Reductio Ad Hitlerum - Invocations of The Fallacy

Invocations of The Fallacy

In 1991, Professor Michael André Bernstein alleged reductio ad Hitlerum over a full-page advertisement placed in The New York Times by the Lubavitch community, following the Crown Heights Riot, under the heading "This Year Kristallnacht Took Place on August 19th Right Here in Crown Heights." Henry Schwarzschild, who had witnessed Kristallnacht, wrote to the New York Times that "however ugly were the anti-Semitic slogans and the assaultive behavior of people in the streets ... one thing that clearly did not take place was a Kristallnacht."

American conservative radio host Glenn Beck is often criticized for his frequent use of reductio ad Hitlerum, including a controversial statement comparing the victims of the 2011 Norway attacks to members of the Hitler Youth. Beck has also compared the National Endowment for the Arts to Joseph Goebbels and ACORN to Hitler's "Brown Shirt" soldiers.

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