Back when I was in high school, the analogy section of the SAT verbal was considered one of the trickiest. It’s since been booted from the exam for a variety of reasons including allegations of socio-economic bias, but I’m starting to realize just how important it is to understand analogies, that is comparisons.
Someone (a gentile) I know recently posited that because he faces some discrimination in his work environment due to his unvaccinated status, “I feel like a Jew, like I should be wearing a yellow star.” Of course — not least in these pages — I’ve read news stories about such statements, but to be confronted with it personally? It was a first, and I was extremely disturbed. I replied that I thought his comparison was completely off. I explained to him that the Jews under Nazism had absolutely no agency, they weren’t choosing not to do something, but that something was being done to them. He just didn’t get it, so sure he was that unvaccinated people are the new oppressed.
He seemed baffled, as if it was a given that I would support this comparison. What I realized was that this person was lacking a basic ability to compare. It is true: Different rules applied to Jews in Europe than did to Aryans, and in some circumstances, different rules currently apply to unvaccinated individuals than to vaccinated ones. That does not make them the same. Two things sharing a characteristic, or even more than one characteristic, does not make them analogous.
The same took place during the Trump presidency. How often did some hyperbolically compare Trump to Adolf Hitler or, in the “light,” version, call him a fascist?
It is true: Donald Trump encouraged devotion among his followers. He asked them to support him sometimes blindly, in the face of blatant facts that contradicted his position. But there was no curtailing of the freedom of the press. There was no centrally planned control of the economy. There was no usurpation of the military for political purposes. So while Trump may have shared some characteristics with strongmen leaders, he wasn’t a Putin or a Mussolini.
I’m not a big supporter of vaccine mandates, and I was disturbed by Trump’s lack of regard for electoral process and am concerned about its repercussions. But neither one is or was Nazism. Maybe it’s time to reintroduce analogies into the SAT. Seems we could all use a refresher.
Shana Goldberg may be reached at [email protected].
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