[Int]

Nazi, rather National Socialist Workers' Party, can not be on the Right. Socialism is ALWAYS on the Left, just like communism.

The original author leaves out some facts that don't support his line.

He says...Then the Reichstag [which was the "seat" of the German government, just like the our American equivalent, the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C.] was blown up and Hitler ram-rodded an emergency anti-terrorist act through Parliament that gave the Gestapo extra-ordinary powers.....

Just a second. The Reichstag fire was blamed on Communists by the Nazis. Also there's that distinction about private property. Socialists/Communists want(ed) to totally get rid of it. Nazis didn't.

This is an interesting debate but I think it mainly depends on how you look [or were taught to look] at the political spectrum; as a half-arc, a circle (with communism and fascism meeting at the bottom) or something else.

[rdb3]

Then tell me why the word "Socialism" was a part of their name.

[arthurus]

distinction about private property.

There was no private property in NAZI Germany. Former owners were allowed/required to keep paper title to property but the state controlled totally the disposition of assets and land of ALL types. When the state tells an "owner" what he WILL do (not can do or may do) with his property then that owner owns nothing. Property and the means of production were socialized in Germany just as they were in the USSR. Both states were run on the same theories. Yhe Soviet version was merely a "purer" (on paper) form. Such systems always show local variation in the details and in the superficial arrangements but they are the same.

Leftists cannot understand this because they are concerned primarily with symbols and labels rather than reality. NAZI must be on the opposite end of the political spectrum because Nazis are not controlled from the Communist center, not because their ideas are any diferent. They have a separate set of personnel and that is anathema to the other socialists. It is sort of like the Hell's Angels and the Pagans. They are the same thing but hate each other with extreme passion.

[vivid1162]

My 10th grade government teacher gave me the best framework for this topic. Communism mandates that the government owns the means of production. Thus elliminating the right of the individual to own private property. Communism is then at place all the way to the left. Socialism holds that the government controls the means of production; so a citizen in a socialist country can own private property but the government has the right to control it. Therefore socialism is to the right of Communism but still a very leftist form of government. Our Republic was founded on the sovereign right of individuals to own both private property and the means of production. The Constitution and Bill of Rights severely limit the rights of government to control private property. So our constitutionally limited form of government would be very rightist. On a scale with 1 being very leftist and 10 being right wing, Stalin's Communism was a 1, Hitler's Nazism was a 2 or 3 and the UK is a about a 5 and our Republic was designed to be a 9. Sadly we have slid to about a 7. It is a very simplistic model but if you look at it from this perspective--you can look at any form of government and any ideaolgy and decide if its to the right or left. Skinheads would endorse a form of government that did not allow gays or jews or blacks to own private property--decidely a leftist aproach.

[supercat]

Just a second. The Reichstag fire was blamed on Communists by the Nazis. Also there's that distinction about private property. Socialists/Communists want(ed) to totally get rid of it. Nazis didn't.

Stalin's ideology was that he believed Stalin and his friends should control everything, including the means of production. Hitler's ideology was that he believed Hitler should control everything, including the means of production.

The ideologies are very similar, except for a small detail which made them quite incompatible despite their similarities.

[SauronOfMordor]

Also there's that distinction about private property. Socialists/Communists want(ed) to totally get rid of it. Nazis didn't.

Correct. The National Socialists were a more moderate version of the Communists. They were less fanatical about the abolition of private property, and the National Socialists killed somewhat less people than the Communists

If you subtracted Hitler's anti-Jewish position from the rest of his platform, most Leftists on FR would probably have voted for him.