There is something deeply troubling about seeing Pauline Hanson depicted as Adolf Hitler.

Whatever your view of Hanson or One Nation, political debate should not descend into Nazi imagery being used as a partisan political weapon.

Hanson is not Adolf Hitler. She is not a Nazi dictator. Australians are entitled to criticize her policies and political record, just like any politician. That is democracy.

But there is a line between political criticism and historical demonization, and that line matters.

The Holocaust did not begin with gas chambers and crematoria. It began with words, propaganda, slogans, caricatures and the gradual normalization of hatred. By the time the Final Solution was in full force, it was accepted as normal.

The Nazis understood the power of propaganda. Joseph Goebbels used newspapers, radio and film to repeatedly portray Jews and political opponents as dangerous and responsible for society’s problems. While we have social media to spread propaganda today, in the 1930s Goebbels gave Germans radios so that propaganda could be spread effectively and successfully.

Once Adolf Hitler becomes little more than a political insult, we risk trivializing one of history’s greatest crimes and turning the Holocaust into a political meme.

Australia has spent the past three years talking about antisemitism and social cohesion. Yet political debate increasingly appears comfortable with language and imagery designed to demonize opponents.

Words have consequences.

We saw that lesson brutally demonstrated on Bondi Beach last December, when 15 people were murdered by Islamist extremists. For years, Australians had warned about extremist ideologies, antisemitic conspiracy theories and incitement being normalized under the banner of free speech.

Then people were killed.

Among the victims were Jews and non-Jews, Zionists........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)