In the statement published on his website Monday and addressed to Dutch far-Right politician Geert Wilders, "his acolytes" and "all those like him," the commissioner accused the politicians of "lies and half-truths, manipulations and peddling of fear."
"And yet what Mr. Wilders shares in common with Mr. Trump, [Hungarian Prime Minister] Mr. Orban, [Czech President] Mr. Zeman, [Austrian politician] Mr. Hofer, [Slovak Prime Minister] Mr. Fico, [French National Front Party leader] Madame Le Pen, Mr. Farage, he also shares with Da’esh," the statement said.
"Populists use half-truths and oversimplification — the two scalpels of the arch-propagandist… In its mode of communication, its use of half-truths and oversimplification, the propaganda of Daesh uses tactics similar to those of the populists," Hussein said.
According to the commissioner, their propaganda "formula" comes down to inflaming people to hate a certain group, blaming the people’s problems on them, and offering a solution which would be a "horrendous injustice" to others.
Trump, a controversial real estate mogul, is well-known for his calls to build a wall on the US border with Mexico as well as to ban all Muslims from the United States.
Farage, in his turn, has led the so-called Brexit campaign, calling for the UK nationals to vote to leave the European Union. One of his Eurosceptic claims to support the campaign was that staying in the bloc would result in an influx of migrants.
"Godwin's law" is an Internet adage asserting that "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazism or Hitler approaches 1." The 'law' was inspired by philosopher Leo Strauss's 1951 concept of "Reductio ad Hitlerum" — the facile assertion that something one opposes is "just like" Hitler or the Nazis. In an age where political leaders such as Australia's Tony Abbott have denounced Daesh as being worse than the Nazis, perhaps the popular rule of thumb needs revising.
