24A025 The N-Word by Jim Davies, 7/2/2024

No, not that N-Word; though I really can't see why, given that Kike and Honky and Polak and Chink and Limey and Mick and Wop are not verboten (yet), Negro or Nigger should be excluded from permitted speech. Like those others it is usually impolite, but may also be used in fun; it's contextual.

But here I'm thinking of another N-Word, "Nazi". It's very frequently seen on the few social media sites that don't automatically zap any posts that use it.

It is an unfortunate result of not inhibiting free speech that bigots have a field day and sport their prejudices all over the site. Or at least, their "bots" do, and sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. "Racist" is a favorite word, and Jew-hatred is one of the most prolific themes - though I cannot believe that a thousand randomly chosen people would reveal more than one who disparages Jews.

First, let's define "Nazi", because these bigots very often use it, though they apply it to others but seldom to themselves - and seldom know what it means.

A Nazi is a Jew-hating fascist, originally concentrated in inter-War Germany. So to fill this out we need first to define "fascist."

The term comes from the Latin, used 2,000 years ago in the Roman Empire and it was the name for a bundle of canes (and an ax,) The message was that we make the rules and you obey them, and if you don't we punish you, with canes. Or maybe with an ax, on your neck - bundled symbolically, as here, as fasces.

So any group that does that (writes laws, punishes those who disobey) is fascist. Such groups are usually called "governments." Hence, "fascism" = "government" and vice-versa. Yes, all believers in government are fascists.

There are mild fascists, medium fascists and harsh fascists, and there are a very few that admit and call themselves Fascist, with a capital "F" - but not many, for that tends to give the game away. But look closely, and on each side of the speaker's podium in the US Congress, and there's a wood carving of fasces. They make the rules, and punish those who disobey. If you didn't notice, look more carefully.

No question, the German government from 1933-45 was harshly fascist, and didn't mind advertising the fact; it was highly authoritarian. It called itself the National Socialist German Workers' Party, so as to attract votes from the working class, as well as from all who felt (justifiably) outraged by the terms of peace imposed on their country in 1919; ie, Nationalists. People proud of being German. That rather long name was abbreviated "Nazi" - probably by its rivals, before they were liquidated, for in German slang the word "nazi" means a country bumpkin, a rube, a kind of village idiot.

And that government distinguished itself from all other fascists by being fiercely anti-Jewish. It blamed Jews for the loss of WW1, and set about excluding them from the proud, all-German nation. Most were expelled. Later, six million were deliberately killed - in history's most horrible genocide.

No anarchist could also be a fascist (a believer in government) and I've never heard of any who hate Jews, so all Jew-haters are also fascists; hence the definition of Nazis: Jew-hating fascists.

Okay, that was a long way round, but it's necessary if we are to use words with their proper meanings, even in slogans.

A couple of things follow from this correct definition.

1. It is impossible for a Jew to be a Nazi. That is 100% obvious, yet it's not at all uncommon to find comments on the Net alleging that (for example) Zelensky and Netanyahu are Nazis. Both being Jews, that would be a flat contradiction in terms, for nobody hates himself. Now, as heads of government both of them are fascists, perhaps harsh ones if such an argument is made; but not Nazis. Those who deny that are ignorami.

2. Those who disparage Jews are all Nazis. They may be mild Nazis who would not make friends with a Jew, or savage ones who wish them all dead, or any shade in between; but if any social-media commenter expresses disdain for Jews he is, in some degree, a Nazi; and to reply and say so might give him pause. One might add that in the whole world there are just over 15 million Jews, yet their contribution to civilized society has been immense; they are the "salt of the earth" and to disparage them is usually a classic case of envy, of very sour grapes.

By the way, I'm an Aryan and a Gentile.

1776

Thursday is Independence Day, when Americans decided to scrap one government and set up another. It was a political change, affecting one country.

A much more important event took place the same year: in his "Wealth of Nations" Adam Smith showed that everyone maximizes prosperity when each pursues his own interests. This was a truth about the market, and it applies everywhere it's allowed to happen.