Posted on 05/20/2019 6:51:15 AM PDT by Kaslin
The Left and mainstream political science identify Italian fascism and German National Socialism as right-wing ideologies. Their motivation is clear: they do not want to be associated with regimes that brought civilization horror and suffering on an unprecedented scale. The Left traditionally substantiates its point of view with two theoretical propositions. First of all, fascism and Nazism do not belong to the Left because those regimes did not institute total collective ownership on means of production as Marx prescribed. Secondly, nationalism and racism have traditionally been features of the right, whereas the Left is perceived to comprise internationalists.
Thus, Stalin pointed out in his interview to American journalist Roy Howard, "The foundation of the [socialist] society is public property: state, i.e., national, and co-operative, collective farm property. Neither Italian fascism nor German National-'socialism' has anything in common with such a society. Primarily, this is because the private ownership of the factories and works, of the land, the banks, transport, etc. has remained intact, and, therefore, capitalism remains in full force in Germany and Italy." That has been the notorious argument of Marxian socialists.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
The use of “liberal” as a synonym for “libertine” and hence a godless left-winger goes back over a century.
Any system of government which advocates autocratic centralized government can never be right wing, can never be conservative.
“...
The modern day example of this is Communist China, which has adopted a Fascist economic system.
It only lasts so long before it collapses under the weight of central planning.
........................”
Fascist systems may have just enough free enterprise in them to limp along and avoid the normal socialist collapse. I am thinking of Franco’s Spain (Government fell with death of Franco in 1975) & Salazzar’s Portugal (Government fell in 1974). Not economic barn burners by any means but functional enough to feed their people and pay their bills.
They were both competing left wing ideologies.
The dems run policies and tactics from both all the time.
When talking to leftists, I find that they are more open to the linear government-control sliding scale model when I tell them that the medieval Roman Catholic church would be placed toward the left side of the scale (but not as far left as communists or Nazis). Since they hate Christianity, the leftists then seem more open to considering this scale.
Fascism is an authoritarian system and authoritarian governments have traditionally been leftist. The difference between fascism and communism is semantics. If they’re hauling you out and shooting you tied to a post for speaking against the government then they’re authoritarian and therefore leftist.
Why? Because the Soviets knew that "Nazi" was the German abbreviation for "National Socialist German Workers Party". Stalin didn't want to remind folks that the Nazis were Leftists, just like he was.
Although our modern socialists' promise of greater freedom is genuine and sincere, in recent years observer after observer has been impressed by the unforeseen consequences of socialism, the extraordinary similarity in many respects of the conditions under 'communism' and 'fascism'. As the writer Peter Drucker expressed it in 1939,'the complete collapse of the belief in the attainability of freedom and equality through Marxism has forced Russia to travel the same road toward a totalitarian society of unfreedom and inequality which Germany has been following. Not that communism and fascism are essentially the same. Fascism is the stage reached after communism has proved an illusion, and it has proved [already in 1939!] as much an illusion in Russia as in pre-Hitler Germany.’— F A Hayek, The Road to Serfdom (May, 1945 Reader’s Digest Condensed Version)
Government Control of all means of production (and other things) is PURE SOCIALISM
Leftards will counter that there were german industrialists ... yada yada , but anyone who didnt do exactly what the Nazi government said was soon quite dead.
Same thing in ‘capitalist’ chicom china right now.
“Don’t be stupid, be a smarty. Come and join the nazi party.
“
Im a boy from Dusseldorf, and that is why they call be ‘Rolf’
(even as a kid I thought : “what a bad rhyme”)
We’re Boomarang Baybeeeeeee ....
THATS OUR HITLER !!!!
Genius we hardly see today.
This has pi$$ed me off for decades.
The left in one era can be the right in another. There was much overlap between the Jacobins of the French Revolution and the Nazis and fascists of the 20th century, but where Robespierre was considered left, Hitler and Mussolini were considered right.
Sometimes "left" and "right" don't make much sense. You might have heard the expression "to the right of Louis XIV" (or "to the right of Attila the Hun"). Attila wasn't on the right in his day, and you'd have to do a lot of pondering to figure out if Louis XIV was.
That’s the problem with those labels. The words, “left” and “right” are only objective when talking about hands, etc.
Very true. People want to absolve themselves of bad historical associations, so today's leftists think of the left as kindly, tolerant, pacifist, vegetarian, multicultural. Everything that Robespierre and Lenin weren't (and even today's liberals aren't particularly tolerant of ideas they disagree with).
People on the right associate the right with constitutional democratic or capitalist forms and ideas that don't have much to do with the European right of Metternich and Bismarck. If you were a German rightist in the 1930s you didn't have a very positive view of representative democracy, and your view of capitalism was likely to be very conflicted.
When it comes to politiclal beliefs, one needs more descriptive labels. e.g. Classical Liberal, Republican, socialist, fascist, communist, democrat, etc.
Maybe. But if you were a classical liberal in the 1930s you were likely to get caught in the crossfire between the violent mobs fighting for control. That's why people say Hitler was on the right. Communism defined the left and the Nazis were fighting the communists in the streets. Classical liberals were few and were at home figuring out where everything went wrong.
Won’t Get Fooled Again:
“The party on the left is now the party on the right”
:)
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