This myth almost single-handedly fuels much of the Conservative / Nationalist Movement today. Ironically, it is also the reason White Supremacists and Neo-Nazis cannot wait to jump on board with this myth whenever it comes to condemning Democrats: because it deflects the appearance of terrorism and sedition away from Far Right Extremism.
The connection between “National Socialism” (Nazism) and “Democratic Socialism” (an economic policy championed by at least some Democrats), is a deliberate, methodical, and insidious piece of propaganda that equivocates and connects ideas that, in reality, have absolutely nothing to do with one another.
In fact, today’s propaganda repeats, to the letter, the Nazi Party’s rhetoric in the 1930s as far as misrepresenting, denigrating, and outright attacking Liberal ideas.
To begin with, Hitler was not a Socialist. Hitler simply called himself a “Socialist,” and labeled the Nazi Party “Socialist” because Socialism was popular to the German Labor Unions. What Hitler advocated for, and installed within his German authoritarian government, was actually the diametrical opposite of Socialism.
We know this for several reasons.
1: All corporations under the Nazi government were for-profit enterprises built upon principles of private property. The only difference between this form of Capitalism and traditional Capitalism is that the corporations had to check in with Adolf Hitler and get his approval for every major investment decision, and charter, they wished to proceed with.
So, that isn’t “Socialism”. The technical term for what Hitler did is “State Capitalism” and it is the authoritarian, extremist opposite of Communism. Communism, as you may or may not know, abolishes private property and corporate profits altogether.
All of this is widely documented and anyone with even a cursory education of history knows the claim “Hitler was a Socialist” is, in the strictest sense of the word, completely FALSE.
2: The Nazi Party dismantled all of the German Labor Unions then installed Unions that were completely loyal to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, willing to be commanded and overseen by them. This, again, is the diametrical opposite of Socialism. Socialism, by its very definition, demands that “workers control the means of production”. To put it simply: in Socialism, it is the workers who decide, democratically, how their individual corporations should proceed with all manner of business, how much pay the workers should be paid, and how the company should strategize and expand – not the government and not a single owner or CEO.
Instead, Hitler oversaw nearly every aspect of production within the Nazi economy and, if workers protested or disagreed with him, those protesting German workers would be fired from their positions, imprisoned, and/or killed.
That isn’t Socialism. That is Authoritarianism. That is what Nazism is.
3: Hitler himself said in person, and in print, that he was not a “Socialist”. Hitler stated explicitly that he wanted to redefine Socialism to mean something entirely different. In fact, he wanted his own people to confuse “Nationalism” with “Socialism” so that, as long as Hitler was in power, they would always associate his rule with what German Labor Unions originally wanted…which was Socialism.
As Hitler stated: “We are convinced that socialism, in the right sense, will only be possible in nations and races that are Aryan, and there in the first place we hope for our own people and are convinced that socialism is inseparable from nationalism.“ And “Our Socialism has nothing to do with Marxian Socialism. Marxism is anti-property; true socialism is not.” and “I shall take Socialism away from the Socialists.” and “We are not globalists. Our Socialism is Nationalist.”
In spite of this successful propaganda exercise, no matter how much he spun it, or how much it is spun today, Hitler was not, nor ever was, a Socialist.
This can be confusing because Hitler was not a Capitalist either.
In Nazi Germany, corporate activity, even at the level of the small business, was a for-profit enterprise. Unlike traditional Adam Smith-style Capitalism, however, it was not really part of a Free Market. The Nazi business environment was painstakingly controlled by Hitler and his various “Ministries” – all of which were designed to ensure that businesses only made specific products, promoted certain activities, supported certain codes of conduct, all of which were designed to praise Hitler, the Nazi Party and Germany.
In direct contrast to Hitler’s policies, Democrats who talk about “Socialized Healthcare” and “Broadening Social Services” are only discussing precisely those things – not a violent overthrow of our Democracy, not controlling the Free Market, and not installing a Communist or Nazi dictator.
Any Conservative who doesn’t like the Democratic Party’s policies can argue that they are spending too much taxpayer money on one program or another. In fact, that has been the traditional gripe of Conservatives for decades now. But to claim that Democrats are “Nazis” for talking about a health care program, or expanding social services, or even raising taxes, is sheer lunacy and stupidity.
It comes from a very low, substandard intellectual argument that conflates similarity with sameness. It is a logical fallacy that would – in any other setting – be a total embarrassment to the person making it. But, sadly, because large portions of our populace are so completely bereft of knowledge and education as to what Socialism is and what Nazism is, they have been duped into thinking the very foundation of our Democratic Republic is under attack by Liberals.
As a result, average everyday Conservatives are attacking anyone who disagrees with their current leader who claims, among other things, that Democrats are trying to take their freedom away.
You don’t want your taxes to be raised? Fine. You don’t think Socialized Medicine is a good use of our nation’s tax dollars? Fine.
But claiming that Democrats are “Socialists” and are therefore “Nazis” because the word “Socialized” is used in some of their social services programs? That is a lie.
Conservatives have been lied to. And they’ve been lied to by people who are actual, real-life, bonafide, dyed-in-the-wool Nazis (see entry #11).
This particular myth was originally manufactured by the Nazi Party in Germany in the 1930s. And, at the time, no one, no business, no intellectual, no political pundit or activist, could stop that lie once it took hold.
That is why our Capitol was stormed last week: because millions of people have begun to believe a very old and very dangerous lie that the Left Wing wants to take away all of our freedom.
If ever there was proof that “it can happen here,” last week’s insurrection exists in a category all its own.
If you’re a Conservative and that insurrection didn’t convince you that something is wrong with your current point of view, then not a damn thing will.
You’ve been warned.
Good luck, America.
Myth Killer 