Nazis vs. Socialists

Are Nazis socialists? "If we turn to the differences separating Communist, Fascist, and National Socialist regimes, we find that they can be accounted for by contrasting social, economic, and cultural condition in which the three had to operate. In other words, they resulted from tactical adaptation of the same philosophy of government to local circumstances, not from different philosophies." Richard Pipes, Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime, p. 280."Sorel raised the question of the distinctions between right and left. Lehman questioned whether - at least on the French scene, which was in many ways exemplary - an intellectual at any given moment might not have associated with an extreme left-wing or an extreme right-wing movement, had the circumstances been satisfactory." S. J. Woolf, "The Nature of Fascism, "p. 248."But there were great similarities between a certain type of left wing intellectual and fascist intellectuals..." "The Nature of Fascism" p. 249.  "Many members of Germany's power elite, including ex-chancellor Papen, were worried to see Hitler's followers deserting to the Communists." James Pool, Who financed Hitler: The secret funding of Hitler's rise to power, 1919-1933, Simon and Schuster NY 1997, P. 338.


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Still More

For many examples of prominent liberals, social democrats and others on the left who praised Hitler and Mussolini see:

Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning, Jonah Goldberg, Doubleday 2008.

There is now a rather long history of  left-ish politicians going from Red to Brown to bland depending on what is politically expedient

"Born to a wealthy Montreal family, educated at the
best schools, he chose not to join the rest of his
generation in Canada's great crusade against Nazism
when war broke out in 1939. He was 19 years old that
year. Nothing he did in the next six years would
commend him to those who chose to go. Mordecai Richler
relates an anecdote of how Trudeau rode a motorbike
around the lakeside cottages where Richler's Jewish
friends spent the summer, wearing a German army
uniform and helmet. Later, he was associated with the
Bloc Populaire, which opposed the war." Nigel Hannaford,
"Trudeau's good does not compensate for the damage,"
Calgary Herald, 10/5/00.

Consider the Hitler Stalin Pact:

"Between his assumption of power in 1933 and the Soviet-Nazi Pact of 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union were, or pretended to be, on the worst of possible terms. They assailed each other with abusive material stressing the ideological incompatibility of Communism and National Socialism, while studiously ignoring the obvious similarities between the two systems...." Ronald Hingley, "Joseph Stalin" Konecky &Koneckey NY 1974p.292.

Often the differences between the doctrines of communists and fascists seem to be merely cosmetic and tactical.

"If we turn to the differences separating Communist, Fascist, and National Socialist regimes, we find that they can be accounted for by contrasting social, economic, and cultural condition in which the three had to operate. In other words, they resulted from tactical adaptation of the same philosophy of government to local circumstances, not from different philosophies." Richard Pipes, "Russia and the Bolshevik Regime", p. 280.


It is easy to forget that the NSDAP was a worker's movement. It is a myth that the Nazi rise to power was supported by either the aristocracy or big business. Thyssen was the exception rather than the rule.

    "Similarly the NAZI Deputies generally supported proposals by the parties of the left for increases in the level of expenditures for state welfare aid. They also joined with the left in rejecting demands of the right that a means test be required of applicants for state welfare aid."

    "The Nazi's alone supported repeated  communist efforts to raise sharply the level of tax exempt wages for low income groups, reduce the tax rates for those groups, and impose heavier taxation on the wealthy." Henry Ashby Turner, "German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler,"  p. 66

The Nazi's also joined the communists in efforts to shorten the work day, and in efforts to stop industry lock outs, by requiring industry to pay all of the idled workers.

    "The Nazis laid before the legislature several bills calling for the confiscation of 'the fortunes of the princes of the banks and the stock market" as well as all profits derived from the war, the inflation, and - later -the depression."(same source)

The NSDAP was very much into class warfare. Of course, the socialist part of national socialism has always been understandably embarrassing to the left, but it must be acknowledged or fascism will again flourish in the intellectual community. In fact, as Chomsky and deMan demonstrate, it already has become quite chic on elite campuses.


Hitler admits the obvious:

"basically National Socialism and Marxism are the same." "The Bulletin of International News,"(London), XVIII, No. 5, (March 8, 1941),  found in "Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime," p. 269.

Stalin agreed with Hitler:

"According to his daughter's recollection, he never stopped regretting that the condominium scenario did not come to pass.   ' "Ekh, together with the German's we would have been invincible"', he went on repeating already after the war was over.'" "Stalin in Power", p. 619.

Evidence of the political compatibility of the two systems, though often overlooked, is actually quite substantial..

It is probably also significant that while there was some effective resistance to the Nazis from the left prior to and after the  Hitler/Stalin Pact, the  most lethal plots against Hitler came from the military high command the aristocracy and business. See the recent Tom Cruise  movie Valkyrie for example

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The CIA and Bin Laden

It has become ‘common knowledge’ that the CIA trained and armed Osama Bin Laden and his fighters – is this true? Not according to former Congressman Charlie Wilson who was certainly in a position to know. Rolling Stone “You often hear that the CIA trained Osama Bin Laden when he was part of the mujahideen in Afghanistan. Is this true? “ C. Wilson “I am so glad you asked that question. The CIA never trained a single Arab. Nor did it ever recruit a single Arab. And the Arabs as a matter of fact — there were a few rich ones that were kind of drifting around the fringes of the Afghan war to get their ticket punched as having been warriors, which they were not. But the idea that we trained him is absolutely 100% false. And also the idea that they’re using arms that we furnished is also false.” “Charlie Wilson: Osama Bin Laden Not Trained by CIA”, Rolling Stone, April 15, 2008 3:34 PM, http://www.rollingstone.com/blogs/caprilounge/2008/04/charlie-wilson-osama-bin-laden.php
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Death Rate for slaves during the Middle Passage

The movie Amazing Grace describes conditions on the slave ships during the middle passage that seemed designed to assure the death of a high percentage of the slaves on board even though, for the slavers, only living healthy slaves could generate a profit– is this true? Did the slavers forego profit for racist blood lust for the death of Africans? Here is the truth according to the New York Times’ About.com. “Survival Rate for the Middle Passage Conditions on the slave ships were terrible, but the estimated death rate of around 13% is lower than the mortality rate for seamen, officers and passengers on the same voyages.” The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, A review of the triangular trade with reference to maps and statistics. By Alistair Boddy-Evans, About.com, ©2009 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company. http://africanhistory.about.com/od/slavery/tp/TransAtlantic001.htm
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Has the "Missing Link" really been found?

“Fossil Ida: extraordinary find is 'missing link' in human evolution” concludes the headline of the UK Guardian which has been republished all over the internet si nce yesterday. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/may/19/ida-fossil-missing-link If true this really would be an astonishing discovery, almost as astonishing as the lack of any fossils of even one transitional species until now. See Stephen Jay Gould’s, “The Panda’s Thumb,” Norton 1992, P 181. For a frank admission that the fossil record has failed to confirm a single “missing link” in the evolution of a single species. Darwin had predicted that the very ample fossil record would soon provide irre4futable support for his theory. Alas, nothing until the Piltdown Man and other disappointing examples of science fraud. So, let us hope that little Ida can hold up to close scrutiny better than all the previous “links” offered up over so many years. After all – as Chris Matthews in his confrontation with Congressmen Tom Tancredo and Mike Spence demonstrated so much depends on whether we truly believe in Darwin. ;-) http://hotair.com/archives/2009/05/05/chris-matthews-to-mike-pence-do-you-or-dont-you-believe-in-evolution/?print=1