From Ishay Landa’s “The Apprentice’s Sorcerer: Liberal Tradition and Fascism”
This book seems pretty good, I’m only a few pages in, but so far going well
I don’t get the point you’re making reading is hard
You know how people say, or used to say, “national SOCIALIST german WORKERS party,” or generally try to argue that fascists and communists share values like collectivism and anti-capitalism? This quote is Hitler straight up saying “Damn, don’t want to actually do that socialism stuff, it’s a misnomer.” Whatever control the Nazis would exert over businesses, it never emerged from the same root as Soviet socialism.
Ultimately, I think, this book argues that liberalism and fascism have the relationship that proponents of “totalitarian” or “horseshoe theory” claim exist between fascism and communism. This is an intro section entirely on clarification of terms, which also provides a direct historical quote from a Nazi’s journals’ regarding Hitler’s actual beliefs on communism/socialism. If you take some time with the intro PDF, it also can make more sense than my stoned ass.
This image may give more context https://ibb.co/pLRZ7Dk
I have always used this copy paste and think others should too when possible. Wasn’t even mine to begin with and it’s changed a bit over time:
The Nazis were not socialists. Their entire goal was to latch onto a popular political movement and redefine it to fit their needs(as all fascists typically do).
They did not support worker ownership of the means of production and the right for workers to work for themselves. Hitler repealed legislation that nationalized industry in Germany, and oversaw the expansion of private industry. The first modern implementation of privatization on a grand scale took place under the supervision of the Nazis. The word “privatization” was coined to describe a central tenet of Nazi economic policy. The Nazis raided and imprisoned union leaders and broke up trade unions. They repealed worker rights.
Behold Hitler’s own words:
“There are only two possibilities in Germany; do not imagine that the people will forever go with the middle party, the party of compromises; one day it will turn to those who have most consistently foretold the coming ruin and have sought to dissociate themselves from it. And that party is either the Left: and then God help us! for it will lead us to complete destruction - to Bolshevism, or else it is a party of the Right which at the last, when the people is in utter despair, when it has lost all its spirit and has no longer any faith in anything, is determined for its part ruthlessly to seize the reins of power - that is the beginning of resistance of which I spoke a few minutes ago.”
- Hitler explaining that he vehemently opposes the Left, and believes only Rightists like himself can make Germany great again. (Source is a speech in April 1921)
“Our adopted term ‘Socialist’ has nothing to do with Marxian Socialism. Marxism is anti-property; true socialism is not.”
- Hitler literally admitting his “socialism” is a whole new thing and has nothing to do with the usual definition of the word. (Source is an interview Hitler gave to the Sunday Express printed on Dec 28th in 1938, you’ll need to visit the library for this one)
“The ideology that dominates us is in diametrical contradiction to that of Soviet Russia. National Socialism is a doctrine that has reference exclusively to the German people. Bolshevism lays stress on international mission. We National Socialists believe a man can, in the long run, be happy only among his own people.”
- Hitler trying so hard to explain that he isn’t a socialist, that he opposes socialism, and that the term National Socialist is something he made up and only has meaning within the context of its own paradigm. (Speech at the Reichstag May 21 1935)
“We National Socialists see in private property a higher level of human economic development that according to the differences in performance controls the management of what has been accomplished enabling and guaranteeing the advantage of a higher standard of living for everyone. Bolshevism destroys not only private property but also private initiative and the readiness to shoulder responsibility.”
- Hitler spelling it out in very clear terms that he wholeheartedly supports private ownership of property, i.e. capitalism, and opposes worker ownership of property, which he calls “Bolshevism”, i.e. real, actual socialism. ( (Speech at the Reichstag May 21 1935)
“What right do these people have to demand a share of property or even in administration?.. The employer who accepts the responsibility for production also gives the workpeople their means of livelihood. Our greatest industrialists are not concerned with the acquisition of wealth or with good living, but, above all else, with responsibility and power. They have worked their way to the top by their own abilities, and this proof of their capacity – a capacity only displayed by a higher race – gives them the right to lead.”
- Hitler attacking the notion of worker ownership of property and licking capitalist boot. (Something he said to Max Amann, May 1930. It is from the book A history of National Socialism page 128.
I think it means fascists have always been putting forth a continual stream of gibberish and trying to understand what they actually mean is difficult as on the face of it it’s nonsense.
