This is from Kef Schecter…
Mr. Evanier, first let me say I'm a big fan of your work. Your anecdotes are among the most interesting and most amusing I have ever read, and I am among the many who have grown up watching Garfield and Friends. I have great respect for you and your opinions, even on those rare occasions I disagree with them.
And unfortunately I have to disagree with your opinion about the comparison that Louis C.K. and others are drawing between Trump and Hitler. While I also feel the comparison is a bit hyperbolic, you seem to be missing the point. The point isn't to compare Trump to a person who has killed millions of people. The point is to compare Trump to a person who hadn't killed millions of people yet. Hitler didn't do that until after he rose to power, after all. Saying one can't compare a man to Hitler until he's actually committed genocide is a good way to let the next Hitler get in office. Where you invoke Godwin's Law, I invoke George Santayana's: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
I'm not saying I fully agree with this mindset, only that you might not be giving it enough credit. Indeed, if Trump could muster the same amount of support in the government that Hitler had, I would absolutely be worried that things could turn out very, very badly. Thankfully, the government hates him. The GOP doesn't hate him more than they hate the Democrats, unfortunately, but they hate him enough to not really want to work with him. I think Trump is mostly toothless, but we must recognize that he's toothless only due to environmental factors — and, over time, his followers have the power to change them. Louis C.K. is telling us to be vigilant, and considering some of the people rallying behind Trump, I think that's pretty sane advice.
Let me leave you with a little thought experiment: suppose Hitler reincarnated. He doesn't have Hitler's name, looks, or voice, but he does have his type of brain. Now suppose this new Hitler gets into politics and he manages to get people to listen to him again. What would his rise to power look like? Could it look like Trump's?
I don't know. These days, Hitler's rise to power could look a lot like Oprah Winfrey's. Or Bill Gates's. Or Darth Vader's. Whoever it is, I don't think you can liken him or her to Hitler until he or she actually does something roughly equivalent to Hitler. The fact that someone might do that is kind of shaky evidence. Hey, Louis C.K. started as a stand-up comic and went on to have his own show. Maybe he's the next Bill Cosby.
What is someone saying when they liken anyone to Hitler? That he draws huge crowds? That he has a lot of people who think he's a great leader? That's sort of the goal when anyone runs for public office. They all try to whip up emotions and many prey on and inflame voters' fears. What cuts Trump away from the herd is his willingness to be so rude and nasty and thuggish in the process. That doesn't make him Hitler.
He also is really good at double talk and dodging questions and changing his position without acknowledging he's doing so and lying…and none of that makes him Hitler either.
Actually, the reason I think a lot of people equate Trump to Hitler is simply that that's the worst thing they can think of to say about him. It's like how people who loathe Obama say he's the Antichrist or he was a gay prostitute or that he gets up every morning and prays, even though he's an atheist, for the destruction of America. These are not analogies because they're not rooted in any real equivalence. They're just insults.
I'm really tired of Hitler comparisons…and you know the other one that bothers me? Neville Chamberlain. It's gotten so you can't make any kind of compromise on anything important without someone accusing you of being Neville Chamberlain. These days, every time a leader balks at going to war over anything, there's someone out there calling him Neville Chamberlain, the supreme appeaser. Of course, that only works if you see every enemy, big or small, as Hitler.
Thank you for your message, Kef. I appreciate the compliments but on this point, I don't think we agree. Tell you what, though: When Donald Trump invades Poland, I'll be the first to admit he's Hitler. For now, I just think he's a horrible, horrible human being who will say anything to get what he wants.