Were the Nazis Socialists?

THE AUTHOR's FINAL CONCLUSION:

Above all, the Nazis were German white nationalists. What they stood for was the ascendancy of the “Aryan” race and the German nation, by any means necessary. Despite co-opting the name, some of the rhetoric, and even some of the precepts of socialism, Hitler and party did so with utter cynicism, and with vastly different goals. The claim that the Nazis actually were leftists or socialists in any generally accepted sense of those terms flies in the face of historical reality.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...

I’d like to see Snopes run a piece of whether or not the guy running Snopes was stealing money and financing a hooker.

Given that Nazism is traditionally held to be an extreme right-wing ideology,

Only after they were defeated in WWII!

Before the war they were center left!

The Nazis always considered themselves on the left, as did most of the rest of the world.

Racism and anti-Semitism were mainstream Leftist concepts before the war.

President Woodrow Wilson was one of the most racist presidents.

In his book THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH by William L. Shirer, he concludes that both Marx and Hitler were products of their philosophical father Hegel.

Like Hegel’s bastard sons by different mothers.

And both, like Bernie, refused to work for a living, holding out for a “Management Position”.

Quote from Adolf Hitler:

Basically National Socialism and Marxism are the same thing.

What is Left? What is Right?
What Is Left? What Is Right? It is extremely unfortunate that the writers on political philosophy today have undertaken to measure various issues in terms of political parties instead of political power. No doubt the American Founding Fathers would have considered this modern measuring stick most objectionable, even meaningless.
Today, as we mentioned, it is popular in the classroom as well as the press to refer to “Communism on the left,” and “Fascism on the right.” People and parties are often called “Leftist,” or “Rightist.” The public do not really understand what they are talking about.
These terms actually refer to the manner in which the various parties are seated in the parliaments of Europe. The radical revolutionaries (usually the Communists) occupy the far left and the military dictatorships (such as the Fascists) are on the far right. Other parties are located in between.
Measuring people and issues in terms of political parties has turned out to be philosophically fallacious if not totally misleading. This is because the platforms or positions of political parties are often superficial and structured on shifting sand. The platform of a political party of one generation can hardly be recognized by the next. Furthermore, Communism and Fascism turned out to be different names for approximately the same thing ~ the police state. They are not opposite extremes but, for all practical purposes, are virtually identical.
The American Founding Fathers Used a More Accurate Yardstick
Government is defined in the dictionary as “a system of ruling or controlling,” and therefore the American Founders measured political systems in terms of the amount of coercive power or systematic control which a particular system of government exercises over its people. In other words, the yardstick is not political parties, but political power.
Using this type of yardstick, the American Founders considered the two extremes to be anarchy on the one hand, and tyranny on the other. At the one extreme of anarchy there is no government, no law, no systematic control and no governmental power, while at the other extreme there is too much control, too much political oppression, too much government. Or, as the Founders called it, “tyranny.”
The object of the Founders was to discover the “balanced center” between these two extremes. They recognized that under the chaotic confusion of anarchy there is “no law,” whereas at the other extreme the law is totally dominated by the ruling power and is therefore “Ruler’s Law.” What they wanted to establish was a system of “People’s Law,” where the government is kept under the control of the people and political power is maintained at the balanced center with enough government to maintain security, justice, and good order, but not enough government to abuse the people.
The 5,000 Year Leap – W. Cleon Skousen

Those that trust snopes are dopes. I laugh when people reference them as a “source”. And look at them like dummys with a tablespoon of condescension.

Who controlled the means of production?

It was the state.

The Nazis were more socialist than most of the current Scandinavian countries.

Yeah, no - they were socialists. “National Socialists” to be precise (and love that Snopes has the audacity to label them with the kodern day re-defined “white nationalist” term as a “objective fact”

That they were white has no bearing on their ideology.

Snopes could easily call South Africans Black nationalists along with their ill here for the same reasons (but won’t)

The nazis has universal healthcare, gun control and anti-smoking led to promote the health of the body. They - were - socialists.

Steven crowder says Hitler was a socialist and backs it up.

https://youtu.be/VybWkpt_3Jo

snopes called the New Testament an “aberration” once.

So far left they leave your field of vision.

This one always kills me..

1. what are the principals of “socialism” (e.g state control of , well, everything. State mandating production/ wages).

2. does national SOCIALISM contain these fundamental principals?

if yes, then YES SOCIALIST.

on the left is pure tyrannical rule over every aspect of life. on the right, pure freedom of individualism.

where in that spectrum do democrats fall and you will see it is near the naziis. i cannot say whether it is to the left or the right.

The opposite view: Hitler was a Socialist

Yeah. They were socialists. Groups like Ernst Rohm’s SA were extremely socialist. Hitler disliked capitalism especially those owned by Jews. He provided citizens with all sorts of worker programs like vacations on Nazi cruise ships and developed the VW or ‘people’s car’ to be available cheaply by the workers. This never came to fruition as the war caused all industry to be directed to war production.

I’m curious as to why you would be protecting socialist from the link with nazis?

Patton was right. We should have joined with the remaining Wehrmachtbat the end of the war to take out Bolshevik scum who were our ‘allies’.

Socialism,facism, even the ancient feudal system are the same thing. Oligarchies are the dominate governmental systems today.

Good post. I read that book and that is where I finally gained understanding of what “left” and “right” mean. If I remember correctly, the term “wing” added to “left or right” comes from one of them describing the spectrum as a bird or an eagle with the left wing and right wing describing the difference in the spectrum and the birds head being right in the middle which was the ideal spot on the spectrum to be.

My apologies if I didn’t remember that correctly. I read that book about 10-15 years ago.

Wrong. In Europe, far right is far left. Always confused and conflated with conservative vs. Liberal.

Hitler disagrees with the author:

"Socialism as the final concept of duty, the ethical duty of work, not just for oneself but also for one’s fellow man’s sake, and above all the principle: Common good before own good, a struggle against all parasitism and especially against easy and unearned income."

"Since we are socialists, we must necessarily also be antisemites because we want to fight against the very opposite: materialism and mammonism… How can you not be an antisemite, being a socialist!"

I suspect this Hitler guy might know more about what his own views were than some author trying to cover up socialism's sordid past.