For a Fuehrer Dollars More

I made a vow to myself to not invoke him in debates.  You know what I’m talking about, don’t look so sheepish.  It can happen during a civil discussion with someone or a heated debate.  Your opposition keeps rebutting you at every turn.  You’ve got nowhere to run, however, you see an opening in something the other person said.  The feeling that what you are about to do is somehow a cheap-shot is a sacrifice you’re willing to make in order to put the other person in their place.  And then you go for the jugular…

• “Well, Hitler said the same thing.  So you’re wrong”
• “The Nazi’s accepted that idea, so there.”
• “What you just said is right out of Mein Kampf”
• “You kidding me?…”  (Enter Holocaust analogy here)

I bet Hitler is invoked in arguments about 3,223 times a day.  People probably pray that this crutch will change the opinion or disembowel the argument of the opposition moreso than some pray to St. Joseph (patron saint of real estate) these days.  Do everyone a favor, don’t implicitly make this guy the patron saint of debate.  Stop this fallacy. You can focus on stopping more later.  This one is particularly annoying and reckless.

This fallacy is called a number of things: the Hitler card, guilt by association, Reductio Ad Hitlerum etc.

When was the last time you used this in an argument, or someone used it against you?