First Lady Jill Biden has suggested that Republican opposition to the use of pornographic materials in schools is akin to the rise of Nazi Germany.
During a speech at the Human Rights Campaign Dinner in Los Angeles on Sunday, Biden warned that LGBT rights were under attack:
Today, [the LGBT] community is under attack. Rights are being stripped away. Freedoms are eroding. More and more state laws are being passed targeting this community.
Just last night, we had to fend off more than 50 anti-gay amendments that Republicans tried to force into the government funding bill.
These were extreme measures aimed directly at this community – measures that would have limited healthcare, eroded protections for same-sex couples, and more. And they served only one purpose: to spread hate and fear.
The First Lady went on to reference Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act, which prevents school teachers from discussing and sharing sexual content with young children, and that progressives have falsely dubbed the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law. In many cases, teachers went as far as to show their students gay pornography.
Yet, according to Biden, such legislation is reminiscent of Berlin in the 1930s when Adolf Hitler rose to power and can lead to “devastating” consequences:
History teaches us that democracies don’t disappear overnight. They disappear slowly. Subtly. Silently. A book ban. A court decision. A “don’t say gay” law. Before World War II, I’m told, Berlin was the center of LGBTQ culture in Europe. One group of people loses their rights. And then another, and another. Until one morning you wake up – and you no longer live in a democracy.
Laws and attitudes can lead to devastating consequences – harm that can’t be undone, that leaves parents torn by grief. Parents and grandparents like Sue Benedict – may Nex rest in peace – and the countless others who have lost LGBTQ children to suicide, bullying, and hate. Parents who have stood by their kids, loved them, learned from them, but who will never have another tomorrow with them.
Such remarks can neatly be described by the phrase Reductio ad Hitlerum, Latin for “reduction to Hitler,” or playing the “Nazi card.” This tactic is described by Logically Fallacious as follows:
The attempt to make an argument analogous with Hitler or the Nazi party. Hitler is probably the most universally despised figure in history, so any connection to Hitler, or his beliefs, can (erroneously) cause others to view the argument in a similar light. However, this fallacy is becoming more well known as is the fact that it is most often a desperate attempt to render the truth claim of the argument invalid out of lack of a good counter argument.
This is, of course, far from the first time that the Bidens have employed such inflammatory rhetoric. As noted by Politico, Biden has repeatedly compared Donald Trump to the German Führer. Last year, he even met with a group of historians who “encouraged him to call out his predecessor every time he evoked Hitler or other dictators.”
“Every time he says [something offensive], we are going to call it out,” Michael Tyler, the Biden campaign’s communications director, said at the time. “He’s going to echo the rhetoric of Hitler and Mussolini, and we’re going to make sure that people understand just how serious that is every single time.”
