Hitler Envy

Comparisons to Hitler or the Nazis are pervasive in our media environment. What is this reductio ad hitlerum doing for us?

The generation immediately following had spent most of its time making incredibly bigoted jokes in order to laugh at the idiots who were stupid enough to think they meant it. Except after a whole they did mean it, and then somehow at the end of it they were Nazis. Was this always how it happened? - Patricia Lockwood, No One Is Talking about This

Whatever…