this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2025
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Don't mind if I do! After all, GLaDOS promised it!
Explanation: The Nazis were, formally, the National Socialist German Workers' Party. Some people take this to mean that the Nazis were, in some meaningful way, 'left' or socialist.
The truth is that they were neither. The name was made to appeal to the working-class by feigning interest in workers' issues, but the Nazis drew overwhelmingly from, and addressed the pet issues of, the disaffected middle class. While there were less capitalist-friendly factions in the party (notably, the working-class SA and the Strasserists), they were not what we would recognize as left-wing, instead representing a distinctly reactionary take on opposition to capitalism more in-line with Catholic conservatives expressing resentment of the bourgeoisie in the 19th century.
Those less-capitalist-friendly factions were suppressed in favor of Hitler's alliance with land magnates and capitalists in 1934, and so became moot in any case.
All completely correct, but compared to today's Nazis, Hitler's NSDAP still had some socialist elements. Not that this was much more than propaganda, but in the Third Reich there were indeed housing estates and holiday resorts for workers, state job creation measures such as the massive expansion of motorways (mainly needed for war purposes, of course) and the like.
Of course, the NSDAP was anything but a party concerned with the interests of the population, but even the few "socialist" measures imposed by Hitler's regime have been completely abandoned by today's Nazis.
What I mean is that today's Nazis, especially the US variety, are actually almost worse because they are purely neo-capitalist fascists - in this sense, they can really only be called Nazis (National Socialists) to emphasize their ideological proximity to the inhuman Hitler regime - but there are actually no socialist elements left in their political programs whatsoever, not even a hint (same goes for the AfD, a unfortunately quite prominent neo-nazi party in today's Germany).
Besides all the hate and racism, one thing they still have in common to this day is that they always pretend to be "defending" the interests of the working class or socially disadvantaged groups (if they fit their heinous racial ideology, of course) - but today that's even less true than it was in Hitler's day.
The Nazis literally did the first mass privatization of public services and dismantled social services in germany when they took power, I wouldn't say they had some socialist elements.
Even the elements they brought in, that people normally call socialist, but are just social-democrat creations, was because of the appeasement for the middle class, not the lower class.
Itally did it too in the 20s, here's a source for the german part: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1468-0289.2009.00473.x .
That's right: the Nazis were never socialists, not even remotely – but today they are even less so than Hitler's Nazis, even though they still pretend to be.
They had a socialist sub faction in the Strasserites who wanted to implement a sort of nationalistic class warfare. But they had lost the power struggle within the party by 1928 and by 1934 their last remnants were cleansed. The bulk of the Nazi leadership was never socialist and never interested in socialism.
This is actually really comforting.
Fascism today would probably have a harder time taking deep roots because it offers less than fucking Nazis.
It’s hopium but I’ll take it.
I'll keep my fingers crossed!
Yeah, and the GOP also has some socialist elements by virtue signaling to the "working class".
They don't – they're just pretending. The same is true of the AfD in Germany, which is heavily oriented toward the GOP, or rather MAGA: these are capitalists who are supported by billionaires. Nothing in their programs can be called socialist, even superficially - but unfortunately the idiots who vote for these people don't read their programs (Project 2025 was known before the election; the AfD's election program is thoroughly neoliberal (by which I mean US style capitalism, deregulation, and the dismantling of the welfare state that still somewhat exists in Germany)).
all correct. but to be fair: not even the left of that time actually cared about the working class.
the ideologically motivated for sure, pretty sure you would have found them on the extreme right too - somewhere. but the regimes, which sprung out of any ideology of that time cared nothing than in propaganda for working people and the weak.
nowadays it is difficult as well, to find any social security better than lip service and improvement of statistics.
That may be true, but what I can say is that people in Germany are much better off today, much, much better - if you have even a modicum of common sense, it's incomprehensible to me how this shit can still be going on today.
not arguing against that. just pointing out that regimes of that time used to do a lot of talking, if it comes to taking care of their people. not that much of doing.
And you are absolutely right to emphasize this, precisely because the lessons of history seem to have been forgotten in the US, Germany, and elsewhere in the world: Think for yourself, inform yourself independently and according to comprehensible, objective criteria (which is entirely possible today, unlike in the past), and do not believe politicians unquestioningly - no matter what "coleur" they might come in.
Die Heimat and III. Weg both still call for Hitlerite Kraft durch Freude and other programs solely benefiting the "ethnic German worker".
Yes, but none of that will be implemented if the goddamn Nazis take over the government. IMO they are even worse now: in the Third Reich, these programs actually existed - even if they didn't serve the population, of course, but rather the military buildup.
The best example for how Nazis act now is Trump and his henchmen: These crooks are arming themselves too (the budget for the guy's secret police force (ICE - for fighting a civil war if needed) is set at an astronomical 75 billion), but it's not the state that's paying for it; it's being financed through not even well-hidden tax increases (tariffs, which are nothing more than an increase in value added tax). So: no cheap workers' housing estates, no "Kraft durch Freude" (there were holiday home estates for workers on Sylt, where today the high society vacations), but even worse living conditions for the idiots who voted for Trump.
Please don't get me wrong: I'm not saying that anything about the NSDAP was even remotely desirable. I'm saying that the MAGA Nazis and their equivalent in Germany, the AfD, are even worse when it comes to the lie that these parties are fighting for "the little people."
Those less-capitalist-friendly factions were suppressed in favor of Hitler’s alliance with land magnates and capitalists in 1934
An event known as "The Night of the Long Knives". Interestingly enough, Hitler's purge acquired that name because he himself used the phrase (which dates to the Middle Ages) in a post-purge speech, only he used it to describe the alleged actions that Ernst Roehm and the other SA leaders had been planning to carry out against Hitler. Journalists and historians thought otherwise and attached the phrase to Hitler's actions.
You mean to tell me North Korea isn’t a democracy?
/s
nO tRuE sCoTsMaN
nO tRuE sCoTsMaN
Lol I fucking hate this.
Every so often, I see a "Socialism will never work", and I say USSR and China isn't really socialist and that socialism can be democratic, some reactionary always be like "oooh look at me, me big smart, me can read a logical fallacies wikipedia page 🤓" then proceeds to incorrectly apply the logical fallacy.
Then sometimes they call me a tankie.
But its actually funny because on the same thread, the actual tankies come and claim that China is an "Actually Existing Socialist" country.
🤣
Yeah China is totally communist guys totally please believe me
Hey a PugJesus political post I can upvote. Nice.
I don't know why, how or when did the FaScIsM Is lEfTiSt mUsSoLiNi wAs a lEfTiSt narrative get so popular but it is the stupidest shit I've ever heard.
I want to say it seemed to really start popping up when they started trying to brand "antifa" as "the real Nazis."
I was quite young and stupid when that happened but, even then, I remember being very confused by people right wingers being openly anti-anti-fascism.
Nazism was a right wing movement of Christian Nationalists
National socialists that only wanted socialism for their true Christian evangelical Germans. And no one else. Catholics sort of stood up to them, which is why we have vague references to religious institutions resisting nazis. But yeah Christians went balls deep almost immediately into being nazis.
Not really off script for Abrahamic religions though.
Maybe a few catholics with an actual spine and a conscience stood up to the Nazis, but the catholic church as such supported them. Guess who played a major part in organising the "rat lines" for smuggling wanted Nazi war criminals into South America after WW2?
As a liberal/centrist I do agree that that is one of the top dumbest political takes. And I've heard "my side" do it way too many times.
It's perfectly ok to hate nazis and communists for different reasons. You don't have to discover a unified theory from your butt.
Everyone knows Hitler was unable to lie
So many people throughout the world keep getting tricked by someone taking advantage of the "people's/workers/democracy" ideology only to use it to enrich themselves and bring death and destruction to their enemies, how does this keep happening?
The only way I know to protect myself against it is to not give a shit what people call themselves. I've abandoned all interest in labels, and instead just focus on pragmatic good. Are you a People's Socialist Worker's Party? That's nice, I just want better wages and living conditions, what are you actually doing to achieve that? Oh you're not, you're just claiming you are while doing the exact opposite? Why does everyone keep getting fooled by this?