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Blame the Twitterati for the normalization of calling people "Nazis" over slight political disagreements.
by JohnWhigham 5y ago
Blame the Twitterati for the normalization of calling people "Nazis" over slight political disagreements.
- jacquesm 5y agoUsenet wants a word.
- jmull 5y agoIt's a Twitter thing now, but it might be useful to understand that it predates Twitter. E.g., "Goodwin's Law" is supposed to have been coined in 1990, and of course it was a pretty well established phenomenon to earn a coined term. I know from first-hand experience it was happening on BBS's and newsgroups in the '80s. I would be more surprised than not if it wasn't happening before then too. (And if you want to generalize slightly, calling someone a Nazi is simply a current way of demonizing your opponent. People have been demonizing their opponents since well before there were Nazis.)
- h2odragon 5y agoI think we ought to re-invigorate "Philistines" as the term for "people who disagree with us even though we haven't listened to what they said". It's got a better flavor, ya'know? and the whole historical angle should appeal to the kiddies.