[hodgesrm]

> The comparison to Nazi Germany is on point.

Hardly. Hitler and his cronies were driven by a level of crazy that outdid most of the other autocracies of the 20th century. Just two examples:

* Starting a war of conquest that utterly destroyed Germany itself.

* Murdering millions of Europeans in the name of anti-semitic racial theories developed decades earlier. (Hitler and Goebbels were quite clear about this long before they came to power.)

There are many more. China's rise looks more like great power politics.

[nobodyandproud]

Nice strawman.

If you want to go there, the CCP has its own brand of horrible (The Great Leap Forward) which in some ways is worse, as it continues to treat even its own Han majority as disposable.

[hodgesrm]

That's completely true. But my point is that comparing them to Nazis is at best misleading and at worst actively harmful if you want to reason about what happened then and what's happening.

Perhaps it's more useful to look at figures like Stalin and Pol Pot to understand what happened in the Great Leap Forward. Or from Chinese history itself.

And to understand the current situation and how to react to it (from the point of view of American strategy) you need to look at comparisons that include nuclear and naval power. In some ways what's going on now in the Eastern Pacific looks like a replay of the Japan/US rivalry with a more formidable adversary operating on interior lines. As for nuclear issues, look at the Cold War. (If only because we got out of that one without incinerating the planet.)

<rant> I'm an American and find the constant Nazi analogies really tiresome. It's as if everyone's knowledge of history comes from WW II movies. GGPs post was a thoughtful and enjoyable contrast. </rant>

[stefan_]

Wondering what the genocide of millions of Uyghur is driven by and well we're already far into the preparations for the "war of conquest" part.

[lern_too_spel]

Cultural genocide isn't the same as actual genocide. Pretending they are in order to make a comparison with Nazi Germany isn't going to pass muster.

[stefan_]

Huh? Of course it is. It's in the name.

[lern_too_spel]

The suffix "-cide" means "kill." See also: "pesticide," "regicide," and "patricide." Reeducation camps are not mass killing camps. The Nazis committed genocide in the Oxford Languages definition.

[nobodyandproud]

A strawman argument doesn’t “pass muster” either, seeing as how neither I nor the article focuses on the genocide—that wasn’t the point.

Though I’m certain you know all of this already.

[lern_too_spel]

The comment the GP comment was responding to was about genocide. I'm certain you didn't know that already, or you wouldn't have posted the parent comment.

[hodgesrm]

It's pretty awful but does not seem to rise to the level of Nazi extermination camps as far as I can tell. Seeing it through the lens of the Nazi regime does not seem either illuminating or helpful to stop it.