduces complex topics in brief journalistic articles. Buy Now En Reflexiones sobre la libertad José Azel reúne una colección de sus columnas publicadas en prestigiosos periódicos. Cada artículo revela su percepción sincera y personal de la importancia de la libertad en nuestras vidas. Son sus reflexiones después de casi sesenta años viviendo y aprendiendo como cubano fuera de Cuba.  En lo que ha resultado ser característica distintiva de sus artículos, el Profesor Azel introduce con brillantez complejos temas en  breves artículos de carácter periodístico. Compre Aqui Mañana in Cuba is a comprehensive analysis of contemporary Cuba with an incisive perspective of the Cuban frame of mind and its relevancy for Cuba's future. Buy now Pedazos y Vacíos is a collection of poems written in by Dr. Azel in his youth. Poems are in Spanish. Buy now To friend, follow or email author click on the icons below: Click here to: View this email in your browser Access past issues Access automated translations Facilitate sharing Print from your browser Copyright © 2022 Azel & Associates, All rights reserved. If you are receiving this email it is because we met you at some point on an adventure. Our mailing address is: Azel & Associates 440 Sawgrass Parkway, Suite 106 Sunrise, FL 33325 Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list