Traitors, Nazis and the need to tone it down
We should not be unfairly smearing people as a shortcut around logical argumentation.
Putting aside all of the culture war nonsense about an American Eagle jeans ad featuring a "blonde" woman (who is not a natural blonde), what this ought to do is make us think about the language we use. This intersects with the allegations that President Obama personally directed the federal government to go after President Trump, and both sides need to calm down.
First, let's consider the allegation that the AE advertisement is "Nazi" propaganda. I'm not going to get into the arguments other than this: We all throw around the word "Nazi" far too often. The Nazis murdered two thirds of all Jews in Europe. In addition to being defamatory, calling people "Nazis" dilutes the meaning of the word and is disrespectful to the victims of Nazi Germany. When American Eagle starts rounding up people to be gassed by the millions, that word will be justified.
There is no better ally to actual Nazis than the people who dilute the meaning of the word by over-applying it to everyone who holds "offensive" views or says "offensive" words. By making people skeptical of every accusation that someone holds Nazi or white supremacist views, over-using the word provides cover to legitimately bad actors who have malignant motives.
While the Left likes to over-use "Nazi," the Right does the same thing with "traitor." Let's assume for the sake of argument that the allegations about President Obama criminally abusing his office to invent a fake scandal and disrupt President Trump's administration are 100% true. It is not treason, because treason has a very specific definition in our Constitution:
Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.
There are a lot of things you can say about President Obama's actions regarding Russiagate, but treason is not one of them. We need to be a lot more careful throwing around the T word, both because we risk diluting the meaning of a very serious crime and because we should not be needlessly labeling people as traitors when that is not warranted. This admonition includes me, obviously. I am speaking to myself as much as anyone else.
Ultimately, words like "Nazi" and "traitor" are a shortcut around logical argumentation. It allows people to dismiss arguments without seriously engaging the content. It is lazy and shows a lack of seriousness. We all need to have more maturity and act like adults, without becoming needlessly "offended" and dismissing people and their arguments. Calling someone a "Nazi" or a "traitor" often says a lot more about the person applying the label than it does about the target of the smear.