Bye-bye, Hank

Am I OK with Hank Williams Jr. losing his Monday Night Football gig for using an analogy between President Obama and Hitler?

Sure.

In fact, I propose a general rule:

Anytime anyone compares anything or anyone to Hitler and/or the Nazis, he or she loses their job immediately.

Not for lack of taste — though that could be sufficient grounds, too — but for lack of brains and for laziness.

The Hitler/Nazi analogy — whether coming from Hank Williams Jr., or Congressman Steve Cohen or anybody else — is meant as an argument clincher. All it indicates is that the person is incapable of making an intelligent case for his/her position.

It’s meant to be a show-stopper; instead, it’s a think-stopper.

Of course, it’s nothing new: Academic ethicist Leo Strauss coined the term Reduction ad Hitlerum, a play on reductio ad absurdum, when?

1953.