Reduction

The problems with the stereotypical reductio ad Holocaust when it comes to making comparisons to current affairs are many and varied. This LinkedIn post, and repost, illustrate a couple of them for me.

Part of the problem comes from the way the Nazi Party and the Third Reich are viewed today. Rather than having embarked on poor policy born of extremism, they're typically seen as irredeemably Evil, and, as such, willfully perverse. And to the degree that this is part and parcel of the Nazi "brand," as it were, it's really hard to convince people that "never again is now," because things are already set for "this time, it's different." If, as I'm guessing (there's something of a lack of context here) that Mr. Latz is referring to the Trump Administration's stepped up (or simply off-the-hook) immigration enforcement, the Administration and it's supporters don't see themselves as anything like the Nazi government of 1930s and 40s Germany. Even if Mr. Latz is referring to conditions in the Gaza strip, the same is true of the Netanyahu Administration. In both cases, the governments involved see themselves as fighting the good, and just, fight against people who are engaged in either direct wrongdoing, or willful support of others who are so engaged.

To stick with the United States for the time being (since, as an American, it's what I have the most experience with), the Trump administration doesn't see itself as perverse. If anything, it sees prior (Democratic) Administrations, and their "lax" enforcement of the United States-Mexico border, as the willfully perverse ones, deliberately swelling the ranks of non-citizens in the country as a means of keeping themselves in power with the support of "undeserving others" who have no legitimate right to reside on American soil.

And this takes me to Ms. Dorsey's repost. The second Trump Administration didn't come into place due to a military, or even civilian coup against the Biden Administration (as much as it appears that the outgoing first Trump Administration may have worked to spark one). Donald Trump was duly elected the President of the United States. And while many supporters of Trumpism may have pooh-poohed his rhetoric on immigrants and immigration out of not wanting to be directly associated with it's overt racialism, now that the Administration's immigration policy, which mainly targets states in which the President lost, mind you, is in place, they see it as being at best of direct benefit to themselves, and at worst, someone else's problem, of no real concern to them.

And even if one considers the roughly third of the American electorate that views itself (accurately or not) as Independent of partisan labels, this just isn't a big deal for them. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the United States Border Patrol aren't coming for them, and they have other problems of their own to manage. Even if the actions of the Trump Administration aren't doing them a lot of good, halting the broad border enforcement and deportation initiatives aren't the solutions that they need.

Democrats and other left-leaning segments of American society, on the other hand, are already "rising up." Their problem is that protest is the last resort of the politically powerless. Republican lawmakers, whether in state capitols, or in Washington D.C., aren't going to stand up for them, or work to advance their interests, because there's nothing in it for them. They're going to face primary challenges from a Right wing that sees them as insufficiently committed to the Cause, and it's not as if Democratic voters are going to back them over one of their own.

So the problem here isn't that people aren't paying attention, or are unwilling to push back; it's that such pushback really only matters come election time, and no-one really concerns themselves with angry partisans otherwise.

There's never any profit in attempting to influence people to change by holding up a mirror and expecting them to see Nazis in it. The people who have come to see themselves as on the wrong side of their own ethics don't need such a heavy-handed reminder that they're not living up to the persons they want to be, and people who are comfortable in themselves tend to respond with anger and resentment. The label of "Evil" is Othering, and its primary point is to cast those so labeled as undeserving of the sorts of obligations that people otherwise have to one another. It's a mantle that few are willing to shoulder voluntarily.