Some people say Hitler was socialist based on his party’s name. The problem with that is that you’d have to take his words at face value and believe him
People be saying that shit for years because thet don’t have the education to understand that “national socialism” is socialism just like guinea pigs are pigs from Guinea
For some people, left = the state do stuff and is evil
On top of that, Hitler was a national-SOCIALIST; so you see, since nazi are mysterious mythological creatures that are unable to lie, they are socialists, hence left wing
What I feel is positive in this misinformed mess is that those people still see the nazis as evil, even though they probably subscribe to their ideology
National Socialism, clue is in the name. He was left wing, he made huge social programs, increased the involvement of government in the individual. His redistribution of wealth was basically stealing from the jews.
Authoritarianism is a left wing idea. At it’s core right wingism should be associated with individuality and freedom.
always very funny when people say this when one of the most famous poems reflecting the time period literally starts with them coming for the socialists and trade unionists
“Do your own research.” 😜
Same how some fall for “democratic peoples republic”.
The literal full form of NAZI itself is National Sozialist.
And you let polarisation and black and white thinking draw up the logical conclusions from there.
I think if you are so evil you are willing to exterminate an entire race of people you are way beyond left or right. He used both sides to get what he wanted.
Why do people even care, what’s considered left wing or right wing is essentially arbitrary, and the problems of the nazis goes well beyond a division between left and right
Reducing nazism to socialism yes/no seems like a moot point.
I stopped counting how often I had to explain to Americans that Nazis were not actually socialists and that it’s all just conservative propaganda.
It’s so utterly irrelevant whether or not he was left-wing. Genocide isn’t left-wing or right-wing it’s just evil.
Any argument that rests on “x evil person is part of your group, actually” is just plain stupid.
Oh my days! This poor person’s mind would be blown if you explained actual politics to them.
The same dip shit knee jerk soundbite politics as the good ol’ US of A are becoming prevalent in the UK. Hence Brexshit.
In theearly ’80’s when my old arse was in secondary school (11-16) we had whole history, personal and social development classes devoted to politics. Teachers passionately educating us to think for ourselves, Thatcher may have been the catalyst, but the whole class had their milk stolen by that hag so preaching to the converted mainly.
when Hitler said he was going to take back from the jews what they had taken from the germans, he meant it. literally, he saw them as leeches who just siphoned money from society without contributing to it.
when you see “arbeit macht frei” on the gates of auschwitz it means that the work performed by the jews would work their debt to society off. and in that way from a socialists perspective work would set them free. it wasn’t just some random thing put up there to look as evil as possible, it was a genuine expression of the NSDAPs beliefs.
the NSDAP were very zealous socialists. very dishonest to claim otherwise.
Left? Right? It doesn’t matter!
What matters is he was a shit painter.
Fascism has a definition you know. It wasn’t invented by moustache-twirling villains laughing in a room with their cigars. It came from Central Europeans seeing capitalism to the West, communism to the East, disliking both and trying to find a middle ground.
That middle ground idea was to nationalize the industry, but by incorporating the existing heads of industry in the government instead of expropriating (oversimplifying I know)
A concession to the left and a concession to the right. Centrist if you ask me.
Now the obvious problem with that idea was that it gives the state enormous power and control over the population, leading to what fascism is much more infamous for.
But unfortunately for redditors, left/right is an economical axis. Things like imperialism, ethnic nationalism, mass murder, totalitarianism, etc are neither left or rightwing. Those characteristics have been found in countless countries from communist to capitalist and anywhere inbetween.
In his defence, it’s not uncommon for people to believe that Hitler was right wing, far right etc which is just as nonsensical and most likely even a common opinion in this sub. This probably comes from the conflation of authoritarianism with being “right wing” which is a really stupid and baseless simplification and I hate how politics has become so one dimensional but here we are.
In reality, Hitler wasn’t right wing in the economic sense, which is what it means literally to be “right wing”. He and his fellow Nazi’s believed that capitalism was international Jewish finance, and thus he hated it and he used it to blame the Jews for causing the Great Recession and the subsequent years of economic hardship. You’ll notice some similar themes hidden among some modern leftists today.
That being said, he generally disliked the left wing as well, particularly bolsheviks/communists and he tried to separate what we today would commonly can socialists, from his party. “Communism is not socialism, Marxism is not socialism, The Marxian’s have stolen the term and confused its meaning”, is a quote from an interview in which he was literally asked why he called his party socialists. In general, it appears he shares the same collectivist ideology with socialism, but not really a lot more.
So despite being viewed as far right, Hitler was really neither right wing nor left wing and despised both groups. He was certainly not a champion of the free market nor was he a socialist/communist. He was just authoritarian, any scholar that links Hitler to being right wing does so, again because they conflate being right wing to authoritarianism. This is silly because as we know from the Soviet Union, there can easily be left wing authoritarian regimes.
One of the first things Hitler did when in power was kill all the union leaders… very very socialist of him. People on the right love to point out that hitlers party had socialist in its name however Hitler himself gave multiple interviews where admitted that he put that in the name to take away the meaning of the word socialism… he was a fascist just like the urangatang in the USA right now
Saying Hitler was left-wing or right-wing is such a tiresome part of modern politics. The Nazis had policies that some would consider both left and right, but the important thing is (and get ready this will blow some minds), we don’t consider the Nazis bad because of the *typical* left or right wing policies, like the Autobahn, or animal rights, or worker conditions, or ‘socialist’ stuff like the Volkswagen… they’re bad because they killed 11 million people in camps. It doesn’t matter if a party is left or right wing, the important part is that they don’t kill 11 million people in camps.
Oh please, there is enough politics on reddit as there is. Dont start on my favoutite sub as well.
23 comments
Some people say Hitler was socialist based on his party’s name. The problem with that is that you’d have to take his words at face value and believe him
People be saying that shit for years because thet don’t have the education to understand that “national socialism” is socialism just like guinea pigs are pigs from Guinea
For some people, left = the state do stuff and is evil
On top of that, Hitler was a national-SOCIALIST; so you see, since nazi are mysterious mythological creatures that are unable to lie, they are socialists, hence left wing
What I feel is positive in this misinformed mess is that those people still see the nazis as evil, even though they probably subscribe to their ideology
National Socialism, clue is in the name. He was left wing, he made huge social programs, increased the involvement of government in the individual. His redistribution of wealth was basically stealing from the jews.
Authoritarianism is a left wing idea. At it’s core right wingism should be associated with individuality and freedom.
always very funny when people say this when one of the most famous poems reflecting the time period literally starts with them coming for the socialists and trade unionists
“Do your own research.” 😜
Same how some fall for “democratic peoples republic”.
The literal full form of NAZI itself is National Sozialist.
https://preview.redd.it/arj693ikrcmd1.jpeg?width=695&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=15268eb8165146a184fe0913e44a0a0110ca74ac
Know your audience!
You start with the following premises:
* I am not bad
* Hitler was bad
* I am right wing
And you let polarisation and black and white thinking draw up the logical conclusions from there.
I think if you are so evil you are willing to exterminate an entire race of people you are way beyond left or right. He used both sides to get what he wanted.
Why do people even care, what’s considered left wing or right wing is essentially arbitrary, and the problems of the nazis goes well beyond a division between left and right
Reducing nazism to socialism yes/no seems like a moot point.
I stopped counting how often I had to explain to Americans that Nazis were not actually socialists and that it’s all just conservative propaganda.
It’s so utterly irrelevant whether or not he was left-wing. Genocide isn’t left-wing or right-wing it’s just evil.
Any argument that rests on “x evil person is part of your group, actually” is just plain stupid.
Oh my days! This poor person’s mind would be blown if you explained actual politics to them.
The same dip shit knee jerk soundbite politics as the good ol’ US of A are becoming prevalent in the UK. Hence Brexshit.
In theearly ’80’s when my old arse was in secondary school (11-16) we had whole history, personal and social development classes devoted to politics. Teachers passionately educating us to think for ourselves, Thatcher may have been the catalyst, but the whole class had their milk stolen by that hag so preaching to the converted mainly.
when Hitler said he was going to take back from the jews what they had taken from the germans, he meant it. literally, he saw them as leeches who just siphoned money from society without contributing to it.
when you see “arbeit macht frei” on the gates of auschwitz it means that the work performed by the jews would work their debt to society off. and in that way from a socialists perspective work would set them free. it wasn’t just some random thing put up there to look as evil as possible, it was a genuine expression of the NSDAPs beliefs.
the NSDAP were very zealous socialists. very dishonest to claim otherwise.
Left? Right? It doesn’t matter!
What matters is he was a shit painter.
Fascism has a definition you know. It wasn’t invented by moustache-twirling villains laughing in a room with their cigars. It came from Central Europeans seeing capitalism to the West, communism to the East, disliking both and trying to find a middle ground.
That middle ground idea was to nationalize the industry, but by incorporating the existing heads of industry in the government instead of expropriating (oversimplifying I know)
A concession to the left and a concession to the right. Centrist if you ask me.
Now the obvious problem with that idea was that it gives the state enormous power and control over the population, leading to what fascism is much more infamous for.
But unfortunately for redditors, left/right is an economical axis. Things like imperialism, ethnic nationalism, mass murder, totalitarianism, etc are neither left or rightwing. Those characteristics have been found in countless countries from communist to capitalist and anywhere inbetween.
In his defence, it’s not uncommon for people to believe that Hitler was right wing, far right etc which is just as nonsensical and most likely even a common opinion in this sub. This probably comes from the conflation of authoritarianism with being “right wing” which is a really stupid and baseless simplification and I hate how politics has become so one dimensional but here we are.
In reality, Hitler wasn’t right wing in the economic sense, which is what it means literally to be “right wing”. He and his fellow Nazi’s believed that capitalism was international Jewish finance, and thus he hated it and he used it to blame the Jews for causing the Great Recession and the subsequent years of economic hardship. You’ll notice some similar themes hidden among some modern leftists today.
That being said, he generally disliked the left wing as well, particularly bolsheviks/communists and he tried to separate what we today would commonly can socialists, from his party. “Communism is not socialism, Marxism is not socialism, The Marxian’s have stolen the term and confused its meaning”, is a quote from an interview in which he was literally asked why he called his party socialists. In general, it appears he shares the same collectivist ideology with socialism, but not really a lot more.
So despite being viewed as far right, Hitler was really neither right wing nor left wing and despised both groups. He was certainly not a champion of the free market nor was he a socialist/communist. He was just authoritarian, any scholar that links Hitler to being right wing does so, again because they conflate being right wing to authoritarianism. This is silly because as we know from the Soviet Union, there can easily be left wing authoritarian regimes.
One of the first things Hitler did when in power was kill all the union leaders… very very socialist of him. People on the right love to point out that hitlers party had socialist in its name however Hitler himself gave multiple interviews where admitted that he put that in the name to take away the meaning of the word socialism… he was a fascist just like the urangatang in the USA right now
Saying Hitler was left-wing or right-wing is such a tiresome part of modern politics. The Nazis had policies that some would consider both left and right, but the important thing is (and get ready this will blow some minds), we don’t consider the Nazis bad because of the *typical* left or right wing policies, like the Autobahn, or animal rights, or worker conditions, or ‘socialist’ stuff like the Volkswagen… they’re bad because they killed 11 million people in camps. It doesn’t matter if a party is left or right wing, the important part is that they don’t kill 11 million people in camps.
Oh please, there is enough politics on reddit as there is. Dont start on my favoutite sub as well.