I think the “He’s like Hitler” Trope has lost its value.

There was a time when invoking Hitler was the worst insult you could hurl at someone. This was particularly true in politics.

It was a shocking statement and conjured up some of the darkest images in recent history. There was a time when if someone called you Hitler, you were doing something very bad.

Trump was called Hitler, Ron DeSantis is being called Hitler by Nikki Fried (who is campaigning to take DeSantis’s position.)

Lately it seems as if that shocking insult is being leveled at anyone over simple political disagreement.

“Hitler” as an insult is rapidly becoming as commonplace as “racist”. Both are losing their shock value and their impact.

Now if someone calls you a racist in a discussion, it just means “You Win!” The person calling you a racist is declaring that they cannot win the discussion on merit, facts, or logic. This is the verbal equivalent of “The nipple crippler, or titty twister” in a fight. It’s a shameful and pointless move born out of desperation. It’s wholly ineffective and serves no purpose other than to show others what kind of poor loser you are.

Comparing someone to Hitler is rapidly becoming the same lame move.

One could similarly compare the Biden Administration to Nero fiddling while Rome burned. The story of Nero fiddling is not historically accurate but has entered into the collection of descriptive tropes we use as shorthand to describe things.

Nero isn’t nearly as insulting as Hitler these days, but in the sunset of The Roman Empire I’d bet calling someone “A Nero” was cause for a duel.

For me, when someone screams racist or Hitler I’m done. Nothing that person says after is of any importance. They came to a debate or a discussion unarmed and then got butt hurt when the weakness of their position was unmasked.

Nikki Fried has lost her election bid right from the start. She didn’t consider her audience.

Think about the age of most of the residents of Florida. A fair number of them would have been told stories of the horror of Hitler by their parents or grandparents. The images of the camps may still be in their memories. The fact that Hitler was so bad, we allied ourselves with Stalin to defeat him would also not be lost on those people.

A simple comparison of DeSantis today versus their memory of Hitler’s atrocities puts lie to Nikki Fried’s comparison.

Fried speaks for Miami. A lot of Florida doesn’t consider Miami part of Florida. Miami is where all the New Yorkers hang out, it’s a place where the prices are too high, the crime is too prevalent, the politics are too blue, and liberal progressive elites are thankfully mostly contained.

When I was a boy every hurricane season the “Normal” Florida secretly hoped a hurricane would scour Miami off into the Atlantic.

I’m wondering if DeSantis will address Fried directly. She’s handed DeSantis a great line. Fried calls him Hitler, he responds, “No, the trains still aren’t running on time.”

The majority of older Floridians would chuckle at the reference then watch in amusement as Fried tried to figure out what that meant or how it was relevant. A bunch of older Floridians would correct DeSantis by pointing out he’d gotten his dictators confused. Benito Mussolini, not Hitler, is the despot who insisted the trains run on time.

Unfortunately, the media would blast it as, “DeSantis admits he’s Hitler”

It’s a pity that sarcasm is lost on most people today.