Bad Historical Analogies

As a historian, I often complain about people's ahistoricism and ignorance of the past when they make decisions about our future. However, often, when they do consider past events, I whine and complain that they are making false analogies. So I want to create a set of rules for using historical analogies when speaking of current and controversial events.

Here are two.

• Do not compare any event to the rise of German National Socialism, the Munich Agreement, or Hitler's Final Solution. Why? The scale of horribleness engendered by these events makes your analogy a mockery and hence people will disregard your point. It's a slur, even if you think it you don't mean it that way. Unless you're a German historian of the period you probably don't really know enough.
  


• Whenever you compare a past event to a current one, draw out the distinctions as well, in order to make the parallels more believable. Consider the differences in economic terms, social terms, political terms, and cultural terms, for starters. Use the analogy with moderation. Educate yourself enough to know how to do this.