# Don't call people Nazis **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 7, 2001, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-call-people-nazis/80303 "2001-09-07T22:12:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2001, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-call-people-nazis/80303/101 "2001-09-09T22:51:37Z")
WRING – > [@](#): > > I’m not telling folks ‘don’t use that word in any other way’ (John was the OP, not me). What I am saying is that if some one does use these words in these trivial ways, I will think less of that person. Yeah, I’m with you there. I just went through this with the whole “scoping out the breastas” thread – hearing that I had no right to think less of people who did it, as if in addition to putting up with something, we are actually required to _like_ it. As I’ve said regarding this usage of “rape,” I don’t like it either. JOHN, I’ve got no quarrel with the way you couched your thread – I’ve got no quarrel with you at all. I just think that the flaw in the assertion “Do not use [Particular Word] lightly, because [Particular Word] means ” is that it presumes that [Particular Word] means to everybody – i.e., everyone uses it the same way you do and invests it with the same meaning you do. I don’t think that’s a safe assumption for “Nazi,” since several people (including me) do _not_ invest it with your meaning. But like I said, knowing it bugs you, I’ll try to make a point not to use it. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2001, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-call-people-nazis/80303/102 "2001-09-09T22:55:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jodi \* > \*\*Yeah, I’m with you there. \*\* See, I knew we were on the same side 😃 (I stepped into that ‘brestas’ thread, too. pretty amazing.) ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-call-people-nazis/80303/103 "2001-09-10T03:53:29Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by TVeblen \* > Evil cloaked itself under niggly, everyday hassles and morphed them into nightmare…That’s the shared nightmare: unimaginable horrors resulted from ordinary people just like us slowly corrupted by tiny, carefully doled flashes of power…(Calling someone a Nazi is) used as an INSULT, a deadly putdown. It’s shared shorthand for everyday schmucks getting off on stupid, pointless exercises of power…_ I’m still not sure how it’s appropriate to call a WalMart clerk a Nazi because he wouldn’t allow you to return a CD. Now maybe if this clerk had already written a book detailing his plan for world domination and for crushing the menace posed by disgruntled customers, and was heading an up-and-coming political party… I’ll have to disagree with you, Veb. Petty, irritative abuses of power have been with us forever. Nazism means a lot more than that to many of us. ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-call-people-nazis/80303/104 "2001-09-10T06:45:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jackmannii \* > \*\*Now maybe if this clerk had already written a book detailing his plan for world domination and for crushing the menace posed by disgruntled customers, and was heading an up-and-coming political party… > > I’ll have to disagree with you, Veb. Petty, irritative abuses of power have been with us forever. Nazism means a lot more than that to many of us. \*\* Oh, please. Try another straw man. Of COURSE tired, wrung-out, every-day despots have always existed. The peculiar genius–and evil–consisted of perverting small, mundane hassles and grudges until they cumulated into the juggernaut known as the Holocaust. What part of this don’t you understand? I meant exactly what I wrote. _Evil can, did and will start “small”._ All it takes are enough ordinary people given license for grudges and a convenient scapegoat. Understand the horror–and the lesson yet? Do you honestly think a nation of ordinary people were converted by position papers? They were corrupted _one person at a time_ by being validated in everyday abuses of power. It wasn’t “got the manifesto right here; gonna study up on being a monster”. Read history, damnit. Nazis taught the world how cumulative power can be summoned from everday people. All it takes is playing up common woes, a slick PR approach and carefully indentified scapegoats. It starts _one person at a time_, with small choices and bitches. If you think you’re immune, you’re fodder. Veb [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-call-people-nazis/80303.md?page=5)