In one of his books, historian Tom Holland asked, “Who needs the Devil when there is Adolf Hitler?” Since the Holocaust, calling someone “Hitler” has been the quickest way to call someone “evil” and to short-circuit debate, even for those who don’t know much about who Hitler was and what he did.
However, because of its constant use, calling someone a “Nazi” or “Hitler” is almost meaningless. Put differently, if everyone is Hitler, no one is.
But I say almost because any of our moral proclamations are made in a world infused with the moral law that stands over the behavior of moral beings, and all of this reflects the moral nature of the Creator.
In the so-called “Holocaust inversion” of recent days, Jews have been called “Nazis” while those committing and supporting their annihilation are called victims. This is because the whole tragic episode is being seen by those unattached from the realities of evil and history.
But even if a name becomes meaningless, morality does not.
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