A Rant Unworthy of a Title

Current Tunes: “Goodfellas” on AMC

Well, after the past four or five days (maybe more, I don’t pay attention) of both sides of the political spectrum bantering back and forth I decided today I had enough and needed to clear something up.

Let’s talk about Nazis.

I am sick and dog-tired of people on either side of the political aisle yelling and screaming and pointing fingers at their opponents while they scream the other ‘n’ word at the top of their lungs in angry accusation. This nonsense has got to stop. To be fair, it's not everyone on either side, it's really the extremists yelling at other extremists, people who should be marginalized or just flat out ignored. But I was too annoyed by this to just let this go.

Since all this name-calling’s been going on, let me present you with an image-based definition of a nazi-affiliated individual: This is a Nazi. This guy is also a Nazi.

Now, for the sake of comparison, let’s run down a list of people who are NOT nazi and or Hitler-affiliated:

- Former President George W. Bush
- Current President Barack Obama
- Rush Limbaugh
- Barney Frank
- Karl Rove
- Bill O’Reilly
- Rahm Emmanuel

Also, for the sake of even deeper and further clarification (and to give you an especially deep perspective), not even Cobra Commander is a nazi.

There’s a whole host of reasons why this nazi-name-calling on both sides is bad for the country, but let me cover some of my favorites. It’s just flat-out immature and childish and plain ignorant for one thing. Like I said, it’s an equivalent to name-calling. And when you do that, when you resort to that level, you’re actually degrading and undermining the context of that word. The more people you attempt to label a nazi, the less meaningful it becomes. I’m not saying the meaning has to be a positive meaning; I’m saying its negative connotation decreases each time you use it so carelessly.

For another, labeling someone with such a horrendous term in such a careless fashion only aids the cause of real, legitimate racists and supremacists. For one, it helps blur then line between level-minded citizens and extremists and radicals. Even more, it’s labeling, and that’s what racists do; they want people labeled, categorized and compartmentalized.

This nonsense needs to stop. The right says the left is nazi because it supposedly wants socialism, and the left calls the right nazi for supposedly being warmongers and racists. Neither side is correct, plain and simple. The only thing that’s a nazi is a nazi, pure and simple as that.

Why am I so frustrated about this though? It’s just another chink in the long, heavy, rusted and useless chain of American partisan politics. Point the finger and call the other guy the worst thing you can think of. People will keep on doing it, so thoroughly convinced of their stance in the right, when they so completely fail to realize that ignorance far too often leads to the strongest of convictions.