David f This is more accurate

When the west is almost completely anti Christian it will be a very unsafe place to live. We are getting there quite quickly.

runner,

AUD $200 says less Christianity won't make the world unsafer. Are you prepared to accept my wager, or do you lack the courage of conviction? If so, why?

TAR, the Nazis were a Nationalist Socialist party. Their great success was in nationalising industry to give workers who had suffered through the hyper-inflation of the Weimar and the lack of work in the Depression. The distinguishing feature for Nazism was its Nationalist focus, which was at stark odds with the Internationalism of the Soviets.

The militarism was a response to the resentment felt by Germans at the harsh terms offered at the end of the first world war. It was not a feature of the Nationalist Socialist movement, although since the Nazis were the ones to implement the response, it has come to be synonymous with that ideology.

Having said all that, it was a dehumanising collectivist oligarchy and a failure as a mode of Government, even without the military adventurism.

The Acolyte Rizla

Your condescening tone is disgraceful.

'...far-right National Socialist Party a left-wing party'.

So what you're saying is that even though the National Socialist Party of Germany had the same policies and outcomes as other socialist regimes and had no policy commonly held by traditional conservative and liberal parties, it was really far right-wing.

Really? ... that's absurd.

I would hold your reasoning up for ridicule but you don't present any ... you only present assertion.

The left-wing, socialist Nazi Party of Hitler’s time is a recent invention, which despite my study of Nazi Germany 40 years ago and continuing interest in the topic, I had never heard of until I a few years ago, when I chanced upon the claim on the Andrew Bolt Forum.

The political terms “left” and “right” originated in the French National Assembly more than 200 years ago. The supporters of the king, the more authoritarian side, sat on the right; the opponents of the king, the more democratic side, sat on the left. The left thus became the side for progress and the right for the status quo. Being right wing is not the same as being libertarian, which seems to be yet another new claim. Both left and right have their extremists, and those extremists end up running totalitarian governments, but they are not the same in ideology. Historically, the left wanted to spread power among the people and the right did not. That is why I say the Nazis were right wing. It is true of course that many left movements ended up only pretending to spread power, but the Nazis never even pretended.

Democratic means democratic, but the use of the word in the title, “People’s Democratic Republic”, does not mean that the said state was in any way democratic. Similarly, socialist means socialist, but the use of the word in the title, “National Socialist German Workers Party”, does not mean that the said party was socialist. If the Nazis nationalised industry, I am not aware of it. As I understand history, private corporations continued under the Nazi regime, and some made profits from the death camps.

What Hitler said on his way to power and what he did once in power are two different things.

Chris Curtis

The Nazis started in coalition with the Nationalists, a definitely right-wing party. They did not nationalise industry. They allowed private profit to continue, though they did institute controls on industry in preparation for war and during the war, something the Conservative-led government of the UK also did.

In the early years there was a socialist stream in the Nazi Party. Ernst Roehm, leader of the SA, was one who called for a “second revolution” against business. He, along with others, was murdered on the Night of the Long Knives, 30 June, 1934. Hitler had no intention of implementing the Nazi party’s socialist promises. He needed the army, the banks and business on his side. (William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich)

I recommend Richard Evans’s work on the Nazis for anyone who wants a decent understanding of that period on history. He dismisses the idea that the Nazis were socialists.

A right-winger being offended by Hitler being called a right-winger is no more sensible than a vegetarian being offended by Hitler being called a vegetarian.

Chris Curtis