Mods - This is meant to be a general statement about the world and not an explicit post about US politics.
I agree that terms like "Nazi" and "fascist" are often used carelessly, and that can make meaningful discussion more difficult. But I also think there's a tendency to go too far in the other direction and act as though those labels are never applicable in modern politics.
The question shouldn't be whether someone is literally a member of the Nazi Party from 1930s Germany. The question is whether certain behaviors, rhetoric, or political movements share characteristics associated with fascism: extreme nationalism, demonization of out-groups, attacks on democratic institutions, suppression of dissent, loyalty to a leader over principles, and the erosion of civil liberties.
Reasonable people can disagree about where the line is, but it's not true that everyone using the term is ignorant of its meaning. Some people have studied the history and see parallels they find concerning. Others disagree with those comparisons. That's a debate worth having.
What concerns me more is when people dismiss the comparison outright without engaging with the specific behaviors being criticized. If someone believes a movement is exhibiting authoritarian or fascistic tendencies, the response should be to address the evidence, not simply assume they don't know what the words mean.
