The Nazis Were Marxists

American Thinker ^ | November 25, 2007 | Bruce Walker

[ECM]

The Nazis were Marxists, no matter what our tainted academia and corrupt media wishes us to believe. Nazis, Bolsheviks, the Ku Klux Klan, Maoists, radical Islam and Facists -- all are on the Left, something that should be increasingly apparent to decent, honorable people in our times. The Big Lie which places Nazis on some mythical Far Right was created specifically so that there would be a bogeyman manacled on the wrists of those who wish us to move "too far" in the direction of Ronald Reagan or Barry Goldwater.

[chopperman]

It’s easier for a Communist country to flip and become a Fascist one instead of a Democracy. This is what I think has happened in China and Russia.

[PapaBear3625]

Nazi’s were Marxists? Yeah, right. That’s why Hitler invaded Russia. Hitler had nothing but contempt for Marxists.

Like Sunnis have contempt for Shiites. Which doesn't change the fact that they are just different flavors of Muslim

Hitler got lots of recruits from the Communist Party. And let's not forget the Hitler-Stalin pact, which STARTED WW2 with the invasion of Poland by Germany and Russia.

The main difference between Hitler and Stalin was that they each wanted themselves to be in charge. And so there was only room enough in the world for one of them

Both National Socialism and Stalinism had a world-view where the individual is the property of the State, to be used for the attainment of the goals of the State, as envisioned by the Leader of the State

[FreedomPoster]

See my previous post.

I will note that Hayek was an economist who was an on-the-scene contemporaneous observer of events in the 1920s and 1930s.

[Madam Theophilus]

Although I agree that the Nazi’s were leftist, I think it is not accurate to say they were Marxists. A more accurate description would be to say they were heretics of the Marxists. Marx preached the creation of the *international* collective, whereas Hitler and Mussolini wanted a *national* (Aryan/Italian) collectives. The rejection of the international aspect of leftism was anathema to the older communists which is why they hated the fascists so much. For more details on this point, read HEAVEN ON EARTH: THE RISE AND FALL OF SOCIALISM by Joshua Muravchik.

[FreedomPoster]

GMTA

[MrEdd]

The Communists were, as ever, absolutist totalitarians; the Nazis were surely strongly authoritarian, but not quite totalitarian. Religions, for example (except Judaism, of course), were neither banned outright nor particularly persecuted, save when a cleric would speak out against Nazism.

On the contrary many Christians could and did find themselves interned very quickly for teaching out of the old testament, or for teaching of Herod's evil in the Christmas story. Religion was tolerated only as long as they accepted government approved doctrines. Read about Dietrich Bonhoffer, among many, many people whose shortened lives disprove your statement

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

PS: They were anti-Christian as well.

[Little Bill]

Opate of the people.

[weegee]

Islamists are supremacists in ideology too. They see themselves as a master race and kufir as subhuman and as such it is acceptable to enslave them or kill them as you would a cow.

[PapaBear3625]

I see we are both fans of Hayek

[SAJ]

'Fascist', in the proper usage, describes a politico-economic system wherein the government effectively controls the means of production, but does not own them outright. There is still room for private property, and it is allowed -- even to some extent encouraged -- very much unlike in a Communist system.

These days it seems as if 'Fascist' is simply used as an epithet. Russia is becoming (has become?) an authoritarian state w/the trappings of a democratic one. It is not (yet) a Fascist state. Nor is it clear to me why Putin wants to move in this direction, although he certainly has been doing so. Cui bono? I can't see it.

[SAJ]

We're saying the same thing, really. You're just saying it better. Religious persecution, per se, was not part of Hitlerian doctrine, but any effective doctrinal differences in clerics were absolutely not tolerated.

Hitler's aversion to Old Testament teaching was part and parcel of his infamous anti-Semitism.

[UKTory]

“They split various countries and only went to war when both
wanted the same country!”

Russia?

[SandRat]

Until now, Hollywood’s political history has been dominated by a steady stream of films and memoirs decrying the “nightmare” of the Red Scare. But in Red Star over Hollywood, Ronald and Allis Radosh show that the real drama of that era lay in the story of the movie stars, directors and especially screenwriters who joined the Communist Party or traveled in its orbit, and made the Party the focus of their political and social lives. The authors also show the Party’s attempts at influencing filmmaking; their greatest achievement being the film “Mission to Moscow,” which justified Stalin’s great purge trials.

Using material from the papers of Dalton Trumbo, Dore Schary, Albert Maltz, Melvyn Douglas and the FBI’s Hollywood file, and from the newly released testimony of formerly closed HUAC Executive Session hearings, the authors trace the growth of the Communist Party from the 1930s, when many notables toured the Soviet Union and came back converted, through the 1950s when Party members were held to account for their allegiance to another country.

The Radoshes’ most controversial discovery is that during the investigations of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, the Hollywood Reds themselves were beset by doubts and disagreements about their disloyalty to America, and their own treatment by the Communist Party. Their allegiance to the Communist Party and its ever changing line, combined with their outlandish behavior before HUAC, turned old liberal allies against them, and left them vulnerable to the eventual blacklist.

One case study, of actor John Garfield, looks at the strategy he tried to employ to avoid the blacklist, while working to keep the support of both the studios and the Hollywood Left. Acting more as an opportunist than an idealist, Garfield moved to espouse a strong anti-Communism, while at the same time avoiding naming the names of his old radical associates, by pretending to only have been a dupe. In constant agony, his evasions satisfied no one, and led to his fatal heart attack shortly before he as to again appear before HUAC, where he would have finally had to make a decision as to where he actually stood.

Based on a new and extensive interview with writer Budd Schulberg, Red Star over Hollywood opens up the Party cells and discussion groups that defined Hollywood radicalism. Ronald and Allis Radosh also bring their story into the present, describing how the men and women who agitated for Communism a half-century ago created a legacy used by Jane Fonda and others of the Hollywood Left of the 1960s, and by celebrities such as Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Richard Dreyfuss and Sean Penn in the turbulent filmland politics of today.

[syriacus]

Nice column. Thank you for posting it.

[Reeses]

Leftism should be renamed envyism. The Nazis were far left in that they strongly envied their neighbors land, private businesses, and Jews. This built to such a strong level that war resulted. In fact all war is rooted in envy. Everyone knows the Nazis were evil but few recognize the source of that evil: the capital sin of envy.

There is no known antidote to envy more effective than the timeless advice to not do it. The Democrats are currently flaming the fire of envy unchecked. They are blatantly summoning the demons from hell. This will not have a happy ending.

[FreedomPoster]

It’s worth noting that Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia documents his nearly getting caught up in a purge by the Stalinist Leftists in Spain, while escaping from the country, because he had been fighting against the Spanish nationalists / Fascists with a different Marxist faction. Despite being in the middle of a full-blown civil war, the Leftists were still infighting among themselves in a deadly way.

[boop]

"Nazism, Fascism, Socialism and Communism are all kissin’ cousins."

I have never really understood the big difference between these systems, all of them oppress their people and they all seem to revel in kicking in your doors and telling you how to live.

[FreedomPoster]

Yes, a huge fan here.

[durasell]

There are differences — to confuse them is to misread history.