re: #284 Bill Dalasio

Nazis were socialists like Peoples’ Democracies are democratic.

When you look at the US far left organizations, like the Weathermen, World Can’t Wait and ANSWER, they, like the communists, are all about eliminating class distinctions internationally. When you look at the US far left organizations, like the John Birchers, the KKK, the National Alliance, andf Stormfront, they, like the fascists, are all about achieving racial purity and supremacy nationally.

Many liberals have unfortunately made the mistake of being seduced by communists into confusing completely respectable classical (John Stuart) Millian liberalism with leftism, and then claiming to be left wingers. It is equally regrettable to see many conservatives making the same kind of mistake, and allowing themselves to be seduced by fascists into confusing completely respectable (Edmund) Burkean conservatism with rightism, and then claiming to be right wingers. Because in either case, there is the danger that if enough people believe the lie, then it will become true, and all that nasty baggage will be brought on board. Indeed, much of it already has been - on both sides.

Sorry but the first part of that is simply not true. While not Marxist, the fascists and, by extension, the Nazis (whose economic program was borrowed almost entirely from the Italian fascist model), was both theoretically and practically socialist in nature. As a political system, it has to be remembered, fascism is a variant of corporatism, which is a variant of syndicalism, which is a socialist political organization of society. Both systems drew heavily from the pre-Marxist continental utopian socialists. “Property” in either regime was unrecognizeable from any traditional Western economic or legal tradition. Rather than the consequence of an individual right, both systems treated it as a public trust to be administered on the state’s behalf.

But they still had private ownership of property, like land and factories, and the owners of these things privately profited from them. Even when they owners of the factories were the guild laborers, which is how syndicalism worked.

Not so in the Soviet Union.