California Conservative

By and large, politics is a game of heavy rhetoric. A professional league.

In recent years, the rhetoric has become not only more mean-spirited, but also redundant. The art of rhetoric remains the same: using select words to beat your opponents by damaging their image and, thusly, their credibility. Namely, as the Armageddon Project observes, “Words are weapons.”

Of all the tactics used, there are a few oft-embraced words (in collective reference) that qualify as the biggest weapons: Those words are “Nazi” and “Hitler.” In political arguments, they are thrown like grenades. A self-detonating rhetorical device.

Much has been written about the practice of branding your opponent a “nazi,” but it’s worth pointing out something else that happens with overuse: The weapon becomes less effective. Especially in rhetoric, a repeated word loses its edge and, eventually, the power of its meaning. It’s also like the boy who cried wolf: people stop listening.

When it comes to these two words, that’s unfortunate. They refer to one of the world’s greatest past evils, but now are thrown about so commonly that the significance is lost. Seinfeld joking about a “soup nazi” would certainly be no laughing matter in 1945, especially to New York jews which the show represents.

Is there a meter to gauge overuse? When you find Saddam, smokers, Martha Stewart and Hitler being put in the same boat, you’ve got a pretty good sign. Beautiful Atrocities has an amusing round-up of people being called “Hitler.” Judge the merits for yourself.

In the future, perhaps some restraint and consideration is in order. But we won’t count on it.

RELATED: Michelle Malkin quips, “You know you haven’t made it in public life if you haven’t been compared to Hitler.”

Amnesty’s Liberal Hyperbole: U.S. “Gulag”

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 2nd, 2005 at 7:08 am and is filed under Culture, Miscellania, Quotable. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.