Ace CB: German SDE Julius Welschof to Michigan

First of all, despite the name, the Nazis were fascist, not socialist. As Mussolini described it, fascism is the marriage of state power with corporate power. I think it’s pretty undeniable that we have a form of that already in the US. Thankfully we don’t have anything resembling the Holocaust, even despite the various forms of discrimination (both official and otherwise) commonly visited in this country upon people of color, immigrants, GLBTQ, and other populations. But sadly, this seems to be an objective of so many people on the so-called “alt-right.” You are certainly correct that Nazi is an imprecise term. But it’s not that imprecise, and anyway enough of these right-wing groups use it themselves. Keep in mind that Hitler’s Nazis started out basically the same way as a lot of these contemporary loser groups—mobs of right-wing thugs who terrorized minorities and fought with German leftists in the streets. I think it’s more than fair to point out meaningful similarities. This idea that, “oh, well, Germany had the Holocaust so you can never compare anything happening in the US to anything the Nazis ever did” seems pretty off-base to me. I do think comparisons to the Third Reich are often abused, and it’s such an extreme example that its use often discredits the speaker. But sometimes it’s appropriate.