This article originated HERE on the Free Republic
They were left-wing socialists.
Yes, the National Socialist Workers
Party of Germany, otherwise known as the Nazi Party, was indeed
socialist, and it had a lot in common with the modern left. Hitler
preached class warfare, agitating the working class to resist
``exploitation'' by capitalists -- particularly Jewish capitalists, of
course. Their program called for the nationalization of education,
health care, transportation, and other major industries. They instituted
and vigorously enforced a strict gun control regimen. They encouraged
pornography, illegitimacy, and abortion, and they denounced Christians
as right-wing fanatics. Yet a popular myth persists that the Nazis
themselves were right-wing extremists. This insidious lie biases the
entire political landscape, and the time has come to expose it.
Richard Poe, editor of Frontpage Magazine, sets the record straight:
Nazism was inspired by Italian Fascism, an invention of hardline
Communist Benito Mussolini. During World War I, Mussolini recognized
that conventional socialism wasn't working. He saw that nationalism
exerted a stronger pull on the working class than proletarian
brotherhood. He also saw that the ferocious opposition of large
corporations made socialist revolution difficult. So in 1919, Mussolini
came up with an alternative strategy. He called it Fascism. Mussolini
described his new movement as a ``Third Way'' between capitalism and
communism. As under communism, the state would exercise dictatorial
control over the economy. But as under capitalism, the corporations
would be left in private hands.
Hitler followed the same game
plan. He openly acknowledged that the Nazi party was ``socialist'' and
that its enemies were the ``bourgeoisie'' and the ``plutocrats'' (the
rich). Like Lenin and Stalin, Hitler eliminated trade unions, and
replaced them with his own state-run labor organizations. Like Lenin and
Stalin, Hitler hunted down and exterminated rival leftist factions
(such as the Communists). Like Lenin and Stalin, Hitler waged
unrelenting war against small business.
Hitler regarded
capitalism as an evil scheme of the Jews and said so in speech after
speech. Karl Marx believed likewise. In his essay, ``On the Jewish
Question,'' Marx theorized that eliminating Judaism would strike a
crippling blow to capitalist exploitation. Hitler put Marx's theory to
work in the death camps.
The Nazis are widely known as
nationalists, but that label is often used to obscure the fact that they
were also socialists. Some question whether Hitler himself actually
believed in socialism, but that is no more relevant than whether Stalin
was a true believer. The fact is that neither could have come to power
without at least posing as a socialist. And the constant emphasis on the
fact that the Nazis were nationalists, with barely an acknowledgment
that they were socialists, is as absurd as labeling the Soviets
``internationalists'' and ignoring the fact that they were socialists
(they called themselves the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). Yet
many who regard ``national'' socialism as the scourge of humanity
consider ``international'' socialism a benign or even superior form of
government.
According to a popular misconception, the Nazis must
have been on the political right because they persecuted communists and
fought a war with the communists in Russia. This specious logic has gone
largely unchallenged because it serves as useful propaganda for the
left, which needs ``right-wing'' atrocities to divert attention from the
horrific communist atrocities of the past century. Hence, communist
atrocities have received much less publicity than Nazi war crimes, even
though they were greater in magnitude by any objective measure.
R. J. Rummel of the University of Hawaii documents in his book Death by
Government that the two most murderous regimes of the past century were
both communist: communists in the Soviet Union murdered 62 million of
their own citizens, and Chinese communists killed 35 million Chinese
citizens. The Nazi socialists come in third, having murdered 21 million
Jews, Slavs, Serbs, Czechs, Poles, Ukrainians and others. Additional
purges occurred in smaller communist hellholes such as Cambodia,
Vietnam, North Korea, Ethiopia, and Cuba, of course. Communism does more
than imprison and impoverish nations: it kills wholesale. And so did
``national socialism'' during the Nazi reign of terror.
But the
history of the past century has been grossly distorted by the
predominantly left-wing media and academic elite. The Nazis have been
universally condemned -- as they obviously should be -- but they have
also been repositioned clear across the political spectrum and propped
up as false representatives of the far right -- even though Hitler
railed frantically against capitalism in his infamous demagogic
speeches. At the same time, heinous crimes of larger magnitude by
communist regimes have been ignored or downplayed, and the general
public is largely unaware of them. Hence, communism is still widely
regarded as a fundamentally good idea that has just not yet been
properly ``implemented.'' Santayana said, ``Those who cannot remember
the past are condemned to repeat it.'' God help us if we forget the
horrors of communism and get the historical lessons of Nazism backwards.
The Nazis also had something else in common with the modern left: an
obsessive preoccupation with race. Hitler and his Nazis considered races
other than their own inferior, of course. Modern ``liberals,'' who
vociferously oppose the elimination of racial quotas, seem to agree.
They apparently believe that non-white minorities (excluding Asians, of
course) are inferior and unable to compete in the free market without
favoritism mandated by the government. Whereas Hitler was hostile to
those racial minorities, however, modern white ``liberals'' condescend
benevolently. Hitler's blatant and virulent form of racism was
eradicated relatively quickly and very forcefully, but the more subtle
and insidious racism of the modern left has yet to be universally
recognized and condemned.
The media often focuses its microscope
on modern neo-nazi lunatics, but the actual scope of the menace is
relatively miniscule, with perhaps a few thousand neo-nazis at most in
the United States (mostly ``twenty-something'' know-nothings). The
number of communists and communist sympathizers in the United States
dwarfs that figure, of course -- even among tenured professors! And
while the threat of neo-nazi terrorism is indeed serious, the chance of
neo-nazis gaining any kind of legitimate political power anywhere is
virtually zero. That is why the ACLU can safely use them to advertise
its supposed commitment to free speech. Neo-nazi rallies incite
violence, but they do not persuade bystanders to join their cause! If
they did, the ACLU would have nothing to do with them.
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It is truly amazing the lack of historical knowledge the typical "Liberal" has today. Forcing your point and actually inciting violence so others are not "Allowed" to say what they wish on a College campus of Ideas. Rational debate will prove more points than violence...so what does the left fear so much? -The Las Vegas Gentleman
