Tea at Trianon: When “Nazi” Becomes a Normalized Slur

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, July 12, 2025

When “Nazi” Becomes a Normalized Slur

From Direct Line News:

There’s a straight line—undeniable, uncomfortable, and increasingly dangerous—between the rhetoric we hear from the left and the violence we see in the streets. We’ve watched the temperature rise for years, and now, tragically, the pot is boiling over. On social media, in classrooms, and on cable news, Democrats and their radical allies have normalized one of the most reckless lies of our time: that Republicans, ICE agents, and Donald Trump himself are somehow equivalent to Nazis.
Let that sink in. Not people you simply disagree with. Not opponents in a two-party system. But Nazis. That kind of language doesn’t stay rhetorical for long. It invites violence. It licenses it. And increasingly, it inspires it.
Over the weekend, another violent attack was carried out on an ICE field office in El Paso. Molotov cocktails. Gunfire. The building was targeted after an “Abolish ICE” rally marched through the city chanting anti-American slogans and holding signs that depicted ICE agents as stormtroopers and death camp guards. The so-called protesters were egged on by the same talking points we’ve heard for years from members of “The Squad,” the ACLU, and leftist professors: that America’s immigration enforcement officers are part of a fascist system. (Read more.)