Shakespeare is suggesting there is more to a subject than its mere name. So when Hitler claimed he was a socialist, consider these examples which, unlike a “sweet rose,” reek of a different odor.
- Ost-Deutschland (AKA East Germany) was also called the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR) AKA the German Democratic Republic (GDR); it wasn’t a democracy.
- The People’s Republic of China isn’t a republic.
- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) (AKA North Korea) isn’t a democracy.
- The Soyuz Sovietskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik (AKA The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics: USSR) wasn’t a true republic.
Hitler's Nazi party was the National Socialist Workers Party....a socialist leftist political party. Originally Posted by Whirlaway
"We are socialists, we are enemies of today's capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are all determined to destroy this system under all conditions." --Adolf Hitler Originally Posted by herfacechair“[T]he broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted . . . and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation.” Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler
Hitler was an inveterate liar. So, why give credence to his words now?
Socialism: a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole (Webster’s).
Even though the term Nazi derives from the first two syllables of Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers' Party, NSDAP), Hitler’s Germany was not a leftist-socialist government. Its political ideology was far-right Fascism.
Fascism: a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition (Webster’s).
Superimpose a 12 hour clock face on a Nolan Chart and you’ll find Stalinism marked at about the 6:35 to 6:40 position (on the lower left). Hitler’s Fascism would be marked at the 6:20 to 6:25 position (on the lower right). They are alike, but not the same. These two extremes are like the two ends of a belt. When the belt is unfastened, they appear to be quite far apart. Yet, when fastened together, they form a circle (like on a Nolan Chart) and appear quite close.
American author and philosopher Eric Hoffer wrote, in True Believer, that the rabid Nazi and the rabid Communist were more alike than different. He also wrote that they both were the antitheses of responsible individuals and that they could not live in a society that depended on personal choice such as in a democracy.
(Please note: I said “Stalinism” and did not say “communism.” Except in various religious communities, true communism has never existed. During the Russian Revolution, Lenin established the Dictatorship of the Proletariat in the U.S.S.R., and this remained the rule until the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. in 1991. True communism never “evolved” as predicted by Marx.)