This is a short reflection/semi-open letter to a friend I've been having a conversation with for a couple weeks
Name-calling in a rhetorical exchange is such a school-yard bully, low IQ, desperate, degenerate move when it's used in lieu of data... I have 2 scenarios in my head that bring light to one another.
Today the words "Nazi" and "Facist" are so over-used it's moved beyond sickening to boring.
However, the usage of these words has led to violence, and a lot of it in my opinion. The dangerous rhetoric is a key player in the multiple Trump-assassination attempts, various acts of violence against other conservatives, specifically, (because who else does the Left call a Facist except anyone remotely moderate anymore), and most notably the murder of Charlie Kirk. I find the rhetoric super dangerous because I'm not a politician, but boy can I tell you for sure that Charlie was a moderate, and if they came for him then consider my reflection: reflection-they-can-come-for-anyone.
One of the problems I see here is that many people can't define "Nazi" or "Facist". To the Left, these words just describe someone they disagree with, and it's turning out - ultimately someone they think would be better off dead.
It reminds me of a kid at a summer camp I worked at about 10 years ago. The camp was all about Christian apologetics - great times, good discussions, lots of great content, etc. One year there was a 17 or 18 year old boy here, super fundamentalist in his beliefs... no harm no foul here. But he demonstrated a habit of calling anything that differ'ed from his interpretation of a passage of scripture as heresy. Now... here's the thing, it's not heresy to not be a young-earth-creationist. But something that is true is that people have been put to death over heresy in the history of the Church.... and yet this kid felt comfortable labeling anyone a heretic who was more fluent in Hebrew than him...
So what do I see? - There's similarities between that immature kid and practically anyone using the words "Nazi" or "Facist" to describe American politics right now - are the same type of person to me. That person feels a deep care for the thing they think they're protecting, but in reality they're participating in a violent pattern of history that they do not understand
So to us today, in or out of the Church, involved or not involved with politics... We need to recognize that words matter. And to carelessly use words that eventually excuse violence is at best, ignorant. There's nothing wrong with ignorance, but a good measure of a man is what he does when his ignorance has been pointed out... Will you be apart of the solution? Or continue to fan the flames?