The GP shouldn't have included that flamebait, but please don't respond to flamebait by bursting entirely into flames. That's going the wrong way down a one-way street, since we're trying for exactly the opposite here.

Of course it's a highly emotional topic and justly so, but one of our intentions here is that we all work on self-regulation around this kind of thing (e.g. processing strong reactions internally before rushing to comments) - not really for ethical reasons, but just because it's the only way to avoid the failure modes of internet forums.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

>Downvote me again if you want

no problem, any time

HN guidelines: "Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading."

I agree, and I vote accordingly.

Declaring a group or philosophy "off limits," and to say it "has no parallel," seems certain to eventually invite just such a parallel. Hitler didn't wake up one day, speak an incantation that resulted in possession by an eldritch creature of unimaginable evil, and then carry out plans for dehumanizing world domination. Dehumanizing the other, authoritarian fascism, and expansive conquest are common themes in human history, and what sets that era and group apart is more the confluence of all of those things with the time that technology made more horrific things possible than previous such events, and more easily documented than previous such events. Even in that era, Hitler wasn't alone among the Axis power to engage in barbaric atrocities, which only focusing on Japanese prison camps in mainland China makes clear.

So no, absolutely not, those subject should never be off-limits. Already your desire to mythologize the holocaust may have caused you to overlook what was happening halfway around the globe. Certainly treating the holocaust as a special case that could never be repeated seems guaranteed to cause people to miss warning signs as those same principles rise in popularity again, as history shows they have and do and will.

If there is a reason to draw a parallel, then why not? Well maybe in America but the rest of the world is not taking part of these oppression Olympics.

> The evils Hitler inflicted has no parallel.

The evils Hitler inflicted has plenty of parallels. It doesn't diminish how bad it was to acknowledge that there have been plenty of horrible people throughout history. Post WWII PR efforts made Hitler a cultural icon of evil. Let's not mince words. He was maximally evil by any relevant framework. But putting him on a different plane of moral existence is a disservice to those suffering from the evil of other, non-hitler, evil people.

> Casual comparisons like yours means that the lessons learnt from the holocaust will lose their power and ultimately be forgotten.

While I agree with the message of your comment (i.e. the critique of everybody using the word Nazi for everything they don't like), I feel you make another mistake here by - probably unconsciously - reducing Hitler's misdeed to the Holocaust. This is very upsetting to huge populations of non-Jewish people who lost many members of their families during WW2. Especially to Russians - they lost 27M as opposed to 6M Jews. I don't want to compare the horror of both numbers in any way, just want to mention this because I notice more and more many people seem to reduce the evil of WW2 to the Holocaust.

Unfortunately the evils perpetrated by Hitler have many parallels. The human race has committed many acts of evil and extermination often along genetic lines. We owe the few victims who are still alive almost 80 years later our sympathy and our commitment to prevent future evil but we do not owe them our silence. These events are like it or not part of our common historical context.

I absolutely would accuse someone of color of imitating a slave,r if the shoe fits wear it. I have never been afraid to step on toes and I don't think society should fear to give offense if it gets in the way of honest discussion. Contrary to your assertion I think discussion keeps the events of the holocaust top of mind and relevant. Too many already deny it even happened.

Also complaints about getting downvoted attract downvotes.

On the primary topic of discussion do be aware that a Israeli terrorist detector might misidentify both Jewish people and Palestinians but who do you think would be subject to additional scrutiny or mistreatment? Such tools run the risk of attaching seemingly scientific justifications to our pre existing prejudices.

The lessons will lose their potency not because of comparisons like these but because most people don't particularly care about history and don't want to expend the effort of knowing history as opposed to other things they could be doing.

Usually, mentioning Nazism doesn't work well due to the way it invites flame-wars, to the point where Godwin's Law is well known. However, the specific irony they mentioned is in fact a valid observation: pseudoscience used by the state with grave consequences. I am saying this even though I myself have a strong pro-Israel bias.

Asimov mentioned this idea in a discussion with Elie Wiesel with reference to the treatment of the Edomites as described in scripture. It's an argument that has more to do with exploring the nature of political power itself than to demonize a specific group. It just so happens that in this case we have a group that has experienced one of the most poignant extremes of this phenomenon, hence why it comes up often.

Is the spotlight often placed repeatedly and with unfair frequency on Israel? I personally think it is. But that doesn't close off the topic on its own.

> You wouldn't dare accuse people of colour of imitating slave traders

Not just imitating, but being slave traders too, either in the past or even today. Plenty of tribes in Africa sold other Africans to Europeans, and slavery is still very much a thing in Africa today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Africa

https://qz.com/africa/1333946/global-slavery-index-africa-ha...

If coloured people begang doing things that very much looked like what others have suffered through as slaves they would most definitely be called out. Israel is not like the Nazis but they are one of the closest things we have seen since and not just a single fluke but again and again.

I agree that Hitler was evil on a scale unlike any other. I also think comparisons should be carefully thought out and not tossed out carelessly. I do disagree with the notion that we should never compare to Hitler and the Nazis. To completely refrain makes them a one off, and treats them as if that could never happen again. I think the tools available to dictators today make the rise of someone or something like that more likely. So I think it is very important that we guard against that, and look carefully at the lessons of history. Again emphasizing we should be careful and not make comparisons callously.