This past few years we have heard both Left and Right groups call the other side “Nazis” somewhat indiscriminately. Of course, the main purpose of this was not to make a comparison to a dark period of 20th-century history, but just to elicit an angry response. However, this is a cheap argument and self-serving argument that betrays and intellectual laziness and ignorance of history.
Now that calling the other side “Nazis” has run its course and no longer elicits the desired response the Left has started to call anything they don’t like “the new Jim Crow.” We especially heard this from those misrepresenting Georgia’s new election reform laws.
We now hear it applied to the filibuster, voter ID, Supreme Court decisions, and any other progressive issue de jour.
I strongly advise that all should read “American Nightmare: The History of Jim Crow” by Jerrold M. Packard. Like Nazi Germany, Jim Crow was a lot darker and more sinister than just a disagreement over a law or some decisions. In places like Mississippi blacks were systematically denied the right to vote through the use of literacy tests, poll taxes, and registrars who arbitrarily denied blacks the right to vote. As a matter of fact, to quote then Mississippi governor James K. Vardaman:
There is now use to equivocate or lie about the matter. Mississippi’s constitutional convention of 1890 was held for no other purpose than to eliminate the n——— from politics…let the world know it just as it is.”
Much of the South was the same and when the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965, only a tiny percentage of eligible African Americans could vote in the South. Jim Crow was the law. Blacks had to use separate facilities, drinking fountains, and use separate seats on public transportation. It was an environment where segregation was mandated.
In South Carolina blacks had to use a separate entrance for events like circuses. If the group holding the event failed to maintain separate entrances they could be hit with substantial fines. The Packard book shows a sign that said:
N——— if you can read / you’d better run / if you can’t read / you’d better run anyway.”
I could go on and on. But Jim Crow was a period of unbelievable malice and repression from accommodations to marriage. Anyone who can’t make the distinction between then and now is ignorant, dishonest, or both. The idiots who call someone a Nazi or a voting law “the New Jim Crow” is speaking volumes about themselves.
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Very true. The Left loves to use words like “Nazi,” “Hitler,” or “Jim Crow” when they have no clue what they are saying. It just stirs up angst in people and they, being equally uniformed, believe what they are hearing.
I wonder how many recall that Sammy Davis jr. Had to use the back door when performing with the Rat Pack
Words are constantly being redefined by the Left with a goal of talking about the words used instead of actually communicating ideas and having meaningful discussion. The Left understands their true goals & policy ideas are not popular. We must not fall into their trap of talking about the words they choose to use. Stick to pointing out their goals & policies.
I love how left wing media does hour long interviews with conservatives like Sean Hannity, edits the interview down to 1 1/2 minutes, and builds their own narrative which makes the conservative interview always sound negative for the conservative. Pay attention viewers. They are always lying and cheating to try and make you believe their point of view.
Leftist here! I think you’re right when you mention how often the left uses terms like Nazi. I agreed with the term Jim Crow to describe this law, but I think you’re correct when you say that Jim Crow was far worse as it included more social practices such as lynchings, and to describe legislation like this as “Jim Crow” bastardizes the legacy of those who lived through it. The left needs to refine its language to be taken more seriously. While I wouldn’t call the law Jim Crow, it definitely is undemocratic and leans back toward that era.