Issue: Mebbe "Seinfeld's" infamous "Soup Nazi" started the trend, but we have a tendency to call authoritarian figures "Nazis." In recent weeks, for example, I've used the expression Food Nazis and Downtown Parking Nazis to describe individuals who are involved in regulatory work. Then, there are those who'd like to be, such as the Word Nazis who like to point out typos and verb/subject disagreement to journalists. But I digress. Bottom line? Two people have written to HBO to complain about the use of a word which once described a world evil.

Question: Is the word "Nazi" too strong to use offhandedly in describing authoritarian regulators?

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