It is an unpopular opinion because many of them display swastikas and other Nazi symbols, praise Hitler, uphold the same supremacist beliefs, and have way too much in common with the Nazis. So calling them Nazis is accurate. It's not really bending the definition.

If it quacks like a duck...

Seems like your discomfort is showing. Might want to tuck that back in.

We have people in power who explicitly want to exterminate minorities (see those leaked text messages) and we have a sizeable population willing to trust and empower those people. It's not bending the definition to call them Nazis.

They didn't build Auschwitz the day after Hitler got appointed chancellor. They built up to it. I don't know how you can look at a government that's literally building and populating concentration camps with people who haven't broken the law and clutch pearls about calling them Nazis until they scale up sufficiently. The best thing you can honestly call them is proto-nazis.

“They’re not Nazis unless they’re from the Nazi regime of Germany. Otherwise they’re just sparkling Fascists.” -you.

But then, by your own logic, we can’t call them Fascists either, since that term was made to describe Italian Authoritarianism.

Good Samaritan

Lesbian

Barbarian

Plenty of words we now use today started out referring to people in a specific time and place.

Further, what's the use of remembering the horrors of the Nazis if we don't recognize the early warning signs of those same horrors today? The "National Socialist German Workers' Party" was around for over a decade before they started the holocaust. It seems like too little too late to wait until the genocide begins to start drawing parallels.

Wile I respect your point of view here, you seem to be missing the fact that Nazis didn't just go away at the end of WWII. Many former Nazis ended up in powerful business and political positions post-wwii, and the ideas maintained popularity with the people the were popular with. This transitioned into neo-nazi-ism, white power skinheads, Aryan Nation, Aryan, brotherhood, modern German AFD part, the 3rd wave of the KKK, countless militia movements, and on and on and on. These all have a direct lineage with the actual Nazis from WWII. When we call these people Nazis, it's not because we're being hyperbolic about their beliefs, it's because they are Nazis.

1. Many of these hate groups outright use nazi iconography and self identify as nazis and talk about how much they love hitler.
2. I honestly don't care if the (increasingly passed on due to age) generation that directly experienced WW2 and the events leading up to it are grumpy that the term "nazi" is being used again. I very much DO care about the current world that is dealing with a global resurgence of nazis/"nazis". History should be learned from and if your only takeaway from WW2 was "German parties that identify as Socialists are bad" then you missed the point.

Just to expand on the last bit some more: World War 2 was (approximately) the early 1940s. I forget what the official dates are but it wasn't a bubble and there was lead up and ramp down afterwards.

1940 was 85 years ago. So for someone to be a child with meaningful memories of the time puts them closer to 95 right now. For someone to have actively fought (late teens), that gets to 100. This is WHY basically any reputable WW2 historian will have some variation of "I was fortunate enough to talk to so and so before they passed" because... the odds are very "good" they did.

Which contributes a lot towards why we see such a resurgence. All the olds who actually experienced it are dead and not around to say "the fuck is wrong with you".

The US is nothing like Nazi Germany, the Nazi concentration camps had trains.

You: "Calling people klansmen just because you don't like their beliefs or opinions belittles what blacks went through. Racist? Sure, but don't change history"

Guy in a Klan hood beside you: "yeah what he said"

"I do have a Nazi streak"

• Paul Ingrassia

Did all "nazis" actively do crimes against humanity? Whats the bar they have to hit to be a nazi? Put on a uniform? shoot a roma? say non-aryans are sub human? You want to draw a bright line between national socialists and racists, I'm not going to stop you, but I think nazi is just short hand for bootlicking people who enable the dehumanizing of others at this point in time.

What word would you prefer?

I disagree with hyperbole, too, however, they're praising Nazis, arguing for an ethnostate, and following the Nazi playbook to dismantle democracy: that's pretty close.

Nazi was a derogatory term used against the national socialist party but was eventually embraced in defiance. Let's not change history and make nazi some kind of honored title.

In theory you are not wrong but you ignore that language evolves, in modern times it means someone agrees or at least sympathizes with NSDAP ideology/ideas and no "they don't hate Jews so they are different" is not an excuse Nazis back in the days only chose Jews because they were a minority and could be blamed for everything.

I suppose you believe the Democratic Peoples Republic of North Korea is democratic too.

I agree with all the other comments in this thread. And I would also add that Republicans modus operandi is closer to to German nazis than Italian fascists.

Fascists used violence, an open coup and support from the existing monarchy and government to gain control. Nazis tried the same thing first and failed miserably so next they ran elections and slowly subverted parliamentary democracy to gain the same control. Once they had enough support in parliament they ramped up the violence of the SA militias (equivalent to ICE) to gain a majority and be uncontested.

Ah, sorry, our mistake.

Neo-nazi. Is that better?

Where does the meaning come from? God? Are we in a video game where someone programmed words to have specific meaning? I never understood where the root authority comes from. Many people are using Nazi to describe fascists but if you can't derive meaning from how people use words... where does the authority come from?

I think you're getting the downvotes (and I think I saw a few others mention this) because your argument is rooted in the word keeping the exact definition it was historically created in.

People who 'simp' for China are not 'Mao apologists' but that'd be a fine enough term for me to understand exactly who, in the modern day, is being insulted.

In similar fashion, no, existing fascists in the republican party are not literally National Socialist German Workers' Party members, but they DO have a lot of similarities to the values and actions we have distilled down over the last 80 years that we attribute to 'Nazis'.

So, no, they're not Nazis, but to call them such isn't to 'change history...' as you put it, and is instead a means of identifying extreme and harmful beliefs with an existing, demonized (for good reason) label to accent the severity of their beliefs as they compare to modern sensibilities related to freedom.

They downvoted you because you became a Dictionary Nazi, the Grammar Nazi's even less-liked younger brother

Anyone else noticed a rise in right wing/troll accounts on Lemmy recently?

Really? It doesn’t also extend to people who follow their beliefs, have power in government, have literal Nazi tattoos, and are installing far right fascism throughout the world as we speak? Are literally seig heiling at political rallies?

Like sorry son, but I don’t just think you’re wrong here, I think you’re so far off the mark you’re hitting Jupiter with that shit.

I mean, that character was a literal Nazi though... Like from WW2

Go home, grammar Nazi, your ignorance of how linguistic usage determines meaning is showing

This is a lot of text for the distinction between Nazi and neo Nazi. Neo Nazis commit atrocities, murders within their limited capabilities. They are (on some level) the same.

Ooof.

Your opinion isn't unpopular, it is objectively wrong.

Yeah, I prefer fascist autocrat to make sure people know I'm not fucking around. But nazi (lower case) is a fine shorthand. Neo-nazi almost suggests we're talking about a non-mainstream movement. MAGA if I want to be specific.

I refer to NSDAP when talking about the German Worker's Socialist Party that wasn't really all that socialist and got a lot of funding from Benz and Bavarian Motor Works, and had no small thing for Wagner's version of the Wotanic mythos.

Well, you're a fucking idiot.

Shut the fuck up.

Language evolves. Many words have roots in other words with similar meanings.
The word Nazi has evolved to describe people who in a group together think they are better as the rest and deserve to punish them for existing since a long time ago.

It doesn’t matter if you put your ding in the dong, the damage you cause is the same.

And I feel like anyone making arguments like this has already assaulted and thinks something like “ehh wasn’t rapping so can’t be too bad, no?” while being a human disgrace…

prescriptivists are lingual nazis

I agree it’s sometimes overused but looking at the current leaders of the Republican Party and comparing their views and actions to the definition of fascism, do you really think it’s not accurate? And if so what are the main differences in your view?

What in the fascist apologism? Buds pull the fucking head out of your arse.