# Limbaugh: "Hitler, Lenin, Stalin were all men of the left" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 10, 2009, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-hitler-lenin-stalin-were-all-men-of-the-left/505972 "2009-08-10T20:19:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-hitler-lenin-stalin-were-all-men-of-the-left/505972/1 "2009-08-10T20:19:49Z")
Pitting Rush Limbaugh is, for lack of a better word, redundant. We could do it daily with ease. But this buffoon outdid even himself recently by comparing the Obama administration to Hitler. He caught a good deal of flak for that so, naturally, he defends himself and does so with the statement in the OP. [“Socialism is socialism,” “Hitler, Lenin, Stalin were all men of the left”](http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200908100036) Hitler was a lefty? Who knew? Bet that is why Hitler was so chummy with Stalin. :rolleyes: Either he is amazingly uneducated or he is so far right politically he considers Hitler a lefty. Not sure which is scarier. Follow the link above for other juicy bits such as: - “Let’s go back and compare [pay czar] to Nazi Germany”; “Hitler had a labor czar” - “Gibbs “wants to say I was comparing the genocidal Hitler to Obama”; “I was comparing” two socialists.” - Citing WaPo op-ed that acknowledges end-of-life counseling provision isn’t mandatory, Limbaugh asserts it is mandatory. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-hitler-lenin-stalin-were-all-men-of-the-left/505972/2 "2009-08-10T20:28:45Z")
Well, Hitler was a National **Socialist** , who believed in all sorts of government programs. But perhaps Rush just means that Hitler is to the left of him. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-hitler-lenin-stalin-were-all-men-of-the-left/505972/3 "2009-08-10T20:36:44Z")
There are lots of people on this very board who argue the Hitler/German fascism were a far left movement. I blame cold war education, anything bad = left. Stalin, Lenin, Mao, Pol Pot etc all left. Hitler not so much but so far right he was giving the far left cunts a reach around. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-hitler-lenin-stalin-were-all-men-of-the-left/505972/4 "2009-08-10T20:46:32Z")
Limbaugh’s pulling this crap? I’ve seen it on the Freepers and a bunch of weirdo, far-righters, but this takes the cake. I usually counter the “National _Socialist_” argument by pointing out that the Soviets called themselves the “Soviet Socialist _Republic_”, but it didn’t make them republicans. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-hitler-lenin-stalin-were-all-men-of-the-left/505972/5 "2009-08-10T20:47:51Z")
> [@yojimbo](#): > > There are lots of people on this very board who argue the Hitler/German fascism were a far left movement. > I blame cold war education, anything bad = left. > > Stalin, Lenin, Mao, Pol Pot etc all left. Hitler not so much but so far right he was giving the far left cunts a reach around. To be blunt, it was a movement of the Left, openly and avowedly, and nobody at the time particualrly disputed this. As was Musolini’s Fascist movement (although not really Franco’s). In Hitler’s specific case, he eventually came to terms with the right by presenting a “Brown or Red” scenario to them and killing off his own radicals, but he had naked contempt for the Right in Germany. This does not inherently make the modern Left evil, as those movements attracted many types of people as they “matured”. They are predicated on different ideas. However, some observation of the link is important, and should not be ignored or shunned. Those same tendencies still exist in many political movements. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-hitler-lenin-stalin-were-all-men-of-the-left/505972/6 "2009-08-10T20:49:22Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > Well, Hitler was a National **Socialist** , who believed in all sorts of government programs. But perhaps Rush just means that Hitler is to the left of him. Don’t put too much faith in the name. Remember former East Germany was the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (German Democratic Republic) which was anything but democratic. > [@](#): > > National Socialism was similar in many respects to Italian fascism (see Fascism). The roots of National Socialism, however, were peculiarly German, grounded, for example, in the Prussian tradition of military authoritarianism and expansion; in the German romantic tradition of hostility to rationalism, liberalism, and democracy; in various racist doctrines according to which the Nordic peoples, as so-called pure Aryans, were not only physically superior to other races, but were the carriers of a superior morality and culture; and in certain philosophical traditions that idealized the state or exalted the superior individual and exempted such a person from conventional restraints. > > SOURCE: [http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia\_761560927/national\_socialism.html](http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761560927/national_socialism.html) Hardly a lefty philosophy. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-hitler-lenin-stalin-were-all-men-of-the-left/505972/7 "2009-08-10T20:52:38Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > To be blunt, it was a movement of the Left, openly and avowedly, and nobody at the time particualrly disputed this. As was Musolini’s Fascist movement (although not really Franco’s). In Hitler’s specific case, he eventually came to terms with the right by presenting a “Brown or Red” scenario to them and killing off his own radicals, but he had naked contempt for the Right in Germany. > > This does not inherently make the modern Left evil, as those movements attracted many types of people as they “matured”. They are predicated on different ideas. However, some observation of the link is important, and should not be ignored or shunned. Those same tendencies still exist in many political movements. Err…are people really portraying fascism as a left leaning movement? > [@](#): > > Conservatism, which drew its strongest supporters from the political, economic and intellectual elites in pre-war Europe, found itself in crisis. The established elites in central and eastern Europe were weakened or rendered powerless by the introduction of universal suffrage, the collapse of traditional social hierarchies, and the creation of nation-states in place of the old multinational empires. At the same time, many segments of the population - particularly the rural peasantry and the skilled professionals - felt threatened by the prospect of industrialization, increased social mobility or the creation of a welfare state. Following the Bolshevik Revolution, many felt that the working class might rise up in a communist insurrection. Normally, those segments of the population would have rallied behind traditional conservatism, but with traditional conservative parties severely weakened in the aftermath of the war, there was a political vacuum on the right.[30] > > This political vacuum was filled by the rising fascist movements. They gained power and support from older conservative classes, and in some cases received direct approval from the traditional conservative parties.[31] The conservative British newspaper The Daily Mail published a lead article in 1934 under the headline “The Blackshirts have what the Conservatives need”.[32] The rise to power of the Italian fascists and German Nazis was largely funded and supported by aristocratic landlords, wealthy industrialists, army officers, and other groups with strong conservative leanings. The fascists gathered this support by successfully presenting themselves as the last line of defense against liberal democracy, land reform, demilitarization and the collectivization of the means of production.[33] Many traditional conservatives were persuaded that fascism was the only realistic alternative to liberalism and socialism. A French businessman remarked in 1935, “better Hitler than Léon Blum”.[34] > > SOURCE: [Fascism and ideology - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism_and_ideology#Fascism_and_conservatism) ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-hitler-lenin-stalin-were-all-men-of-the-left/505972/8 "2009-08-10T20:59:21Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Hitler was a lefty? Who knew? Bet that is why Hitler was so chummy with Stalin. :rolleyes: Hitler was chummy enough with Stalin to ally with him. Don’t forget about the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. The two of them had a great deal of common ground. That doesn’t make Hitler a “leftist” but Hitler and Stalin were two sides of the same coin. Trying to exploit this fact to make some kind of political jab at the left wing in America is totally ridiculous though. ---
**Author:** ![SmashTheState](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@SmashTheState](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmashTheState)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-hitler-lenin-stalin-were-all-men-of-the-left/505972/9 "2009-08-10T21:05:19Z")
Much of the Nazi platform was actually quite admirable – and leftist. In fact, it was the dichotomy of the Nazi ideals versus actual Nazi policy which brought about the Night of Long Knives. Ernst Roehm and the SA were old-school leftists and street-brawlers. It was the stated Nazi policies of eliminating all unearned wealth and nationalizing the corporations which bought Roehm’s support as the enforcement arm of the Nazi Party. When the Nazis came to power, Roehm pushed Hitler with increasing impatience to follow through on his promises. Hitler, of course, had no intention ot nationalizing the corporations, since he needed their help to build his war machine. In the end, Hitler was convinced by the German Army to have Roehm and the rest of the leadership of the SA executed and absorb the SA into the German armed forces (which was a bit like having the mouse absorb a roomful of cats, since the SA had ten times the numbers of the Wehrmacht). So yes, in a sense it’s true, the Nazis were theoretically leftists, and they were certainly collectivists. Fascism can fall to both left and right of political centre the same way anarchism – its diamentric opposite – can fall to both left and right. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-hitler-lenin-stalin-were-all-men-of-the-left/505972/10 "2009-08-10T21:07:28Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Hitler was chummy enough with Stalin to ally with him. Don’t forget about the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. The two of them had a great deal of common ground. That doesn’t make Hitler a “leftist” but Hitler and Stalin were two sides of the same coin. Trying to exploit this fact to make some kind of political jab at the left wing in America is totally ridiculous though. It was my understanding they hated each other (or at least Hitler hated Stalin). I believe Hitler had no intention of honoring the pact. Both countries needed to buy time (for different reasons) and that is what the pact gave them. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-hitler-lenin-stalin-were-all-men-of-the-left/505972/11 "2009-08-10T21:10:14Z")
I wonder if Rush thinks the **Democratic People’s Republic of Korea** has links to the Republican Party; I mean, they both have Republic in their names, there has to be something going on there… ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-hitler-lenin-stalin-were-all-men-of-the-left/505972/12 "2009-08-10T21:13:37Z")
**Limbaugh: "Hitler, Lenin, Stalin were all men of the left"** This is about the level of sophistication I’d expect from a drug addled college dropout like Limbaugh. ---
**Author:** ![SmashTheState](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@SmashTheState](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmashTheState)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-hitler-lenin-stalin-were-all-men-of-the-left/505972/13 "2009-08-10T21:26:11Z")
For the record, here is the official platform of the Nazi Party. Pay particular attention to the statement, “_The Common Good before the individual good._” This is the very definition of collectivism. On paper, the Nazi Party is certainly a leftist organization. [ul]We demand the unification of all Germans in the Greater Germany on the basis of the right of self-determination of peoples. [li]We demand equality of rights for the German people in respect to the other nations; abrogation of the peace treaties of Versailles and St. Germain.[/li] [li]We demand land and territory (colonies) for the sustenance of our people, and colonization for our surplus population.[/li] [li]Only a member of the race can be a citizen. A member of the race can only be one who is of German blood, without consideration of creed. Consequently no Jew can be a member of the race.[/li] [li]Whoever has no citizenship is to be able to live in Germany only as a guest, and must be under the authority of legislation for foreigners.[/li] [li]The right to determine matters concerning administration and law belongs only to the citizen. Therefore we demand that every public office, of any sort whatsoever, whether in the Reich, the county or municipality, be filled only by citizens. We combat the corrupting parliamentary economy, office-holding only according to party inclinations without consideration of character or abilities.[/li] [li]We demand that the state be charged first with providing the opportunity for a livelihood and way of life for the citizens. If it is impossible to sustain the total population of the State, then the members of foreign nations (non-citizens) are to be expelled from the Reich.[/li] [li]Any further immigration of non-citizens is to be prevented. We demand that all non-Germans, who have immigrated to Germany since the 2 August 1914, be forced immediately to leave the Reich.[/li] [li]All citizens must have equal rights and obligations.[/li] [li]The first obligation of every citizen must be to work both spiritually and physically. The activity of individuals is not to counteract the interests of the universality, but must have its result within the framework of the whole for the benefit of all Consequently we demand:[/li] [li]Abolition of unearned (work and labour) incomes. Breaking of rent-slavery.[/li] [li]In consideration of the monstrous sacrifice in property and blood that each war demands of the people personal enrichment through a war must be designated as a crime against the people. Therefore we demand the total confiscation of all war profits.[/li] [li]We demand the nationalisation of all (previous) associated industries (trusts).[/li] [li]We demand a division of profits of all heavy industries.[/li] [li]We demand an expansion on a large scale of old age welfare.[/li] [li]We demand the creation of a healthy middle class and its conservation, immediate communalization of the great warehouses and their being leased at low cost to small firms, the utmost consideration of all small firms in contracts with the State, county or municipality.[/li] [li]We demand a land reform suitable to our needs, provision of a law for the free expropriation of land for the purposes of public utility, abolition of taxes on land and prevention of all speculation in land.[/li] [li]We demand struggle without consideration against those whose activity is injurious to the general interest. Common national criminals, usurers, Schieber and so forth are to be punished with death, without consideration of confession or race.[/li] [li]We demand substitution of a German common law in place of the Roman Law serving a materialistic world-order.[/li] [li]The state is to be responsible for a fundamental reconstruction of our whole national education program, to enable every capable and industrious German to obtain higher education and subsequently introduction into leading positions. The plans of instruction of all educational institutions are to conform with the experiences of practical life. The comprehension of the concept of the State must be striven for by the school [Staatsbuergerkunde] as early as the beginning of understanding. We demand the education at the expense of the State of outstanding intellectually gifted children of poor parents without consideration of position or profession.[/li] [li]The State is to care for the elevating national health by protecting the mother and child, by outlawing child-labor, by the encouragement of physical fitness, by means of the legal establishment of a gymnastic and sport obligation, by the utmost support of all organizations concerned with the physical instruction of the young.[/li] [li]We demand abolition of the mercenary troops and formation of a national army.[/li] [li]We demand legal opposition to known lies and their promulgation through the press. In order to enable the provision of a German press, we demand, that: a. All writers and employees of the newspapers appearing in the German language be members of the race; b. Non-German newspapers be required to have the express permission of the State to be published. They may not be printed in the German language; c. Non-Germans are forbidden by law any financial interest in German publications, or any influence on them, and as punishment for violations the closing of such a publication as well as the immediate expulsion from the Reich of the non-German concerned. Publications which are counter to the general good are to be forbidden. We demand legal prosecution of artistic and literary forms which exert a destructive influence on our national life, and the closure of organizations opposing the above made demands.[/li] [li]We demand freedom of religion for all religious denominations within the state so long as they do not endanger its existence or oppose the moral senses of the Germanic race. The Party as such advocates the standpoint of a positive Christianity without binding itself confessionally to any one denomination. It combats the Jewish-materialistic spirit within and around us, and is convinced that a lasting recovery of our nation can only succeed from within on the framework: The Common Good before the individual good.[/li] For the execution of all of this we demand the formation of a strong central power in the Reich. Unlimited authority of the central parliament over the whole Reich and its organizations in general. The forming of state and profession chambers for the execution of the laws made by the Reich within the various states of the confederation. The leaders of the Party promise, if necessary by sacrificing their own lives, to support by the execution of the points set forth above without consideration.[/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-hitler-lenin-stalin-were-all-men-of-the-left/505972/14 "2009-08-10T21:29:56Z")
When you get right down to it, they WERE similiar, in that they were both hideous tyrants – and really, I wouldn’t give a shit which one I lived under – I’d just want to get out as quickly as possible. (In that both were just as cruel) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-hitler-lenin-stalin-were-all-men-of-the-left/505972/15 "2009-08-10T21:43:35Z")
From George Orwell’s [_The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius_](http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300011h.html#part14) (1941): > [@](#): > > Socialism is usually defined as “common ownership of the means of production”. Crudely: the State, representing the whole nation, owns everything, and everyone is a State employee. This does NOT mean that people are stripped of private possessions such as clothes and furniture, but it DOES mean that all productive goods, such as land, mines, ships and machinery, are the property of the State. The State is the sole large-scale producer. It is not certain that Socialism is in all ways superior to capitalism, but it is certain that, unlike capitalism, it can solve the problems of production and consumption. At normal times a capitalist economy can never consume all that it produces, so that there is always a wasted surplus (wheat burned in furnaces, herrings dumped back into the sea etc etc) and always unemployment. In time of war, on the other hand, it has difficulty in producing all that it needs, because nothing is produced unless someone sees his way to making a profit out of it. In a Socialist economy these problems do not exist. The State simply calculates what goods will be needed and does its best to produce them. Production is only limited by the amount of labour and raw materials. Money, for internal purposes, ceases to be a mysterious all-powerful thing and becomes a sort of coupon or ration-ticket, issued in sufficient quantities to buy up such consumption goods as may be available at the moment. > > However, it has become clear in the last few years that “common ownership of the means of production” is not in itself a sufficient definition of Socialism. One must also add the following: approximate equality of incomes (it need be no more than approximate), political democracy, and abolition of all hereditary privilege, especially in education. These are simply the necessary safeguards against the reappearance of a class-system. Centralised ownership has very little meaning unless the mass of the people are living roughly upon an equal level, and have some kind of control over the government. “The State” may come to mean no more than a self-elected political party, and oligarchy and privilege can return, based on power rather than on money. > > But what then is Fascism? > > Fascism, at any rate the German version, is a form of capitalism that borrows from Socialism just such features as will make it efficient for war purposes. Internally, Germany has a good deal in common with a Socialist state. Ownership has never been abolished, there are still capitalists and workers, and—this is the important point, and the real reason why rich men all over the world tend to sympathise with Fascism—generally speaking the same people are capitalists and the same people workers as before the Nazi revolution. But at the same time the State, which is simply the Nazi Party, is in control of everything. It controls investment, raw materials, rates of interest, working hours, wages. The factory owner still owns his factory, but he is for practical purposes reduced to the status of a manager. Everyone is in effect a State employee, though the salaries vary very greatly. The mere EFFICIENCY of such a system, the elimination of waste and obstruction, is obvious. In seven years it has built up the most powerful war machine the world has ever seen. > > But the idea underlying Fascism is irreconcilably different from that which underlies Socialism. Socialism aims, ultimately, at a world-state of free and equal human beings. It takes the equality of human rights for granted. Nazism assumes just the opposite. The driving force behind the Nazi movement is the belief in human INEQUALITY, the superiority of Germans to all other races, the right of Germany to rule the world. Outside the German Reich it does not recognise any obligations. Eminent Nazi professors have “proved” over and over again that only nordic man is fully human, have even mooted the idea that non-nordic peoples (such as ourselves) can interbreed with gorillas! Therefore, while a species of war-Socialism exists within the German state, its attitude towards conquered nations is frankly that of an exploiter. The function of the Czechs, Poles, French, etc is simply to produce such goods as Germany may need, and get in return just as little as will keep them from open rebellion. If we are conquered, our job will probably be to manufacture weapons for Hitler’s forthcoming wars with Russia and America. The Nazis aim, in effect, at setting up a kind of caste system, with four main castes corresponding rather closely to those of the Hindu religion. At the top comes the Nazi party, second come the mass of the German people, third come the conquered European populations. Fourth and last are to come the coloured peoples, the “semi-apes” as Hitler calls them, who are to be reduced quite openly to slavery. > > However horrible this system may seem to us, IT WORKS. It works because it is a planned system geared to a definite purpose, world-conquest, and not allowing any private interest, either of capitalist or worker, to stand in its way. British capitalism does not work, because it is a competitive system in which private profit is and must be the main objective. It is a system in which all the forces are pulling in opposite directions and the interests of the individual are as often as not totally opposed to those of the State. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-hitler-lenin-stalin-were-all-men-of-the-left/505972/16 "2009-08-10T21:44:24Z")
Past a certain point, the distinction between left and right becomes meaningless. That’s why political scientists has devised so many **different** scales for delineating political stance. Go back and read the excellent series of [“Political Compass”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=330918&highlight=political+spectrum) threads **SentientMeat** ran in GD. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-hitler-lenin-stalin-were-all-men-of-the-left/505972/17 "2009-08-10T22:13:32Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Hitler was chummy enough with Stalin to ally with him. Don’t forget about the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. The two of them had a great deal of common ground. That doesn’t make Hitler a “leftist” but Hitler and Stalin were two sides of the same coin. Trying to exploit this fact to make some kind of political jab at the left wing in America is totally ridiculous though. Given Nazi attacks on the Communists inside Germany, do you think this “chumminess” came from anything real or from Hitler’s desire to avoid two-front war? You’d also have to explain why the chumminess vanished in 1941. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-hitler-lenin-stalin-were-all-men-of-the-left/505972/18 "2009-08-10T22:16:18Z")
Hey, you know who else was a man of the Left? Chairman Mao, that’s who. Why’s Rush leaving him out, eh? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-hitler-lenin-stalin-were-all-men-of-the-left/505972/19 "2009-08-10T22:32:29Z")
He’s disoriented. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-hitler-lenin-stalin-were-all-men-of-the-left/505972/20 "2009-08-10T22:37:11Z")
> [@SmashTheState](#): > > For the record, here is the official platform of the Nazi Party. Pay particular attention to the statement, “_The Common Good before the individual good._” This is the very definition of collectivism. On paper, the Nazi Party is certainly a leftist organization. On paper means nothing. Actions speak louder than words. I think concentration camp victims were told they were going for a shower and delousing. Didn’t make it so. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-hitler-lenin-stalin-were-all-men-of-the-left/505972.md?page=2)