I have recently seen several people that I know, but who are most definitely on the Left, confidently declare that Hitler and the Nazis were not socialists.
Keep your foot on any anti-socialist gas pedal.. it is a road you serfdom and violence. They are scared we cherish freedom and we will die fighting for it.
I read Shirer during the plandemic. A must-read. In particular, he goes over Mein Kampf and how Hitler pretty much outlined everything he planned to do. If people like Chamberlin had bothered to read it, Munich, the Anschluss, Poland, etc, might never have happened.
I would also recommend Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago.
Good to see you writing. I like the article, good information, lots to unpack when you compare the reality to what we were taught in school back in the 50s and 60s. Thanks.
Mastery of Crowd Psychology: Toland notes Hitler’s instinctive grasp of the masses, quoting the principle that a crowd demands strength, is obedient to authority, and requires simple messages repeated constantly. [https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/3187882.John_Toland]
The one I hear confidently stated is that they couldn't have been Marxist because they disliked and fought the Russians. But then, I point out, Communist Vietnam invaded and overthrew communist Cambodia. Communist China invaded and was pushed back by Communist Viet Nam... The conflict in socialism and communism doesn't discredit the underlying politics.
The word NAZI is an acronym, National Socialist German Workers' Party.
It also is NOT repeat NOT " Extreme right wing". The media has been pushing that falsehood since the end of WWII. Its time to confront it at every turn.
I plan to write a post about how the communists won a huge PR victory in aligning right and left wings of socialism with the right and left wings of general western politics.
Great article. When I taught government in high school, I always taught my students that there isn’t a “dimes worth of difference”between the National Socialists and the Communists. Stalin was the person responsible for trying to equate Fascism as an ideology of the right to distance Soviet Russia from Fascist Germany.
I have two problems with that argument. 1) it's a stretch for me to imagine that the two combatants in the costliest war in human history were in fact exactly alike. 2) I always understood that the primary characteristic of communism involved the government controlling the means of production. That was the case in the USSR but not in Nazi Germany.
Those are good points. What I base my analysis on is the wording on the Nazi Party platform that calls for universal healthcare and the central planning of the economy, among numerous other aspects of Socialism. You are correct on the government owning the means of production in a Communist system. I would say that in the National Socialist system, the government does not fully own the means of production. However, the government definitely picks winners and losers, and directs industry on what to produce. An example would be the production of the Beetle by Volkswagen that Hitler ordered them to build. Many companies who would not or could not produce what the Reich wanted were shut down. I would say that the differences between National Socialism and Communism are mostly subtle. Stalin was very keen on distancing Soviet Russia from Nazi Germany. All-in-all, they really are not that different as a whole. Nice points, and interesting conversation.
As noted, I highly recommend reading Hayek’s “Road to Serfdom” if you want to understand how national socialism is the inevitable outcome of soocialism
Keep your foot on any anti-socialist gas pedal.. it is a road you serfdom and violence. They are scared we cherish freedom and we will die fighting for it.
“Mao wasn’t really a socialist, but this guy Pol Pot is the real deal!”
I read Shirer during the plandemic. A must-read. In particular, he goes over Mein Kampf and how Hitler pretty much outlined everything he planned to do. If people like Chamberlin had bothered to read it, Munich, the Anschluss, Poland, etc, might never have happened.
I would also recommend Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago.
Solzhenitsyn’s writing is excellent …. I find his anti-semitism challenging, though
I don’t remember him expressing this in Gulag Archipelago.
There's an old saying that a Nazi is like a beefsteak--brown on the outside, red on the inside.
Good to see you writing. I like the article, good information, lots to unpack when you compare the reality to what we were taught in school back in the 50s and 60s. Thanks.
When does Boughie restart?
john toland's biography of adolf hitler describes Hitler & his politics as what, politically? also his rallies and large gatherings?
+8
In https://www.amazon.com/Adolf-Hitler-Definitive-John-Toland/dp/0385420536, historian John Toland describes Hitler's politics as a form of National Socialism rooted in militant anti-Semitism, fierce nationalism, and anti-communism. He views Hitler's political success as relying on popular psychology and demagogy, portraying his mass rallies and gatherings as mesmerizing spectacles that manipulated the public through repetition, emotional theatre, and theatrical pageantry to induce mass obedience. [https://www.amazon.com/Adolf-Hitler-Definitive-John-Toland/dp/0385420536, https://climber.uml.edu.ni/fetch.php/book-search/M4a750/JohnTolandAdolfHitler.pdf, https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/3187882.John_Toland, https://www.nytimes.com/1976/09/26/archives/adolf-hitler-hitler-among-the-germans.html, https://the-book-lovers.fandom.com/wiki/Adolf_Hitler_(John_Toland)]
Political Nature of Hitler and Nazism
Obsessive Anti-Semitism: Toland identifies hatred of Jews as Hitler's primary political driving force and central obsession. []
Pragmatic Opportunism: Hitler's political pronouncements are depicted as fluid and unreliable, telling different audiences what they wanted to hear while pursuing radical, secret aims. [https://amitabasu.com/2021/04/11/john-toland-adolf-hitler-definitive-biography/]
Totalitarian Ambition: The political end goal was establishing a total state by crushing democracy, eliminating rivals, and waging aggressive war for racial hegemony. [https://sobrief.com/books/adolf-hitler-3, https://the-book-lovers.fandom.com/wiki/Adolf_Hitler_(John_Toland)]
Rallies and Large Gatherings
Mastery of Crowd Psychology: Toland notes Hitler’s instinctive grasp of the masses, quoting the principle that a crowd demands strength, is obedient to authority, and requires simple messages repeated constantly. [https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/3187882.John_Toland]
Theatrical Oratory: Hitler's transformation at the podium is emphasized; he would start with self-control and build into a frenzied, screaming performance that hypnotized listeners and galvanized fervent loyalty. [https://www.alibris.com/reviews/book/128357/Adolf-Hitler, https://github.com/ebruchez/public/blob/master/Reading/2016-10-04%20-%20Adolf%20Hitler%20-%20The%20Definitive%20Biography%20(John%20Toland).md]
Ritualistic Spectacle: Large gatherings were carefully orchestrated to fuse individual identity into a collective, obedient mob, serving as the primary instrument for his political rise and psychological domination over Germany. [https://www.bookey.app/quote-book/adolf-hitler-by-john--toland, https://climber.uml.edu.ni/fetch.php/book-search/M4a750/JohnTolandAdolfHitler.pdf, https://www.alibris.com/reviews/book/128357/Adolf-Hitler]
A detailed discussion and retrospective look at reading John Toland's massive biographical work on Hitler:
58s
March of the Mammoths 2026: John Toland's Adolf Hitler
4 months ago
YouTube · Steve Donoghue
The one I hear confidently stated is that they couldn't have been Marxist because they disliked and fought the Russians. But then, I point out, Communist Vietnam invaded and overthrew communist Cambodia. Communist China invaded and was pushed back by Communist Viet Nam... The conflict in socialism and communism doesn't discredit the underlying politics.
History isn't taught in school.
The word NAZI is an acronym, National Socialist German Workers' Party.
It also is NOT repeat NOT " Extreme right wing". The media has been pushing that falsehood since the end of WWII. Its time to confront it at every turn.
I plan to write a post about how the communists won a huge PR victory in aligning right and left wings of socialism with the right and left wings of general western politics.
Great article. When I taught government in high school, I always taught my students that there isn’t a “dimes worth of difference”between the National Socialists and the Communists. Stalin was the person responsible for trying to equate Fascism as an ideology of the right to distance Soviet Russia from Fascist Germany.
I have two problems with that argument. 1) it's a stretch for me to imagine that the two combatants in the costliest war in human history were in fact exactly alike. 2) I always understood that the primary characteristic of communism involved the government controlling the means of production. That was the case in the USSR but not in Nazi Germany.
Those are good points. What I base my analysis on is the wording on the Nazi Party platform that calls for universal healthcare and the central planning of the economy, among numerous other aspects of Socialism. You are correct on the government owning the means of production in a Communist system. I would say that in the National Socialist system, the government does not fully own the means of production. However, the government definitely picks winners and losers, and directs industry on what to produce. An example would be the production of the Beetle by Volkswagen that Hitler ordered them to build. Many companies who would not or could not produce what the Reich wanted were shut down. I would say that the differences between National Socialism and Communism are mostly subtle. Stalin was very keen on distancing Soviet Russia from Nazi Germany. All-in-all, they really are not that different as a whole. Nice points, and interesting conversation.
As noted, I highly recommend reading Hayek’s “Road to Serfdom” if you want to understand how national socialism is the inevitable outcome of soocialism