Re:The Age of Cretinism
by fvdessen on Monday August 13, 2018 @05:07AM
(#17748847)
The concept of 'Godwin Point' seem to have been completely forgotten in the last two years. Gratuitous Hitler comparisons used to mean that the discussion had degenerated into meaninglessness. Now it's in opening paragraph of serious articles, by serious authors. The global debate has degenerated into meaninglessness.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
In this context, Godwin's law is nothing more than a thought-terminating-cliché. These comparisons are not gratuitous: Nazism and the alt-right are both populism, using similar rhetoric to seize power. The apparent apathy in the population is extremely similar.
Many people grew up wondering how Nazi Germany could appear out of nowhere. We are seeing right now the institutions and power balances being eroded in western democracies. This article is about India, but perfectly captures the political, psychological, moral dynamics at play. These are not operating in a vacuum, and while the context is not exactly the same, those dynamics are absolutely similar and should be compared.
At what point does it become fair to describe literal imitations of the developments that led to the rise of Nazi Germany as such? Such comparisons should not be made lightly, but when how far do we have to go in that direction before "Godwin's Law" stops being invoked to stop criticism?
When a politician starts to literally call for the end of democracy, freedom of speech, genocide of people, conquest of neighbouring countries, nationalisation of major industries, etc ?
All or some?
Also: Freedom of speech is a gradient not a binary, so its loss is harder to notice if done slowly; ditto the balance between nationalisation and privatisation (the fomer I prefer lots; the latter, I don’t really care where the balance is so long as it’s not either extreme).
I would suggest that if you wait that long you've waited too long.
Too long to fight against it, or to make Hitler comparisons ?