Reductio ad Hitlerum

Short description: Logical fallacy

Reductio ad Hitlerum (Latin for "reduction to Hitler"), also known as playing the Nazi card,[1][2] is an attempt to invalidate someone else's argument on the basis that the same idea was promoted or practised by Adolf Hitler or the Nazi Party.[3] Arguments can be termed reductio ad Hitlerum if they are fallacious (e.g., arguing that because Hitler abstained from eating meat or was against smoking, anyone else who does so is a Nazi). Contrarily, straightforward arguments critiquing specifically fascist components of Nazism like Führerprinzip are not part of the association fallacy.

Formulated by Leo Strauss in 1953, reductio ad Hitlerum takes its name from the term used in logic called reductio ad absurdum ("reduction to the absurdity").[4] According to Strauss, reductio ad Hitlerum is a type of ad hominem, ad misericordiam, or a fallacy of irrelevance. The suggested rationale is one of guilt by association. It is a tactic often used to derail arguments because such comparisons tend to distract and anger the opponent.[5]

## Contents

* 1 Definition
* 2 History
* 3 Limits to classification as a fallacy
* 4 Antecedents
* 5 Invocations
* 6 See also
* 7 References
* 8 External links

## Definition

Reductio ad Hitlerum is a type of association fallacy.[5][6]Template:BSN The argument is that a policy leads to—or is the same as—one advocated or implemented by Adolf Hitler or Nazi Germany and so "proves" that the original policy is undesirable. Another type of reductio ad Hitlerum is asking a question of the form "You know who else...?" with the deliberate intent of impugning a certain idea or action by implying Hitler had that idea or performed such an action.[7]

A comparison to Hitler or Nazism is not a reductio ad Hitlerum if it illuminates an argument instead of causing distraction from it.[8] Straightforward comparisons can be used to criticize fascist components of Nazism such as the Führerprinzip. However, one could argue fallaciously that because Hitler abstained from eating meat or was opposed to smoking, ipso facto anyone else who has these opinions is a Nazi.[9]

## History

Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945

The phrase reductio ad Hitlerum is first known to have been used in an article written by University of Chicago professor Leo Strauss for Measure: A Critical Journal in spring 1951,[10] although it was made famous in a book by Strauss published in 1953[3] Natural Right and History, Chapter II:

> In following this movement towards its end we shall inevitably reach a point beyond which the scene is darkened by the shadow of Hitler. Unfortunately, it does not go without saying that in our examination we must avoid the fallacy that in the last decades has frequently been used as a substitute for the reductio ad absurdum: the reductio ad Hitlerum. A view is not refuted by the fact that it happens to have been shared by Hitler.

The phrase was derived from the logical argument termed Reductio ad absurdum. The argumentum variant takes its form from the names of many classic fallacies such as argumentum ad hominem. The ad Nazium variant may be further humorously derived from argumentum ad nauseam.

## Limits to classification as a fallacy

Historian Daniel Goldhagen, who had written about the Holocaust, argues that not all comparisons to Hitler and Nazism are logical fallacies since if they all were, there would be nothing to learn from the events that resulted in the Holocaust. He argues in his book Hitler's Willing Executioners that many people who were complicit or active participants in the Holocaust and subsequently in fascist and neo-Nazi movements have manipulated the historical narrative to escape blame or to deny aspects of the Holocaust.[11][12] Claims that allegations of antisemitism are reductio ad Hitlerum have also been employed by David Irving, a British Holocaust denier.[13]

In 2000, Thomas Fleming claimed that reductio ad Hitlerum was being used by his opponents against his values:

> Leo Strauss called it the reductio ad Hitlerum. If Hitler liked neoclassical art, that means that classicism in every form is Nazi; if Hitler wanted to strengthen the German family, that makes the traditional family (and its defenders) Nazi; if Hitler spoke of the "nation" or the "folk", then any invocation of nationality, ethnicity, or even folkishness is Nazi ...[14]

## Antecedents

Although named for Hitler, the logical fallacy existed before World War II. Other individuals from history were used as stand-ins for evil.[15] Author Tom Holland compares the use of Hitler as the standard of evil with earlier invocations of the Devil (such as the phrase 'Deal with the Devil').[16] During the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, the Pharaoh of the Book of Exodus was commonly considered the most villainous person in history.[15] During the years prior to the American Civil War, abolitionists referred to enslavers as modern-day Pharaohs. After VE Day, Pharaoh continued to appear in the speeches of social reformers like Martin Luther King Jr.

Judas Iscariot and Pontius Pilate were also commonly held up as pure evil. However, there was no universal Hitler-like person, and different regions and times used different stand-ins.[15] In the years after the American Revolution, King George III was often vilified in the United States. "King George" comparison was publicly used as recently as 1992 by Pat Buchanan when referring to president George H. W. Bush, in the course of the U.S. presidential campaign.[17][18] During the American Civil War, some Confederates called Lincoln a "modern Pharaoh".[15]

## Invocations

In 1991, Michael André Bernstein alleged reductio ad Hitlerum over a full-page advertisement placed in The New York Times by the Lubavitch community after the Crown Heights riot under the heading "This Year Kristallnacht Took Place on August 19th Right Here in Crown Heights". Henry Schwarzschild, who had witnessed Kristallnacht, wrote to The New York Times that "however ugly were the anti-Semitic slogans and the assaultive behavior of people in the streets [during the Crown Heights riots] ... one thing that clearly did not take place was a Kristallnacht".[19]

Since Hitler was against smoking, some in the tobacco industry invoked the argument to compare those who are against smoking to Nazis.[20]

In response to the use of reductio ad Hitlerum in cancel culture, comedian Ricky Gervais has mocked those who commit the fallacy, implying that since Hitler was a vegetarian, those who argue in this way would have to see vegetarians as Nazis.[21]

## See also

* Donald Trump and fascism
* Godwin's law
* List of fallacies
* Red-baiting (reductio ad Stalinum)
* Weaponization of antisemitism

## References

1. ↑ Solomon, Zachary (2015-09-03). "Godwin's Law, or Playing the Nazi Card". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. https://www.jta.org/jewniverse/2015/godwins-law-or-playing-the-nazi-card.
2. ↑ Lederman, Noah (1 March 2010). "Playing the Nazi Card". https://fair.org/home/playing-the-nazi-card/.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Natural Right and History". University of Oklahoma. 2008. http://www.ou.edu/cas/psc/bookstrauss.htm.
4. ↑ Leo Strauss, Natural Right and History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965 [1953], p. 42.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Curtis, Gary N. (2004). "Logical Fallacy: The Hitler Card". Fallacy Files. http://www.fallacyfiles.org/adnazium.html.
6. ↑ Curtis, Gary N. (2004). "Logical Fallacy: Guilt by Association". Fallacy Files. http://www.fallacyfiles.org/guiltbya.html.
7. ↑ "You know who else ___? Origin? – catchphrase meme". Ask MetaFilter. http://ask.metafilter.com/71925/You-know-who-else-Origin.
8. ↑ Gabriel H. Teninbaum, Reduction ad Hitlerum: Trumping the Judicial Nazi Card. Michigan State Law Review, Vol. 2009, pp. 541–578, 2009
9. ↑ Curtis, Gary N.. "Logical Fallacy: The Hitler Card". https://www.fallacyfiles.org/adnazium.html.
10. ↑ Hutchins, Robert Maynard (1951). Measure: A Critical Journal. H. Regnery Company. https://books.google.com/books?id=6z3WAAAAMAAJ. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
11. ↑ Miller, Mark J. (Fall 1997). "Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust". IMR: International Immigration Review (Staten Island, N.Y.: Center for Migration Studies) 31 (3): 752–754. . https://www.proquest.com/openview/8690dfba45e051dab6cbf8b92ef45f3b/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=589. Retrieved 24 December 2024.
12. ↑ "Eichmann was Outrageously Stupid". Hannah Arendt: The Last Interview: And Other Conversations. November 9, 1964.
13. ↑ Broomfield, Matt (7 May 2017). "Undercover at a secret 'neo-Nazi' meeting with Holocaust denier David Irving". Independent News. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/david-irving-holocaust-denial-neo-nazi-alt-right-london-forum-meeting-auschwitz-hitler-revisionist-a7719291.html.
14. ↑ Thomas Fleming, editor, Chronicles (Rockford, Illinois), May 2000, p. 11.
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 Brian Palmer (October 4, 2011). "Before Hitler, Who Was the Stand-In for Pure Evil?". Slate. http://www.slate.com/articles/briefing/explainer/2011/10/hank_williams_jr_firing_who_was_the_rhetorical_worst_person_in_h.html.
16. ↑ (in en) Does God Exist? A Conversation with Tom Holland, Stephen Meyer, and Douglas Murray, Hoover Institution, 2022-10-17, 26 minutes, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2u54a1FL28, retrieved 2023-01-22
17. ↑ "Campaign Notebook" (in en-US). Washington Post. 2024-02-26. ISSN 0190-8286. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1992/02/19/campaign-notebook/133a25fe-8ace-4244-9997-d7ebe9d81b67/.
18. ↑ Cooper, Matthew; Carney, James. "Will Pat Stay Put? – September 20, 1999". https://edition.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/time/1999/09/13/buchanan.gop.html.
19. ↑ Bernstein, Michael André (1994). "Foregone Conclusions". Escholarship.org. http://www.escholarship.org/editions/view?docId=ft3x0nb2ns. "The Lubavitcher community itself, in the form of the 'Crown Heights Emergency Fund,' placed a full-page advertisement in The New York Times on September 20, 1991, under the heading 'This Year Kristallnacht Took Place on August 19th Right Here in Crown Heights.' Their version of Leo Strauss's reductio ad Hitlerum was rightly perceived by those who had been in Germany on Kristallnacht (November 9, 1938) as an outrageous comparison."
20. ↑ Schneider, N. K; Glantz, S. A (1 October 2008). "'Nicotine Nazis strike again': a brief analysis of the use of Nazi rhetoric in attacking tobacco control advocacy". Tobacco Control 17 (5): 291–296. doi:10.1136/tc.2007.024653. PMID 18818222.
21. ↑ Will Richards (10 August 2020). "Ricky Gervais discusses ‘cancel culture’: “Trying to get someone fired isn't cool”". NME. https://www.nme.com/news/tv/ricky-gervais-discusses-cancel-culture-trying-to-get-someone-fired-isnt-cool-2724502. See also this tweet, or this interview from about 10:30.

## External links

* "Is it ever OK to call someone a Nazi?". BBC News. 14 July 2010. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10618638.
* Toying with Hitler and History – slideshow by Der Spiegel
* Mike Huckabee's reductio ad Hitlerum, Lincoln Mitchell, April 7, 2013
* Harris, Adam J. L.; Hsu, Anne S.; Madsen, Jens K. (11 June 2012). "Because Hitler did it! Quantitative tests of Bayesian argumentation using ad hominem". Thinking & Reasoning (London: Psychology Press) 18 (3): 311–343. doi:10.1080/13546783.2012.670753. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/lagnado-lab/publications/harris/Harris_Hsu_Madsen_2012.pdf. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
* Scalambrino, Frank (2018). "Reductio ad Hitlerum". Bad Arguments. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 212–214. doi:10.1002/9781119165811.ch44. ISBN 9781119165811.

* v
* t
* e

Fallacies (list)

Formal|

| In propositional logic|

* Affirming a disjunct
* Affirming the consequent
* Denying the antecedent
* Argument from fallacy

|

In quantificational logic|

* Existential
* Illicit conversion
* Proof by example
* Quantifier shift

Syllogistic fallacy|

* Affirmative conclusion from a negative premise
* Exclusive premises
* Existential
* Necessity
* Four terms
* Illicit major
* Illicit minor
* Negative conclusion from affirmative premises
* Undistributed middle

* Masked man
* Mathematical fallacy

Informal|

| Equivocation|

* Equivocation
* False equivalence
* False attribution
* Quoting out of context
* Loki's Wager
* No true Scotsman
* Reification

|

Question-begging fallacies|

* Circular reasoning / Begging the question
* Loaded language
* Leading question
* Compound question / Loaded question / Complex question
* No true Scotsman

Correlative-based fallacies|

* False dilemma
* Perfect solution
* Denying the correlative
* Suppressed correlative

Illicit transference|

* Composition
* Division
* Ecological

Secundum quid
(ignoring qualifications)|

* Accident
* Converse accident

Faulty generalization|

* Anecdotal evidence
* Sampling bias
* Cherry picking
* McNamara
* Base rate / Conjunction
* Double counting
* False analogy
* Slothful induction
* Overwhelming exception

Vagueness / Ambiguity|

* Accent
* Syntactic ambiguity
* Continuum
* Sorites paradox
* False precision
* Moving the goalposts
* Slippery slope
* Quoting out of context

Questionable cause|

* Animistic
* Furtive
* Correlation implies causation
* Cum hoc
* Post hoc
* Gambler's
* Inverse
* Regression
* Single cause
* Slippery slope
* Texas sharpshooter

Fallacies of relevance|

| Appeals to emotion|

* Fear
* Flattery
* Novelty
* Pity
* Ridicule
* Think of the children
* In-group favoritism
* Invented here / Not invented here
* Island mentality
* Loyalty
* Parade of horribles
* Spite
* Stirring symbols
* Wisdom of repugnance

|

Genetic fallacies|

| Ad hominem|

* Abusive
* Association
* Reductio ad Hitlerum
* Godwin's law
* Reductio ad Stalinum
* Circumstantial
* Appeal to motive
* Bulverism
* Poisoning the well
* Tone
* Tu quoque
* Whataboutism

|

* Authority
* Accomplishment
* Ipse dixit
* Poverty / Wealth
* Etymology
* Nature
* Tradition / Novelty
* Chronological snobbery

Appeals to consequences|

* Argumentum ad baculum
* Wishful thinking

* Ad nauseam
* Argument to moderation
* Argumentum ad populum
* Appeal to the stone / Proof by assertion
* Ignoratio elenchi
* Argument from silence
* Invincible ignorance
* Moralistic / Naturalistic
* Motte-and-bailey fallacy
* Rationalization
* Red herring
* Appeal to worse problems
* Two wrongs make a right
* Special pleading
* Straw man
* Cliché
* I'm entitled to my opinion

* Categories
* Fallacies
* Formal fallacies
* Informal fallacies
* List
* Philosophy portal

Template:Leo Strauss

0.00

(0 votes)

Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio ad Hitlerum. Read more

|

Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Philosophy:Reductio_ad_Hitlerum&oldid=4240224"
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template