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 Freuds 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 ...
“I thought it was National Socialist Workers Party”
It is. I just wanted to make the point that they are socialists.
The Nazi’s were militants. You have militants on both the right and the left. The Nazi’s were socialistic... a very leftist trait. The Nazi’s spread blame to their enemies rather than accept responsibility... “It’s Bush’s fault”.
All in all, I have always felt that Nazi’s were Militant Leftists. Hitler was very much into socialist ideals and disarmament for all who opposed him. Sounds frighteningly familiar to the Left wingers here in the United States doesn’t it?
“Right-Wing” would have been allegiance to the old Prussian nobility, the Junkers, and to royalty, all of which sort of fell apart with WWI. The National Socialists found their opportunity to make grandiose promises in the depression of the 30’s . . . not wholly unlike Obama in the current recession. He perpetuates the recession in the private sector, but he is putting people to work for the almighty State. The Jews are not his scapegoats (yet), but he seems to have plenty of other groups to villify.
I think that there disagreement was in style more than substance. They basically disagreed on who would rule the world, not on how.
F.A. Hayek was explicit in his comparison of the Nazis with the Communists:The Road to SerfdomDistinctions, scarcely any difference . . .
(Link to the Readers' Digest Condensed Version in PDF)
Yes, Nazi = socialist (national socialist)
I think that some consider National Socialism not as far left as Communism, suggesting that the Nazis were to the ‘right’ of Communists, hence the idea that they were ‘right wing’ - the ‘right wing’ of the far left.
There is nothing Conservative about Communism or National Socialism, just as there is nothing Conservative about the Democrats today. If I were to characterize the Dems today, I would class some as being Socialists, some as being Communits, and some as being Nazis. I think Obama, Reid and Pelosi are a blend of the three.
It is wrong to refer to Nazis as ‘right wing’ today because of the inference that Conservatives, being to the right of all the various forms of Socialism, are ‘right wing’ and ‘Nazi’. Nazis are a part of the left wing, along with Communism and Socialism.
Thanks for the link.
Or as Monty Python put it in the Life of Brian, “The People’s Front of Judea” vs “The Judean People’s Front.”
But Pat is an exception among conservatives. And I'm sure there were some Nazis he didn't like. And remember Bill Buckley's reaction when Gore Vidal called him a crypto-Nazi?
The KGB begs to differ ...
the label “conservative” isn’t very helpful...because it can also mean allegiance to the original state, and in that sense, in Russia the conservative candidates after the fall of the Soviet Union were the communists. while the progressive candidates were the ones pushing for change and free markets.
I see a runoff shaping up for next years “Dancing with The Stars.” LOLOLOLOL
Yes....
Actually I get a big kick out of our Liberal/Radical/Socialist opposition (Democrats) when they call us Nazis
Seems that the worst thing a Leftist can call you is....
A National Socialist (Nazi)! They never quite get the irony in that.....LOLOLOLOLOL
“But Pat is an exception among conservatives.”
One would certainly hope so. Be that as it may, the liberals and democrats will use any excuse to cast Conservatives and Republicans as racists and anti-Semites, and Buchanan is a useful foil.
“And I’m sure there were some Nazis he didn’t like.”
Let’s see.....
In a 1977 column, Buchanan said that despite Hitler’s anti-Semitic and genocidal tendencies, he was “an individual of great courage...Hitler’s success was not based on his extraordinary gifts alone. His genius was an intuitive sense of the mushiness, the character flaws, the weakness
masquerading as morality that was in the hearts of the statesmen who stood in his path.” (The Guardian, 1/14/92)
Writing of “group fantasies of martyrdom,” Buchanan challenged the historical record that thousands of Jews were gassed to death by diesel exhaust at Treblinka: “Diesel engines do not emit enough carbon monoxide to kill anybody.” (New Republic, 10/22/90)
Buchanan’s columns have run in the Liberty Lobby’s Spotlight, the German-American National PAC newsletter
and other publications that claim Nazi death camps are a Zionist concoction. Does Buchanan have no control over where his columns are printed?
Buchanan called for closing the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations, which prosecuted Nazi war criminals, because it was “running down 70-year-old camp guards.” (New York Times, 4/21/87)
Buchanan was vehement in pushing President Reagan — despite protests — to visit Germany’s Bitburg cemetery, where Nazi SS troops were buried. So he also likes dead Nazis.
At a White House meeting, Buchanan reportedly reminded Jewish leaders that they were “Americans first” — and repeatedly scrawled the phrase “Succumbing to the pressure of the Jews” in his notebook. Buchanan was credited with crafting Ronald Reagan’s line that the SS troops buried at
Bitburg were “victims just as surely as the victims in the concentration camps.” (New York Times, 5/16/85; New Republic, 1/22/96)
He certainly has engaged in the constitutionally protected perversion of championing the cause of a succession of Nazi war criminals, from John Demjanjuk to Karl Linnas to Arthur Rudolph.
Pat Buchanan appeared on a neo-Nazi radio program to promote his new revisionist history of the Second World War, Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War: How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World. James Edwards is the host of the program “Political Cesspool,” the stated mission of which is to “represent a philosophy that is pro-White.”
In his book Buchanan argues that it was wrong for American to have intervened on the side of the allies in World War II, and that it would have been better if the Germans had won the war. The show on which he appeared is not just pro-white but anti-Semitic and pro-Holocaust denial.
“And remember Bill Buckley’s reaction when Gore Vidal called him a crypto-Nazi?”
Bill Buckley wrote in his book, “In Search of anti-Semitism”, that “I find it impossible to defend Pat Buchanan against the charge that what he did and said during the period under examination, the military build-up for the Gulf War, amounted to anti-Semitism.”
Buchanan’s attitudes towards Jews, Israel, the Holocaust, etc., are well-represented among his followers including those on freerepublic. Frequently, and with some justification, I have seen posts here condemning “the Jews” for being such die-hard liberals, especially in the face of Obama’s obvious attitudes and conduct towards Israel. Buchanan’s attitudes and those of his followers are useful for the enemies of the Conservative movement.
Neither bears any resemblance to Americanism, which believes in individualism, liberty and limited government.
fed up of explaining this to the left as they seem to use words they do not know the meanings to.
NO the NAZIS were socialists, they stood for Govt in control, Nazis had a lot more Govt programmes like having baby mills.
Were the NAZIS left wing.
He ll no and anyone wit a brain would understand that and maybe that is why many on the loon left doesn’t understand it
That's one for the quote book.
the far left started that lie like they always distort history.
The NAZIS were for Govt control, infact they they over nearly every in the private sector something which the left wants.
It’s a shame that those who shout NAZIS have no brain and no clue about what they are shouting about.
It’s time to start naming those on the left what they are and what they support and through out history the left have killed millions upon millions, Stalin, Pol pot, chairman Mao , Hitler.
done the chart and came out as conservative but right near libertarian.
LOL
I’ve done that too.
Oen far left wing smelly scruffy kook was standing there shouting socialist and I went over and asked him if he was a national socialist.
He paused for a few seconds and then said Yes I am I want socialism and I am proud to call myself what you said, I’m not embarrassed to be called it either, it should be a dirty word
I told him that he should make it public he’s a national socialist all the time.
Yea brother was his response.
Just as I was about to walk away I couldn’t help it and said do you know what National socialist is and he replied no.
i told him NAZI.
I’m not a NAZI, I’m fighting them .
The man was a complete idiot much like most of the far left. No brains, shout names they have no idea what they mean a bit like homophobic.
Er I think no one is afraid of homosexuals, no one is living in fear from them or not the ones I know so why use the word phobic which means to be afraid of.
well well well is the answer they really are dumb
correction
he was shouting NAZI not socialist as he was refering to Bush
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