_Godwin_ on Godwin

[James A. Donald]

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At 07:51 PM 3/1/2001 -0600, Aimee Farr wrote:
 >  the need to remember the gravity of what the Nazis did.

But those invoking Godwin's law seldom do so because the gravity of Nazi 
crimes is being depreciated by some comparison.

Rather their objection is that because the nazi crimes were uniquely 
wicked, and X is not uniquely wicked, a comparison of nazis with X does not 
apply -- in other words that the evil of the nazis was unique, so we need 
learn no lessons from history.

Of course the evil of the nazis was far from unique, it was merely one of 
the larger of many similar twentieth century crimes -- the armenians, the 
kulaks, and so on and so forth.

The evil of the nazis is not unique.  Over and over again the same causes 
led to the same consequences, and the only way we can stop it from 
happening again and again is to pay attention.

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          James A. Donald
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