this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2026
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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So says the Nazis
"Nazi" is another good example of a label that creates "the other." Words like this are often used by groups to dehumanize people. A good example of this is the use of "Untermenschen" by the German National Socialist party of the 1930s and 1940s. By labeling groups of people Untermenschen, the National Socialists were able to pave the way for the exclusion from society and eventual extermination of several groups of people.
In the US, an obvious parallel is the labelling of people "illegal immigrants."
There is no use of these labels other than immediate division and eventual dehumanization, so I don't use em. You're obv free to carry yourself as you please.
The only difference between the GOP and Nazis is 80 years and the thinnest of guard rails preventing them from carrying out a genocide against dissenters and minorities. They are modern day Nazis, and the label fits.
Labels like 'woke' are bullshit labels used to attack. 'illegal immigrants' are literally immigrants that entered the country illegally but has been used by conservatives to label any immigrant. Nazi is an apt terms for Nazis.
Every person is a human, but language exists to differentiate groups of people. How that language is used is the difference between differentiating demographics and malicious groupings.
If it looks like a nazi, acts like a nazi, and runs around with a swastika, well, that my friend is a nazi.
Stalin's USSR used the label Vrag Naroda to dehumanize people resulting in the tragedy at Kolyma. You may feel like you're doing the right thing by labeling people Nazis or an enemy.
Josef Stalin thought he was doing the right thing. So did Hitler.
I'm not defending the actions of the President of the United States, his supporters (or opponents!). I'm saying that using these tactics is harmful.
Calling them Nazis is easier than saying, "racists and bigots that who's goal in life it to exterminate minorities and people that disagree with them". It's the same thing, just succinct.
Also, the examples you gave were dictators using them out of malice, which like I said is different than labelling demographics for descriptive purposes. Calling a spade a spade isn't inherently a bad thing.
Are you saying that when you call someone a Nazi, you're describing a demographic group for descriptive purposes? And that you're not saying it with any malice?
Malice was a bad word choice. I should have said demonizing or vilifying. Nazism is an actual ideology, and people that follow that are Nazis. Calling a Nazi a Nazi isn't vilifying them, it's identifying them as what they are. Opposed to something like 'woke' which conservatives use to demonize people who's ideology is about helping people and equal rights. It's the intent in how the label is used.
Nazis are bad. Any disagreement on that and there's no further discussion to be had. Someone labeled as woke is not bad, but the term is used in a way to make them the enemy.
A person from Europe is a European. A person that engages in philanthropy is a philanthropist. A person that murders someone is a murderer. Labels identify those people and serve a purpose. I don't call people Nazis just as an insult to them, I do it because their views and actions identify them as Nazis. That label carries a negative connotation, because sane people know that Nazis are bad.
So I guess do I call them Nazis with malice? Maybe, but it's because they objectively are Nazis and Nazis are bad, so any referral of this types of people with definitely have malice to it. Vilifying someone as woke because they want kids to be able to eat is propaganda intended to demonize them.
I'm not defending Nazis and I think you can see that. My take is that its harmful to label and then use that label to dehumanize a group of people. That type of behavior brings a witch hunt in the best case and genocide in the worst.
Were some people "objectively" witches during the Salem witch hunts? Were others "objectively" communist during the Red Scare? Many victims of the holocaust were objectively Jews.
I can see where you're coming from and understand why you feel that way: bigotry damages the world. We don't have to agree that calling people Nazis dehumanizes them and that dehumanizing people is harmful, that's fine. Peace be with you.
This we agree on and is really the crux of what I'm saying. I'm not using the term Nazi to dehumanize people, I'm labelling people as Nazis because they align with that ideology. It just also happens that being a Nazi is a bad thing. With your other examples, nobody was a witch, yes there were communists and Jews and bad people used those labels to demonize them even though they weren't bad because of those traits (there are certainly bad communists and Jews). If Hitler just said, "they're Jews" but didn't then vilify them, then the label isn't bad or wrong, it was the intent behind it's use.