Reductio ad Hitlerum

Logical fallacy

For the general concept, see Nazi analogies.

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

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]

## Definition

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Reductio ad Hitlerum is a type of association fallacy.[5][6][better source needed] 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, anyone else who has these opinions so is a Nazi.[9]

## History

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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

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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][better source needed] 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

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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

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See also: Nazi gun control argument

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]

## See also

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

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Solomon, Zachary (3 September 2015). "Godwin's Law, or Playing the Nazi Card". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Archived from the original on 6 June 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
2. ^ Lederman, Noah (1 March 2010). "Playing the Nazi Card". FAIR. Archived from the original on 24 March 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
3. ^ a b "Natural Right and History". University of Oklahoma. 2008. Archived from the original on 24 February 2010. Retrieved 11 August 2008.
4. ^ Leo Strauss, Natural Right and History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965 [1953], p. 42.
5. ^ a b Curtis, Gary N. (2004). "Logical Fallacy: The Hitler Card". Fallacy Files. Archived from the original on 10 May 2012. Retrieved 8 October 2007.
6. ^ Curtis, Gary N. (2004). "Logical Fallacy: Guilt by Association". Fallacy Files. Archived from the original on 5 June 2019. Retrieved 8 October 2007.
7. ^ "You know who else ___? Origin? – catchphrase meme". Ask MetaFilter. Archived from the original on 8 June 2013. Retrieved 10 January 2013.
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". Fallacy Files. Archived from the original on 12 August 2022. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
10. ^ Hutchins, Robert Maynard (1951). Measure: A Critical Journal. H. Regnery Company. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
11. ^ Miller, Mark J. (Fall 1997). "Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust". IMR: International Immigration Review. 31 (3). Staten Island, N.Y.: Center for Migration Studies: 752–754\. Archived from the original on 21 January 2025. 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". The Independent. Independent News. Archived from the original on 30 January 2020. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
14. ^ Thomas Fleming, editor, Chronicles (Rockford, Illinois), May 2000, p. 11.
15. ^ a b c d Brian Palmer (4 October 2011). "Before Hitler, Who Was the Stand-In for Pure Evil?". Slate. Archived from the original on 26 November 2023. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
16. ^ Does God Exist? A Conversation with Tom Holland, Stephen Meyer, and Douglas Murray, Hoover Institution, 17 October 2022, 26 minutes, retrieved 22 January 2023 - via YouTube
17. ^ "Campaign Notebook". Washington Post. 26 February 2024. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on 24 April 2025. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
18. ^ Cooper, Matthew; Carney, James. "Will Pat Stay Put? – September 20, 1999". CNN. Archived from the original on 17 March 2024. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
19. ^ Bernstein, Michael André (1994). "Foregone Conclusions". University of California Press. Escholarship.org. Archived from the original on 13 May 2020. Retrieved 7 July 2011. "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. PMC 2736555. PMID 18818222.

## External links

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* "Is it ever OK to call someone a Nazi?". BBC News. 14 July 2010.
* 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" (PDF). Thinking & Reasoning. 18 (3). London: Psychology Press: 311–343\. doi:10.1080/13546783.2012.670753. S2CID 15921519. 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. S2CID 171609352.

* v
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Common fallacies (list)

Formal|

| In propositional logic|

* Affirming a disjunct
* Affirming the consequent
* Denying the antecedent
* Argument from fallacy
* Masked man
* Mathematical fallacy

|

In quantificational logic|

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

Syllogistic fallacy|

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

Informal|

| Equivocation|

* Equivocation
* False equivalence
* False attribution
* Moral equivalence
* Quoting out of context
* Loki's Wager
* No true Scotsman
* Reification
* Map–territory relation

|

Question-begging|

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

Correlative-based|

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

Illicit transference|

* Composition
* Division
* Ecological

Secundum quid|

* Accident
* Converse accident

Faulty generalization|

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

Ambiguity|

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

Questionable cause|

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

Appeals|

* Law/Legality
* Stone / Proof by assertion

| Consequences|

* Argumentum ad baculum
* Wishful thinking

|

Emotion|

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

Genetic fallacy|

| Ad hominem|

* Appeal to motive
* Association
* Reductio ad Hitlerum
* Reductio ad Stalinum
* Bulverism
* Poisoning the well
* Tone
* Tu quoque
* Whataboutism

|

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

Other fallacies
of relevance|

| Arguments|

* Ad nauseam
* Sealioning
* Argument from anecdote
* Argument from silence
* Argument to moderation
* Argumentum ad populum

|

* Cliché
* The Four Great Errors
* I'm entitled to my opinion
* Ignoratio elenchi
* Invincible ignorance
* Moralistic / Naturalistic
* Motte-and-bailey fallacy
* Psychologist's fallacy
* Rationalization
* Red herring
* Two wrongs make a right
* Special pleading
* Straw man

* Category

* v
* t
* e

Leo Strauss

Books|

* Persecution and the Art of Writing (1952)
* Thoughts on Machiavelli (1958)
* History of Political Philosophy (1963)

Miscellaneous|

* Heidegger, Strauss, and the Premises of Philosophy
* Reductio ad Hitlerum

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