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Originally Posted by pan6467
I disagree, as I said in my post, it is good to question and compare because it saves us from the next true "Hitler".
It doesn't take away the attrocities of Hitler, in fact it keeps those attrocities remembered even moreso, and allows us the oppurtunity to prevent them from happening again.
I would rather compare and see the differences, then be blindly following and not see the similarities and in what way those similarities are being used.
I think it's fair to compare all our future presidents to the most evil and to the greatest leaders, so that we can guard against tyranny and promote the best in our society.
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Then we respectfully agree to disagree. The art of questioning does indeed ultimately reveal an objective reality, while comparisons merely serve to buttress subjective perception. Comparisons assume a mantle of viability but are highly conditional on many disparate factors such as era, location, circumstance, contingency, agenda, and who is performing the comparison. I could compare Bush to everyone from Alexander the Great to Emiliano Zapata and posit similarities and dissimilarities... the results of which essentially reveal more about me than the compared. It's a fun parlor game, but it is no substitute for intense and objective examination.
Another consideration is that of comparison taken to the extremis. If any comparison leads one to conclude that dire action is necessary to save us from the next true evil, then the resultant assassination is perhaps more a deed of erroneous perception than a wanton crime of abject malice.
Since the initiator of this thread has voiced a concern over thread-drift, I will belatedly honor the request to stay on-topic. Perhaps we can pursue this theme another day.