mhaze,

So suddenly we’re happy to take dictators at their word? You’ve obviously never read Mein Kampf. Hundreds of pages - more devoted to spewing vitriol at Marxists and Marxism than even at Jews.

Hitler never hid his contempt for Marxism. He called it “Jewish poison,” blamed it for Germany’s collapse, and promised to eradicate it root and branch.

And that’s exactly what he did.

Within months of taking power, the Nazis smashed unions, outlawed socialist and communist parties, jailed their members, and murdered Marxists in droves. Whatever throwaway line you want to cherry-pick, the reality is that Nazism defined itself by destroying the Left.

That’s why historians don’t rely on “what Hitler said” in some dubious snippet. They judge by doctrine and deeds. And on both counts Nazism sits firmly on the far-right: ultranationalist, authoritarian, violently anti-egalitarian, and obsessed with hierarchy and race.

This is yet more historical revisionism from you.

You confusing Marxism with Bolshevism.

Pretty funny that you start of saying we shouldn't take Hitler at his word and then try to claim we should take Hitler at his word. Again no substance...just assertion.

mhaze,

Nice try, but Hitler didn’t distinguish Marxism from Bolshevism in the way you’re pretending.

In Mein Kampf he denounced “the Marxist poison” over and over again, lumping socialism and communism together as enemies. And his policies followed suit: unions banned, socialist/communist parties outlawed, and Marxists jailed or murdered.

As for your “taking Hitler at his word” line, the difference is simple. I’m not cherry-picking one stray quote and treating it as gospel. I’m pointing to Hitler’s sustained anti-Marxist rants across his writings and the Nazis’ actual record in power.

Words and deeds matched. That’s substance.

Which is more than can be said for leaning on a single out-of-context line while ignoring everything Hitler wrote and everything the Nazis did.

How the terms "Left" and "Right" came to mean completely different things in different countries can make an interesting academic research study, but the fact is, somehow they did and it is thus nonsensical to translate "Left"/"Right" from one country to the next!

In Israel's example, political views range from "socialist" (or even "communist") to "revisionist" on the socio-economical axis and from "orthodox" to "secular" (with "religious" and "traditional" in between) on the Torah-observance axis, and as immigration and similar issues which dominate Australian politics are practically undisputed there, the terms "Left" and "Right" were reserved solely for describing the attitude towards the neighbouring non-Jewish people, "Left" meaning "accept them as equals and respect their land" and "Right" meaning "take their land and get them the hell out of our sight, live or dead".

You claim to have read Mein Kampf. Perhaps you need to read it again.

"In Mein Kampf he denounced “the Marxist poison” over and over again,"

He never uses the phrase "Marxist poison" in Mein Kampf. Just making it up again.

"I’m pointing to Hitler’s sustained anti-Marxist rants across his writings and the Nazis’ actual record in power."

No. You're asserting these rants. But Hitler was opposed to Bolshevism which he saw as Jewish and a threat to Germany. AAgain you're confusing two similar but not identical terms. Easily done if you're research involves a 5 minute Google search.

Yes, Hitler attacked the Bolsheviks and Russia since it was the home of Bolshevism. But the nuance there was that he wasn't attacking Marxism. Nuance....now there's a concept that is entirely alien to you.

I see we’ve started on the semantic nitpicking, mhaze.

//He never uses the phrase ‘Marxist poison’ in Mein Kampf. Just making it up again.//

Hitler’s own words:

“The Jewish doctrine of Marxism rejects the aristocratic principle of Nature … this doctrine would bring about the end of any order intellectually conceivable to man.” (Mein Kampf, Vol. I, Ch. 11).

In the German text he refers to Marxism in terms of Gift (poison). English editions word it as “pestilence” or “plague.” Nitpicking vocabulary doesn’t erase the point: he ranted against Marxism as a poison.

//Hitler was opposed to Bolshevism … but he wasn’t attacking Marxism//

Wrong.

Hitler saw Bolshevism as simply Marxism in Russian form. He called Marxism “the spiritual father of Bolshevism” and blamed it for the collapse of Germany. And he didn’t just attack Bolsheviks in Russia, he denounced Marxism in German trade unions, in the press, in education, and vowed to eradicate it everywhere.

//Nuance … now there’s a concept that is entirely alien to you.//

The only “nuance” here is Hitler’s propaganda convenience. Sometimes he blurred the terms, sometimes he separated them, but in every case he treated both as mortal enemies. And his actions left no room for ambiguity: unions banned, SPD and KPD outlawed, communists and socialists jailed or killed.

That’s annihilation, not nuance.

So yes, I’ve read Mein Kampf. The seething hatred of Marxism runs through it. You don’t do that to your ideological cousins. You do that to the enemies you’re determined to wipe out.

Try downloading a PDF of an English translation and run through it with Ctrl+F if you don’t believe me.

I dare you.