The following article by Max Pensky, Co-Director of the Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention, Professor, Department of Philosophy, Binghamton University, State University, of New York and Nadia Rubaii, Co-Director, Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention, and Associate Profession of Public Administration, Binghamton University, State University of New York was posted on the Conversation website August 21, 2017:
There are those who say that comparing President Donald Trump’s rhetoric to that of Adolf Hitler is alarmist, unfair and counterproductive.
And yet, there has been no dearth of such comparisons since the 2016 presidential election. Many commentators have also drawn parallels between the conduct of Trump supporters and Holocaust-era Nazis.
The comparisons continue today, and Trump’s comments in the wake of the Charlottesville attack show why. The president’s reference to violence on “both sides” implies moral equivalence, which is a familiar rhetorical strategy for signaling support to violent groups. His comments give white supremacists and neo-Nazis the implied approval of the president of the United States. Continue reading “Warning signs of mass violence – in the US?”