hitler

He seems to be the go to comparison, if you really want to give a highly offensive and completely illogical fuck you to someone.

I have a guarded relationship with the internet. Fact is ever harder to find among fiction and the speed at which lies and hyperbole can infect the minds of people - along with the unbelievably large number of non-research driven and seemingly obtuse ears available - is staggering.

Here's how these two things tie together. Negative rhetoric is only constructive when it is based in fact or reasonable possibility. Comparing someone to Hitler immediately shoots you out of the realm of legitimacy, unless the person being compared is literally a syphilitic, speed-addicted, ethnic cleansing, mass murderer. I think we can all agree that in the United States of America today, there are no candidates running for president, who have records or proclivities toward anything even remotely resembling that. In short, that comparison is the embodiment of the lunatic fringe. You now cannot be taken seriously, because you're stupid.

It's exhausting to even know that bullshit like this exists. I am spending time writing about the fact that we have so much access to each other and what everyone wants to spout off about, that we take these off the cuff sound bytes as fact, first. So few of us do the legwork to find the details or fact check, that the crazy goes viral and people start thinking that it's okay to say incendiary things, introduce ridiculous and false information and steer away from the logical, constructive discussion that must be had in order to proceed.

This is only a rant. I wish I had some viable idea as to how to fight with crazy, but you know what they say about that.