Quote Originally Posted by Idaho View Post
I understand that you are attempting to make a subtle point of culture and definition. However it's totally misguided in this case in both subject matter and historical reality. You urgently need to read more about the eastern front and the genocide.

The idea that barbarism refers only to a particular "style" of cruelty, horror and brutality is a dead end argument in this context, and hints at a coldness and lack of humanity that you need to look into.
Being able to separate one's emotions from one's intellect is not evidence of a lack of humanity unless you start to think about acting on the conclusion.

The point here is not all that subtle.

To define the Nazi's as "barbarians" is to distance ourselves from the Nazi mode of thought, to declare that what they thought and what they did is unintelligible to us. The truth of the matter is exactly the opposite, the Nazi mode of thought is entirely intelligible to us. The same logical process that led the Nazi's to kill over six million people in Death Camps and Labour Camps is at work today, you can see it in the way the EU has dealt with the debt crisis in Southern Europe and you can see it in the calls to deport all Muslims from the UK.

Since the end of the Second World War we have worked very hard at not empathising with Nazi's, I don't mean the leadership, I mean the rank and file. By labelling the Nazis "barbarians" we are saying "we could not do that".

That's a lie - and a dangerous one.