EDITOR:

Regarding the recent letters about the power of loaded words, please, if I may be allowed to cut to the chase.

I believe the horror associated with the term “nazi” has been diluted by overuse, directed mostly at Donald Trump and his supporters. Trump’s opponents paint him as a nazi so that any and all attacks against him will seem more justified. I believe more and more people are seeing through all the nonsense.

Dana VanEffen believes the term “nazi”, short for national “socialist”, should be applied to capitalists, not socialists, because the nazi’s allowed limited autonomy to their arms manufacturers whereas communism assumes full control over everything. VanEffen further asserts that the nazi’s couldn’t be socialist because they crushed all socialist and communist opposition. All dictators always crush all opposition, of any political persuasion. It’s in the job description.

Millions of people were killed by the nazi’s but the communists have killed exponentially more people, mostly their own citizens.

I think both systems amount to the same basic thing; a small elite ruling over the masses with an iron fist and a nose for murder. The nazi’s are gone now but the communists are still with us. I have no doubt that socialism is intended to progress to communism.

The Big Left loves to play with language. Scare words can be softened by modifiers such as progressive or socialist, for example. Communist East Germany called itself the German “Democratic Republic”. Today’s communist North Korea calls itself the “Democratic Peoples Republic” of Korea. Bernie Sanders calls himself a “democratic” socialist. How very clever of him!

Kenneth LaMarche

Escanaba