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Were Nazis Right-Wing?
Pajamas Media ^ | April 19 | Theodore Dalrymple

Posted on 04/19/2010 2:12:06 PM PDT by AJKauf

The worst thing about the passage that I have quoted is its apparent endorsement, or uncritical acceptance, of Freud’s characterization of the Nazis as “right-wing.” This seems to me simplistic to the point of dishonesty, or at least symptomatic of a desire that complex social and political realities should be located on an analogue scale from right to left or left to right. If such a scale must be used, it seems to me that there is as much, if not more, reason to place Nazism on the left of it rather than on the right.

Not that this would be satisfactory, far from it. As Bishop Butler said, every thing is what it is and not another thing; Nazism was what it was and not another thing. If it could not, and cannot, be fitted neatly on to a political analogue scale, so much the worse for the scale. To change the figure of speech, we must not construct Procrustean conceptual beds.

Does it matter, however, if Nazism — being what it was and not another thing — is routinely characterized as being right-wing? I think that it does matter, for the following reason. There is a false syllogism that has a profound psychological effect:

* Nazism was right-wing. * Conservatism is right-wing. * Therefore Nazism was conservative and conservatism is Nazi. ....

(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...


TOPICS: Politics/Elections
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1 posted on 04/19/2010 2:12:06 PM PDT by AJKauf
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To: AJKauf

They were socialists


2 posted on 04/19/2010 2:12:48 PM PDT by GeronL (Cargo Cult Liberalism isn't going to work.)
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To: GeronL

Exactly ... National Socialists.


3 posted on 04/19/2010 2:13:52 PM PDT by taxcontrol
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To: AJKauf
Nazism AKA Nationalsozialismus (National Socialism)

Next question...

4 posted on 04/19/2010 2:15:09 PM PDT by ejonesie22 ( Tagline being renovated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act...)
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To: AJKauf

NO they were totalitarian government controlling leftists.


5 posted on 04/19/2010 2:15:51 PM PDT by A message
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To: taxcontrol

I once read an essay on NAZI economics and they were definitely not believers in free markets and private property.


6 posted on 04/19/2010 2:16:06 PM PDT by GeronL (Cargo Cult Liberalism isn't going to work.)
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To: AJKauf
To the headline NO. They were socialists.
7 posted on 04/19/2010 2:16:48 PM PDT by svcw (Habakkuk 2:3)
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To: AJKauf

THERE’S NOTHING RIGHT-WING ABOUT NAZIS.

Who the heck started that lie anyway?


8 posted on 04/19/2010 2:17:16 PM PDT by wastedyears (The Founders revolted for less.)
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To: ejonesie22
They also had a little fascism tossed in, like heavily influencing if not outright taking over control of the manufacturing and economic sectors such as housing and automobile production...

Oh, wait...

9 posted on 04/19/2010 2:17:21 PM PDT by ejonesie22 ( Tagline being renovated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act...)
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To: wastedyears
The Socialist...
10 posted on 04/19/2010 2:17:54 PM PDT by ejonesie22 ( Tagline being renovated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act...)
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To: AJKauf
...Nazism was right-wing. * Conservatism is right-wing. * Therefore Nazism was conservative and conservatism is Nazi. ....

I believe this erroneous premise is the basis for much of Jewish antipathy toward conservatives and conservatism despite its support of Israel.

11 posted on 04/19/2010 2:19:50 PM PDT by luvbach1 (Stop Barry now. He can't help himself.)
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To: AJKauf

According to the lyrics of the Nazi “Horst Wessel Lied”, the Nazis were fighting against “reactionaries”:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horst-Wessel-Lied#Lyrics

So I guess the Nazis were NOT right-wing!


12 posted on 04/19/2010 2:20:03 PM PDT by Honorary Serb (Kosovo is Serbia! Free Srpska! Abolish ICTY!)
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To: AJKauf

Well, their policy of extermination of a portion of humanity by defining them as sub-human certainly sounds like something the leftists at Planned Parenthood would applaud.


13 posted on 04/19/2010 2:20:06 PM PDT by Flightdeck (Go Longhorns)
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To: ejonesie22

National Socialists. Trust in conservative principles and you can’t go wrong. Trust in socialism and you get Hitler and Stalin.


14 posted on 04/19/2010 2:20:16 PM PDT by BenKenobi ("we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be")
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To: AJKauf

Marxism and Nazism are routinely described as left and right extremes of a continuum. I describe them as two sides of a single coin. The notion that we are perched precariously on some slippery slope between these two extremes is a false one. We are not on that continuum at all. Between fascism and communism, Nazism and Stalinism you will find every variety of mutation and amalgam, most totalitarians are really an amalgam of the two with a healthy shot of mafia thrown in for good measure. Socialists are the less-violent cousins to the fascists and communists but there is no bright line to separate them; they are the ones perched on a slippery slope with no clear barrier.

We’re constitutionalists, classic liberals, republicans. We are their polar opposites, in fact its hard even to speak of us as being their opposites when it is more correct to say that we are a different genus altogether. Freedom is our DNA. Control is theirs.


15 posted on 04/19/2010 2:20:28 PM PDT by marron
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To: AJKauf

Nazis:

Anti-Religion
State Control of Industry

Hmmmm...

(and anti-Israel, before there even was a post-1948 Israel).


16 posted on 04/19/2010 2:21:06 PM PDT by Retired Greyhound
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To: AJKauf

They were Socialists....like the current POTUS.


17 posted on 04/19/2010 2:21:17 PM PDT by Dallas59 (President Robert Gibbs 2009-2013)
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To: AJKauf

Calling Nazi’s right-wing was a myth started in the first half of the 20th century when it was clear that they were in heated competition with the Communists. They were enemies in pre-Hitler Germany and fighting would break out between the two groups. The popular thinking seemed to be that since Communists were clearly on the left, then those fighting with them must be from the right. Of course, a similar line of reasoning would put Trotsky on the right, which doesn’t fit at all.


18 posted on 04/19/2010 2:21:28 PM PDT by the_Watchman
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To: AJKauf

No! It is a common misconception.


19 posted on 04/19/2010 2:21:30 PM PDT by Constitutions Grandchild
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To: AJKauf
political realities should be located on an analogue scale from right to left or left to right

The political spectrum is a circle. The far left and the far right are the same place. They are socialists.

20 posted on 04/19/2010 2:21:39 PM PDT by Dan(9698)
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