I am more than a little amused by the new German AIDS-awareness campaign that likens unprotected sex to the Holocaust. As far as I can tell, this demonstrates that the trend in the Western world to equate anything deemed unsavory to the Third Reich has finally reached its apogee.

If we visualize mainstream moral sensibilities as a Euler diagram, with a large circle containing all that is bad, and examine Hitler’s place within that diagram over time, we’ll notice a consistent trend. For at least two generations, the “Hitler” circle within the “Bad” circle has grown steadily in most peoples’ minds, and the two now apparently overlap perfectly. In other words, anything categorized as “Bad” is necessarily also categorized as “Hitler.” The two words are now perfectly synonymous. From this point forward, feel free to equate Adolf with anything at all that offends your moral sentiments.