OUCH! 😳 (X & Text) Colbert: "Do not compare ICE or Border Patrol agents to the Nazis.

[malthaussen]

29. It's like calling all US Military personnel "Republicans."

Except the Republicans cast their net more widely than did the Nazis, so more US Military personnel are probably Republicans than German military were Nazis.

What you call "hair-splitting," I call "avoiding stereotyping." I actually think it's kind of important.

Evil does not prosper because people are inherently evil. It prospers because average, decent people choose to go along to get along. The Nazis didn't go to war with the whole world because everybody in the country was a fanatical Nazi, they did because not enough people stood up and opposed the madness. Calling a German soldier a "Nazi" is intellectually lazy, inaccurate, and does not recognize the fact that most of them only acted as they did because it was the easy way out -- just like people have acted since time immemorial, just like a lot of Americans are acting now. It is "othering" an enemy for the purposes of hating him, and permitting any conduct towards him, which among other things is diametrically opposed to Christian scripture (not that it matters). It's what propaganda trains us to do, and as such, I think it should be avoided.

-- Mal