re: #615 Charles

Interestingly, if you check around the web to see who’s promoting the “Nazis were leftists” view, you’ll discover that it’s a very popular meme among far right kooks like Lew Rockwell and Pat Buchanan. No, I’m not saying that only far right kooks have this faulty view, but they’re drawn to it for a reason.

The prevailing view seems to come from each side of the political spectrum. The far-left sees everything to the right as “bad” and the far-right sees everything to the left as “bad.” The idea that fascism is the monopoly of the left is absurd.

Specifically with the case of Rockwell, Buchanan, et al the summary of their view is basically a defense of far-right extremists. They attempt to redefine the far-right as being far-left through a variety of rhetorical mechanisms with a focus on Nazi-Germany. This is simply what one could call propaganda. The reality is that both extremist views are not beneficial to society. The far-right is not consistent with conservatism nor democracy and the far-left is not consistent with liberalism and democracy.

Defending conservatism by way of ascribing leftism to far-right factions will only result in the appearance of defending right-wing extremism while arguing that “all things bad are left-wing” reflects a monochromatic view of the world.