Politicians and the television pundits that talk about them, Republicans, Democrats, country stars, and even Jews have used Hitler, the Holocaust, and other assorted comparisons to try and get their point across in whatever debate they’re engaging in when it comes to current politics. It’s dumb, pointless, and insulting.
So what about when a famous sports writer compares a sports award show to the Shoah?
According to Deadspin, that’s what Grantland honcho Bill Simmons did in 1999, when he titled a now missing piece, “The 1999 ESPY Awards: Greatest Night In Sports… Or TV Holocaust?”
It seems pretty obvious to me that Simmons wasn’t trying to make a joke that Dick Vitale was like Joseph Goebbels. He wasn’t saying that somebody not winning an award was comparable to Kristallnacht, but he did knowingly use the term “Holocaust” in a piece, and compared a normally bad sports award show to it.
What do you think: is it worth getting upset about, or have we become too oversensitive?