Hitler Was Indeed Left Wing

Submitted by Jonathan Pfeffer (Canada), Nov 15, 2002 at 11:31

I must refute the comments made by Laura entitled "Hitler was Indeed Right Wing". Hitler was opposed to Marxism alright, because he saw Marxism more as a competitor for the hearts and minds of working masses. Nazism was rooted deeply in the German working masses. It was not an ideology of the farmers, or the aristocrats or the rich German industrialists. Nazism shared many values with the Marxists. They both diminished the rights of individuals when those rights conflicted with the needs of the engineering plan for the society. They both put private ownership behind large scale state sponsored grandeur.

It is true the Nazis were racist and the Marxists were not but this reflects more a difference in tactics. They are both left because they both sacrificed personal freedom and self fulfillment for state engineered models whose ultimate goal was to advance and glorify the common masses.

My definition of right wing is; accepting the historic forces and accepting how people's own diversity and freedom have shaped the nation, and allowing the nation to blossom not by state planning but by individual effort. State control is tolerated as long as it is not seen as unjustly interfering in the individual's right to self fulfillment.

My definition of left wing is: using knowledge, mostly academic, to control government for the purpose of shaping the society for the needs of the majority. Individuality may be tolerated to the extent that it doesn't harm this plan.

Which one does Nazism look more like?

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".