Godwin's Law

So the new Arizona Law.



I've been reading a lot of comparisons to Nazi Germany- and yes, I get that it does smell faintly of pre-Kristallnacht 1938. I get it. I get that it's a blanket statement that references the policies prior to the 1939 invasion of Poland and not the Holocaust and World War II itself. Evidently, many others are unaware that there is such a thing as escalation.

But. And it's a big BUT here, do we really need to look at another country, on another continent to reference the bullshit that's going on right now? Not really.

The United States has a history of oppression. Seriously, it's not hard to spot. It's upsetting. It's often glossed over in school. The fact that the US is founded on immigrants kicking people out of their homeland and setting up shop...then turning right around and going "do as I say, not as I do" is sketchy to say the least. Hello, Ellis Island. Hello, Angel Island.

Consider the treatment of Chinese immigrants during the late 1800s.* In fact the immigration laws against the Chinese strike eerily close to home. Google it, I dare you. or the Japanese prior to World War II. Granted, you also had the rise of a totalitarian dictatorship that was buddying up with Nazi Germany- but prior to Pearl Harbor the US really wasn't that worried. Maybe it's because I'm from the West Coast, but the mistreatment of Chinese and Japanese is pretty astonishingly terrible- yet Americans tend to forget that it ever happened.

And sorry, but no. I won't be pulling the age ol' "But the Irish!" card, because the thing is- once the accents gone, an Irishman or woman could pretty easily blend into the rest of the melting pot. Maybe a name change here or there. Same with Germans both during World War I and II. There's a reason my family adopted the French version of their German-Alsatian last name. Because they could. A little name change, give it a generation and -BAM- no one's the wiser.

No, in this case, it's based on appearance. You can be stopped because of how you physically appear to others. So I get that the immediate reaction for the Average Person is to scream Godwin's Law, despite The Rule that you never, ever, compare anything to The Holocaust. Even if you're referencing another holocaust or genocide. You just can't. As a historian, I'm all for that. Let events stand apart from one another- BUT, as a historian, see that there are similarities in action. I highly doubt anyone thinks that Arizona= Germany. But history has a tendency to reflect upon itself. It doesn't mean the outcome will be the same, who knows- but it's still the stuff of dystopian literature.

I'll just leave these here:

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* I'd suggest looking up political cartoons from various time periods. Nothing says more about a culture than the cartoons during that time. Other handy dandy sites to check out: HERE, HERE, Godwin's Law in Action, If you don't know what Godwin's Law is, and fuck it, just wikipedia the shit out of some of this stuff (Like The Immigration Act of 1924. Just remember, footnotes are your friend.


And finally. If you want to read an actually well-written essay on the subject, go HERE. I highly encourage it.