GitHub reportedly fired a Jewish employee who called Capitol rioters “Nazis”
theverge.com
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I'm disappointed in github for their actions and in the HN community that I see people defending Nazis.
Also, FWIW, this is what 20,000 American Nazis in Madison Square Garden in 1939 looks like. Nazi, white supremacist, neo-confederate, all the same thing, all in America. Complacency and nit-picking verbiage will only make them stronger. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC1MNGFHR58
The US saw some cosplay that went way too far. Is it dangerous? Yes. Is it toxic? Yes. Could it lead to something akin to Nazism? Yes. Is it Nazism? No.
Don't minimize what happened under Nazism by using it as an idle insult
People did fly the Confederate flag though, so "white supremacists" seems beyond a reasonable doubt.
But if it would be significant that people were flying actual Nazi flags, then it must also be significant if they weren't. To some extent. Other demonstrations did have such flags.
This is an example of a more general pattern that's been bothering me recently. It seems like a contradiction to claim that something is a heinous offense, while simultaneously claiming it doesn't matter whether a given person or entity is really guilty or not. This is saying that guilt is and isn't important at the same time.
Nazism is a political ideology which combines the ultranationalism and authoritarianism of fascism with fervent antisemitism, anti-communism, and racism. To the extent that any ideology can be summed up in three words, race-based fascism is a pretty good definition. If you see someone espousing both fascism and racism, labelling them a Nazi or neo-nazi is generally appropriate. To act like nazism is some impossible level of evil that no living person could ever reach is to deny both the reality that millions of people did in fact adhere to these views in the past, and that even today a small but vocal minority see this ideology as legitimate.