Posted on 08/25/2007 9:37:52 AM PDT by Renfield
~~~~~snip~~~~
There is surely no doubt that the man Feser describes sounds very much like a mainstream Leftist by current standards. But who is the man concerned? It is a historically accurate description of Adolf Hitler. Hitler was not only a socialist in his own day but he would even be a mainstream socialist in MOST ways today. Feser does not mention Hitler's antisemitism above, of course, but that too seems once again to have become mainstream among the Western-world Left in the early years of the 21st century. See here for more on that.
One way in which Hitler was unlike modern American Leftist political leaders, however, is that he was to a considerable extent a genuine man of culture. The photo below shows him in white tie and tails attending the Wagner opera festival at Bayreuth in 1939. There is no doubt of his real devotion to opera -- and indeed to classical music generally. Any claim that a devotion to high culture is especially virtuous does therefore tend to be undermined by Hitler's example -- if that is not too ad hominem.
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(Excerpt) Read more at jonjayray.tripod.com ...
Yeah, as in “I don’t like socializm”.
Indeed it would be.
But unfortunately the history has been written otherwise, has been taught to the young and has become a truth in the Clinton sense, i.e., a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth. And THE TRUTH according to the history books is that the Nazis were Right Wing. I'm afraid even the power of Free Republic and the Internet will not reverse this false belief.
I read it as a teen which, from my current perspective, was right around the fall of the Roman Empire.
Me neither.
I think it is a mistake to try and pick the fly shit from the pepper with respect to fascism, socialism, communism, et al, they are all simply totalitarian dictatorial regimes, so ultimately it is of no matter the brand name on the boot that is smashing my teeth in.
Orwell documents the Communists' purge of the Anarchists/Socialists in his Homage to Catalonia, from his days fighting in the Spanish Civil War. Some say that if he were one train later out of the country, he'd have been caught up in the purge and likely imprisoned and killed.
Right. And your dearly beloved signed up with Germany to carve up Eastern Europe between them. When that happened, your pals here in the States were active Nazi supporters--demonstrating against American involvement in any war with Germany. Such a war might hurt their beloved Josef.
Our Corporations have ties with German Corps..
No. Not "ties." My God. "Ties" are the worst possible thing" Silly boy or girl, every major corporation in the world has "ties" with almost every other.
They have Hillary.
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I used to torture the Maoists and Troski’ites on my college campus in the 70’s. When they tried to talk to me, I would tell them I already belonged to a party that agreed with most of their program. I would then describe the NSDAP and when I had them agreeing with me on many issues I dropped the hammer, “ you MUST have heard of the the Nazi Party, we were big in the 30’s and 40’s......
It’s really quite simple, and the historical truths are apparent in spite of the myths created among leftists in the west.
The Nazis stood for “national socialist”. They were socialists but they opposed the Commintern led by the Bolsheviks. Thus their true political cousins, the Communists, were among their opponents.
Unlike the “internationalists” associated with the Commintern, the Nazis were German nationalists in their international outlook - which, given the lopsided WWI treaties was not so strange, with or without a Hitler.
All across Europe, at the local level, Communists and Nazi sympathizers easily changed back and forth between their “red” shirts and their “brown” shirts, depending on which armies were succeeding in their area at the time.
They both stood for socialist dictatorships and tearing down Europe’s liberal, western traditions founded in Europe’s religious and philosophical history.
But the propaganda machine of the Marxists has been working constantly, since WWII, selling the myth that there was some grand “political” alliance between western democracy at the international Marxists, epitomized in the military alliance between the western allies and the Soviet Union.
But the fact is that the west would have been allied with Russia against Germany if Russia had still been Czarist Russia. The alliance with the Soviets was an alliance of convenience and nothing more, in spite of the left’s myths.
“I’m going to give you a list of characteristics that define an ideology and the founder of that ideology. There’s a quiz at the end of it so listen carefully:
1. A Socialist who believes all business should be run by the State and all profits made by business should be the property of the State.
2. Despises personal profit as greedy and against the good of the state.
3. Believes in a strong, state-run education system to instill the ideologies of “the party” counter to the teachings of parents and families.
4. Has full run of the media and used it exclusively to propagandize the views of the party.
5. When their economic system weakens, they seek to tighten regulations on business and to absorb the economies of others to compensate.
6. Anti gun and even implements and then enforces a national confiscation of firearms.
7. Pro abortion.
8. Pro euthanasia.
9. Pro eugenics.
10. Animal-rights activist.
11. Vegetarian.
12. Believes personal sexual fetishes are fine and a private matter, especially for politicians.
13. Hates Christianity and anti-religion in general, though tries to use the church for political support when needed.
14. Vehement anti-smoker who wants to ban all smoking nationally.
15. Believes in national healthcare as part of their Socialist platform.
16. Tries to enforce national exercise programs for both the physical and fiscal health of the State.
I’ve just highlighted some of the traits of Hitler and his Nazi party, which roughly translates as the ‘National Socialist Party.’ Here’s the quiz: Does this sound more like today’s American Christian conservative, or the left wing of the Democrat party?”
Our financial heads of state (bush ancestors among them) thought it might work.
They bet on that horse.
“NASDP (Nationalsocialistiche Deutsche Arbeiter Patei) may have been the official name of the party but it’s workings were not.”
Their “workings” were not?? How so??
Nazism is nationalistic socialism and communism is international socialism. Both are based on the power of the state over people’s lives and the economy. Both place no value of human life or freedom. Both slaughtered their own people. You can argue about methodology or nuanced theory, however there is no substantive difference in their goals or means.
Ah, but he used socialism to promote fascism, which is the whole point. Once you dispense of free market capitalism, which depends on the industry and competition between individuals and is supported by individual economic rights, then one is free to wield industry and society to dictatorial ends.
Except for Stalin, Castro, Chavez, Pol Pot, Chia Dictator, and probably a few others I can't recall.
“Trade Unionists”
The same people that Lenin and Stalin purged when those people did not understand that their activities were no longer needed; great political cousins of Hitler that Vlad and Joe were.
All independent “Socialists” are purged by every “socialist” dictator, who proclaims the mantle of “socialist” victory and whereby all “socialist” work will be carried out only via their leadership.
Hitler was a socialist, but unlike the Bolsheviks he was a German nationalist as much as he was socialist.
Besides, the Bolsheviks “internationalism” was always as phony as a two dollar bill, as it was always, inside and outside the Soviet Union, bent to serve Russian domination of the enterprise.
RE: View of Hitler today.... his policies still are highly respected by many of the radical Muslims today.
You are correct in that the US had business ties with Germany - and would point out that so did everyone else, not the least of which was tje soviet union, who continued coal, oil and steel shipments literally till the eve of invasion. Once made over many decades, business arrangements become very complicated indeed
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