Juno News - July 18, 2020


Nazi analogies are ridiculous and lazy


Episode Stats

Length

4 minutes

Words per Minute

198.78816

Word Count

853

Sentence Count

52

Hate Speech Sentences

6


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 So I know it's pretty fashionable to compare everyone to Nazis or to Hitler, but when Alberta
00:00:12.140 Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan does it by comparing Jason Kenney to Joseph Goebbels,
00:00:18.200 that's when I think we have a serious problem. It's not just hyperbole, it's not just ridiculous,
00:00:22.460 you know, over-dramatization of speech, it's actually ridiculous. And I want to talk about
00:00:28.080 that today because this is something that seriously needs to stop. So here we have a story,
00:00:32.220 the tweets apparently are down, so I had to pull up the news story. But here we have Gil McGowan
00:00:36.120 saying, Hitler's propaganda, Chief Joseph Goebbels famously said, always accuse your enemies of what
00:00:39.520 you're doing yourself. That's exactly what's going on with Jason Kenney's union-busting Bill 32,
00:00:44.100 it's the UCP and its corporate friends who are gaming the system. And then he even doubles down
00:00:48.140 and says, and yes, I'm accusing the UCP of adopting tactics pioneered by the Nazis and being implemented
00:00:53.300 by right-wing authoritarians today, Hungary, Turkey, Brazil, India, Trump's America, these are all
00:00:57.760 countries led by authoritarians who Kenney calls friends. So, very, very ridiculous. I want to talk
00:01:04.120 about why it's ridiculous, though, for a couple of reasons. Number one, it really lowers the level
00:01:08.380 of our political discourse. I mean, the main issue here is, when you compare someone to the Nazis,
00:01:14.180 you compare someone to Hitler, there's nowhere to go from there. Hitler was probably the worst person
00:01:18.880 that there was, and did probably the most atrocious things. Now, I understand it's easy to compare it to
00:01:23.620 them because that's just a good catch-all for being bad, but when you compare someone to Hitler,
00:01:29.180 you basically compare them to the worst of the worst, to evil of evil. And so, where do you go from there?
00:01:33.920 If Jason Kenney's Hitler, what happens if Jason Kenney were to hypothetically start actually rounding
00:01:38.280 up people, putting them in, you know, gas chambers, murdering them, making certain people wear different
00:01:43.240 colored clothing to identify themselves? What are you going to call him then? Oh, he's super Hitler?
00:01:47.280 Hitler? He's gone super Saiyan Hitler? Like, that's, this is the ridiculous part. So, it lowers our
00:01:52.660 political discourse, and the main issue is that there's nowhere left to go. There's nowhere left
00:01:56.980 to go from there. Second, it's intellectually lazy by doing that. Again, it's sort of like a catch-all.
00:02:03.220 Third, words have actual meanings. Again, you can't just say that someone is a Nazi because you feel
00:02:09.060 like calling them Nazis. Even if he's adopting some Goebbels tactic, your message is going to get lost,
00:02:14.600 but without providing proof of what is actually happening, that's just so, so intellectually lazy
00:02:20.160 and words actually have meanings, you have to stick to them. It's also, in addition, it's
00:02:25.040 reprehensible to anyone who suffered under the Nazi regime. And I don't just mean Jews. I mean,
00:02:29.320 literally anyone who suffered under the Nazi regime. It sort of diminishes their suffering,
00:02:32.820 saying that Jason Kenney wanting to bust a union is just like concentration camps. It's just like
00:02:38.080 sterilizing people with disabilities. It's just like having political prisoners murdered. It's just the
00:02:43.660 same as that because Gil McGowan says that, you know, it's no problem. They're all doing just like
00:02:48.440 Nazi stuff over there in Alberta. It's just crazy like Nazi Germany, Alberta. The other thing is that
00:02:54.060 it also is really diminishing a level of conversation that we require among our leaders. I expect our
00:03:01.220 leaders to fight for their issues. So he has a constituency. He's a trade union boss. I have no
00:03:05.820 problem with that. He's arguing for his members, but that's not the kind of conversation that you need.
00:03:10.780 All he's done now is set back that cause, set back that dialogue and set back that debate.
00:03:15.660 So if I were a member of the union, I'd be super angry right now because instead of talking about
00:03:20.560 the issue, like I have no, I'm not from Alberta. I have no idea what bill 32 is. I have no idea what's
00:03:24.660 going on. That's how important it is to have important conversations with rational thought and
00:03:31.760 use proper words because now all I know about this guy is that he is using some crazy hyperbole to call
00:03:38.280 Jason Kenney, Joseph Goebbels and a Nazi. So if she was totally gone, maybe I would have supported
00:03:42.940 bill 32, uh, supported his, his action against bill 32, or maybe I would have supported bill 32,
00:03:46.940 who knows? But now all I know is that he's, you know, behaving like a Nazi tool. So let's stop
00:03:52.240 using Nazi analogies. Let's use proper words for things. Let's not be ridiculous in our speech and
00:03:58.740 call people Nazis because it's so intellectually lazy. And again, in short, it just, there's nowhere left
00:04:03.900 to go. Once you call someone Hitler, that's it. If everybody's Hitler, nobody's Hitler and the word
00:04:09.560 has no meaning. So let's think about that. For True North, I'm Sam Ashkenazi. Have yourself
00:04:14.600 a great day and let's not use Nazi analogies. Thanks.