I'd like to hear other people's opinions. I've said similar things in quite a lot of threads, but what I'm going to talk about is a reoccuring thing and as far as I know most people don't really think about it.

I'm quite tired of everything bad being associated with the term Nazi (nazi methods, somebody's boss being a nazi, etc), and also anything bad in the world today being related back to the Nazis, like the use of marketing originating from nazi propaganda. Neither propaganda nor marketing were invented by Nazis, although they did use it in a horrible way, but it's by far not the first time it's been used politically and to harm others. And we all know the history of the "Swiftboat Nazi's," don't we Scott?

Please don't get me wrong. I am NOT trying to defend anything happened in WW2 and the time leading to it. I'm just sick of people using the term Nazi without thinking about it and in a more or less fashionable way, also of people going for the easy version of "it's bad, so it's to do with Nazis", instead of actually getting informed about the history of whatever they're talking about.

In a recent survey to do with the London bombings on what holds together Britain, resistance against Nazi Germany was top of the list. Today? Isn't that a bit sad? And where do all the people under 75 come in? And do the people who said that know how long Britain was just watching because they actually thought Hitler might be up to stuff useful for them?

All this leads to people from my school being beaten up on an exchange for being a "Nazi" (now that's reversed fascism!), German-English schoolkids getting "Nazi" sprayed on their lockers, and to media still thinking that a guy with a silly beard and a bad German accent is the funniest thing in the world.

I apologise to all of you who have heard this countless times before, and those who actually think about what they are saying. I'd just like to know if any of you...
... even vaguely agree
... if you all think I'm exaggerating
... if it's just a normal language development to take the term "Nazi" from its original meaning and turn it into a thing to be used for whatever
... or even if Germans today deserve being called Nazis and laughed at even 60 years after the end of world war 2

Thanks a lot for your opinions... I've never been called a Nazi to my face here (though there have been quite a few people saying "don't mention the war" or calling me a Kraut), but people I know have, and I get upset at the media from time to time even though I know they just do it to increase their sales by bigger headlines