Comparison to Hitler? Maybe not so far off

Once upon a time there was Godwin’s Law, which suggested any argument made involving Hitler or Nazis was, on the face of it, false. Then came Trump.

Soon, Mike Godwin revoked his law. It was clear the U.S. was up to its eyeballs in what was effectively a Nazi cult led by a corrupt dictator who believed he and his “generals” were totally above any laws that he (the Fuhrer) hadn’t dictated himself.

Recently, Trump seemed almost congratulatory in his response to 14 neo-Nazis who conspired to kidnap the governor of Michigan, behead her and hang her (apparently in that order) for advocating face masks. This is wrong in so many ways. But, at least Hitler did not sell out his country to the Russians. The same cannot be said for Trump.

Mr. Jefferson, one of our founding presidents, warned that failure of public education would guarantee an ungovernable population, which is now what we’ve got at about 40% nationwide and over 60% in the Arkansas Poll. Their theme song is simple: “No more school, no more books! No more teachers’ dirty looks!”

Once upon a time after the Middle Ages, there came the Age of Reason. It extolled the Seven Liberal Arts ( SLA); Grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. Eventually humans used these arts to cure disease, invent lasers, fly to the moon and so on. We developed and used parts of our brains that no other animals have.

Now Trump has us scorn liberal science, medicine, and democracy, and follow instead the Seven Deadly Sins: greed, envy, lust, gluttony, pride, wrath, and sloth. These are appetites of our childish rat and lizard brains that give rise to the banality of evil. This leads unguided humans to a cult-like state where they cherish war, disease, holocausts and generally behave like vicious packs of beasts.

Democracy requires law based on logic, but it dies without it. Republicans have repeatedly shown their scorn for law and their oath of office to support laws. They have enabled breathtaking criminality by this execrable president and his crime family. They adore despots and dark money donors, all quislings (so named after Vidkin Quisling, a Norwegian Nazi collaborator and traitor).

We’re better than that! The SLA are now known as science, engineering, mathematics and technological arts (SEMaTA). We live in a cyber age full of free, beautiful knowledge for anyone with a PC screen, and it should be regardless of skin color or nose shape. Whether you believe in a God or not, you might want to see what beautifully spectacular things he or she has been up to for the last 10 or so billion years! Telescope, microscope, MRI, brain studies, etc., it’s all few clicks away. Full disclosure: My job is writing free SEMaTA books.

We are all artists, just with quite different palettes in varying states of growth. Let’s unite our society by ideals like those of Mr. Science, Mr. Rogers, Mme. Curie, Ms. Ghez, or Mr. Einstein and eschew bullies like Weinstein, Epstein and Trumpenstein, who only live to hurt people.

WILLIAM G. HARTER

Fayetteville