{"id":138482,"date":"2019-03-30T14:04:59","date_gmt":"2019-03-30T20:04:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=138482"},"modified":"2019-03-30T14:04:59","modified_gmt":"2019-03-30T20:04:59","slug":"once-again-no-hitlers-national-socialism-wasnt-what-anyone-talks-about-when-supporting-socialism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/03\/30\/once-again-no-hitlers-national-socialism-wasnt-what-anyone-talks-about-when-supporting-socialism.html","title":{"rendered":"Once again, no, Hitler&#8217;s &#8220;National Socialism&#8221; wasn&#8217;t what anyone talks about when supporting &#8220;socialism&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Critic socialist politics and economic theory in the US &#8212; on the upsurge within the left wing of the Democratic party &#8212; have a particular gun they love to pull out.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p id=\"1RyDKm\">[Alabama Rep. Mo] Brooks went on, saying, \u201cIn that vein, I quote from another socialist who mastered big lie propaganda to a maximum, and deadly, effect.\u201d And then, after reading a long quote about how \u201cbroad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature,\u201d Brooks got to his big conclusion:<\/p>\n<p id=\"vbFnOv\">\u201cWho is this big lie master? That quote was in 1925 by a member of Germany\u2019s National Socialist German Workers\u2019 Party\u2014that\u2019s right, Germany\u2019s socialist party\u2014more commonly known as the Nazis. The author was socialist Adolf Hitler, in his book\u00a0<em>Mein Kampf<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Yeah! Hitler was a socialist, thus socialists are like Hitler!<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_138483\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-138483\" style=\"width: 407px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/adolf-hitler-1924-everett.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-138483\" title=\"adolf hitler 1924\" src=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/adolf-hitler-1924-everett-407x650.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"407\" height=\"650\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/adolf-hitler-1924-everett-407x650.jpg 407w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/adolf-hitler-1924-everett-94x150.jpg 94w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/adolf-hitler-1924-everett-188x300.jpg 188w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/adolf-hitler-1924-everett.jpg 563w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 407px) 85vw, 407px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-138483\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adolf Hitler (1924)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It&#8217;s rubbish logic (Hitler was an Austrian, thus Austrians are like Hitler; Hitler was a national leader, thus national leaders are like Hitler; Hitler was a war veteran, thus war veterans are like Hitler; etc.). Worse than that,\u00a0it&#8217;s nonsense: Hitler was not a &#8220;socialist&#8221; as the word is used today, and not even as the word was seriously used 90 years ago. Hitler considered socialists (like the <em>actual<\/em>\u00a0&#8220;German Socialist Party&#8221;) both as rivals and as philosophically opposed to his own beliefs &#8212; and, as he rose to power, brutally suppressed them.<\/p>\n<p>Bear in mind that in the 1930s, party \/ faction \/ gang labels like &#8220;worker&#8221; and &#8220;labor&#8221; and &#8220;socialism&#8221; were way cool, regardless of actual economic theory and politics. A reaction against the Great Depression, class warfare from above, and the German national trauma from WWI, any number of groups adopted those names to gain popular support, just as they bandied about &#8220;patriotic&#8221; and &#8220;national&#8221; in the same way.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond that, the article below goes through the origin of that German party&#8217;s name, some very specific German history that led to Hitler and the party he eventually took over, and precisely what Hitler thought about &#8220;socialism&#8221; as it was actually advocated in 1920s-30s Germany. It&#8217;s worthwhile reading that I won&#8217;t repeat here, except that (to vastly simplify) Hitler was looking to bind up all of the <em>right<\/em> society (productive &#8220;Aryans&#8221;) under a\u00a0<em>fascist <\/em>regime, with himself as the leader, and with full support of (and profit <em>to<\/em>) the industrialist and military leadership and wealthy and nobility. In his own words:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p id=\"U6BC8Q\">Socialism is the science of dealing with the common wealth. Communism is not Socialism. Marxism is not Socialism. The Marxians have stolen the term and confused its meaning. I shall take Socialism away from the Socialists.<\/p>\n<p id=\"WGX5CL\">Socialism, unlike Marxism, does not repudiate private property. Unlike Marxism, it involves no negation of personality, and unlike Marxism, it is patriotic&#8230; We are not internationalists. Our socialism is national. We demand the fulfillment of the just claims of the productive classes by the state on the basis of race solidarity. To us state and race are one.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Not quite a &#8220;Green New Deal,&#8221; or Medicare-for-All.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, his &#8220;national socialism&#8221; allowed Hitler to rise to power with the full support of the &#8220;right kind&#8221; of people, alongside industrialists and corporations and the rich and powerful &#8212; the latter of whom were full partners with the Nazi apparatus, supporting his war effort as well as assisting in and enabling Hitler&#8217;s death camps, to which were sent Jews, but also a variety &#8220;Others&#8221; &#8212; Romany, gays, mentally disabled, and, yes, political opponents like union organizers and\u00a0<em>socialists<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>As the article author notes:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p id=\"Cd013D\">Nazism aligned itself with industrialists and corporations that would ultimately utilize\u00a0Nazi slave laborers\u00a0and\u00a0patent the chemicals\u00a0used in Nazi death camps to kill millions of men, women, and children. The word \u201csocialist\u201d doesn\u2019t change that, just as the word \u201cDemocratic\u201d does not make the Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea \u2014 North Korea \u2014 a democracy.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Or a <em>republic<\/em>, for that matter.<\/p>\n<p>One can argue for or against socialism as a whole (bearing in mind the broad array of arrangements and theory that fall under that label), or even better about specific proposed policies that strike one as &#8220;socialist&#8221;. But if you&#8217;re going to do so, do it without <em>non sequitur<\/em> references to &#8220;National Socialism&#8221; in Germany in the 20s and 30s, if you&#8217;re looking to actually have the discussion and not merely throw around smears.<\/p>\n<p><em>Do you want to know more?<\/em>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2019\/3\/27\/18283879\/nazism-socialism-hitler-gop-brooks-gohmert\">Adolf Hitler was not a socialist &#8211; Vox<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well, unless they&#8217;re talking about the former to discredit the latter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[35,528,108,380],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-big-business","category-economic-justice","category-history","category-nationalism-exceptionalism"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/adolf-hitler-1924-everett.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":30838,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/24\/political-party-time.html","url_meta":{"origin":138482,"position":0},"title":"(Political) Party Time","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 24-Oct-12 8:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Looking at the ballot, I get to vote for the Presidential Electors for:American ConstitutionDemocraticRepublicanLibertarianGreenSocialist, USAJusticePeace and FreedomSocialist WorkersAmerica'sSocialism and LiberationAmerican Third PositionUnaffiliatedObjectivistWe the PeopleSocialist EqualityThat's a lot of parties going on. \u00a0 Hmmm. I sense a blog research project ... Google+: View post on Google+","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13644,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/11\/01\/socialist_socialist_socia.html","url_meta":{"origin":138482,"position":1},"title":"Socialist!  Socialist!  SOCIALIST! Eeeeeeek!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 1-Nov-08 10:55am","format":false,"excerpt":"Much has been made of late by accusing Barack Obama of being (gasp!) a socialist. But has anyone asked a real socialist? \u00a0 Progressive income tax, and social welfare programs...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Elections 2008&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30837,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/24\/political-party-time-the-long-form.html","url_meta":{"origin":138482,"position":2},"title":"(Political) Party Time &#8211; the Long Form!","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 24-Oct-12 11:59pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So who are all those \"third\" parties out there (on the Colorado presidential ballot, at least), and can I get official summaries of what they stand for in a short sentence paragraph? \u00a0Let's find out! (Answer: No. But I managed to distill each one down into a bullet or two\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Elections 2012&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2012","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2012"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/socialist-equality-party.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":138354,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/03\/20\/better-dead-than-red.html","url_meta":{"origin":138482,"position":3},"title":"Better Dead Than Red!","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 20-Mar-19 11:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Trump has decided that fear-mongering about socialism is his path to the White House in 2020.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~Tweets&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/capitalism-socialism.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15869,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/09\/26\/well-then-that-settles-that.html","url_meta":{"origin":138482,"position":4},"title":"Well, then, that settles that","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 26-Sep-09 6:46pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Submitted, without comment, from an email I received: \u00a0 WHAT THE OFFICIAL PRO-OBAMA'S SOCIALISM NBC, ABC, CBS & CNN DON\u2019T WANT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE TO SEE. TELL THE BIASED LIBERAL MEDIA THAT YOU DON'T BELIEVE IN THEM ANY LONGER BECAUSE THEY HAVE LOST YOUR TRUST.\u00a0 IF YOU WANT TO LEARN\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Fourth Estate&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Fourth Estate","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/fourth-estate"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131878,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/25\/its-party-time-in-america.html","url_meta":{"origin":138482,"position":5},"title":"It&#039;s Party Time in America!","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 25-Oct-16 8:04pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So this year we have 22 Presidential candidates on our Colorado ballot ...We have the old stand-by's that everyone talks about:DemocraticRepublicanLibertarianGreenBut we also have some other groups -- like these all-Americans:American ConstitutionAmerican DeltaAmerica's PartyVeterans of AmericaIndependent AmericanAmerican SolidarityAnd non-\"American\":Approval VotingProhibitionNon-Violent Resistance \/ PacifistIndependent PeopleNutritionAnd 3 sets of \"Unaffiliated\" candidates:UnaffiliatedUnaffiliatedUnaffiliatedNot to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/ballots-extra-stamps5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/ballots-extra-stamps5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/ballots-extra-stamps5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138482"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138484,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138482\/revisions\/138484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}