Metaphors and similes — we use them all the time when we speak and write in the English language. So what are they? Words that we use to compare one thing or person to another thing or person.
They’re shortcuts that get a point across quickly and often colorfully.
For example, if the sentence “Bill has been a real bear today” is said, we can understand the metaphor. He’s obviously not an actual bear but shows on this day some of its characteristics. He’s in a foul mood. He’s growling. Better stay out of his way.
So you say you don’t talk like that. Ever call someone an asshole? It’s a metaphor that is clearly understood. We can change that to a simile by saying, “Bill is acting like an asshole.”
These are some similes: ( a comparison using like or as)
As cute as a button
As busy as a bee
As brave as a lion
Like a fish out of water
These are metaphors:
The Time is a thief
He has a heart of stone
The world is a stage
Life is a journey
Donald Trump said recently that the left is responsible for increasing violence in our society. He blames, among other things, the rhetoric used in discourse, that comparisons to Adolf Hitler and Nazis is beyond the pale. It crosses a line. The President has vowed to go after those on the left who criticize the right. Mr. Trump has hardly been a practitioner of restrained rhetoric. Every day he turns his math book to the chapter he knows best, the one on division.
Maybe the “duck test” in one of its iterations works here.
If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.
Because some of us have at least a modicum of knowledge of history, it is not unreasonable to see similarities between this moment in time and Nazi Germany. There may be different actors, but the play’s the same.
We have an authoritarian dictator surrounded by sycophants who devote precious time to flattering him. Hitler had his minister of propaganda.
Joseph Goebbels was Adolf Hitler's Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 1945, responsible for controlling the media and promoting Nazi ideology, including antisemitism and the glorification of Hitler. He played a crucial role in shaping public perception and maintaining support for the Nazi regime throughout World War II.
In 2025 America, there is a whole propaganda industry where truth is flexible. It’s effective. The mesmerized MAGAs brought Trump to power.
Despots place themselves and their welfare first. They need followers, however. In our time the entire Republican Party has abandoned the Constitution and democracy. They’ve got the fever.
We Americans are not used to seeing fascism spreading like a cancer, so we may get it wrong occasionally. Noting the parallels between 2025 America and Hitler’s Nazi regime is not one of them.
From AI. GPT-5 mini
A Nazi is a member or supporter of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP), the far-right political party that ruled Germany under Adolf Hitler from 1933 to 1945, and more broadly anyone who embraces its core ideology: ultranationalism, authoritarianism, racism (especially antisemitism), and belief in a hierarchical “racial” order.
Key points:
The historical Nazi regime pursued aggressive expansionism, state control of many aspects of life, suppression of political opposition, and the genocide of six million Jews plus millions of others (Roma, disabled people, political dissidents, LGBTQ+ people, and more).
In contemporary usage, “Nazi” can mean (1) a historical member/supporter of the NSDAP or (2) a modern person or group advocating similar extreme, racist, authoritarian beliefs; it is also used pejoratively as an insult for people perceived as extremely intolerant.
Legal and social responses vary by country; in many places, Nazi symbols and organized neo‑Nazi activity are monitored, restricted, or banned because of the ideology’s link to violence and hate.
If you want a shorter, one‑line answer: A Nazi is someone who supports the National Socialist ideology of Hitler’s party—characterized by extreme racism, authoritarianism, and violent, expansionist nationalism.
Do the quotations below seem familiar?
"It is not truth that matters, but victory." ~ Adolf Hitler
"Let me control the textbooks, and I will control the state." ~ Adolf Hitler
"It is a quite special secret pleasure how the people around us fail to realize what is really happening to them." ~ Adolf Hitler
"The greater the crime perpetrated by the leadership, the less likely it is that the people will ever believe their leaders to be capable of perpetrating such an event." ~ Adolf Hitler
"We have to put a stop to the idea that it is a part of everybody's civil rights to say whatever he pleases." ~ Adolf Hitler
"By means of shrewd lies, unremittingly repeated, it is possible to make people believe that heaven is hell - and hell heaven. The greater the lie, the more readily it will be believed." ~ Adolf Hitler
"The receptivity of the masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan." ~ Adolf Hitler
"I'll put an end to the idea that a woman's body belongs to her... Nazi ideals demand that the practice of abortion shall be exterminated with a strong hand." ~ Adolf Hitler
"Brutality creates respect." ~ Adolf Hitler
"A woman must be a cute, cuddly, naive little thing - tender, sweet, and stupid." ~ Adolf Hitler
There you have it. Thanks for dropping by.
“their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous” which certainly is one explanation why we got Trump 2.0.
Some of those things sound as if they're being said today.
Also: Hitler copied Mussolini in a lot of ways... e.g. Fuehrer is Leader in German, Duce in Italian