This is a marxist critique in which anything that does not lead to communism is by definition anti-worker and counter revolutionary. As has been pointed out numerous types the difference between fascism and traditional socialism is that fascism leaves businesses in place but ends the system of free enterprise by controlling all of the decisions that are made by the business. That is why it is necessary to be precise about the definition of socialism. The Nazis did not own all of the factories in the way a communist would but they controlled the factories and used that control for the good of the people as they saw it. They socialized the economy but left the facade of what had been before in order to reassure people who had been frightened by the massacres that took place after the Russian revolution.
Nope, what I see is the problem of ignoring once again where is that the right did go then.
As the historians report, the Marxists where there and they were on the rise, the right and the industrialists of the day knew that something had to be done, even to the point of making deals with pseudo revolutionaries that in reality helped preserve the German corporations.
We really can’t agree that, even taking American politics, that if you grease the slippery slope, conservative Republican ideas left unchecked would lead to fascism and liberal Democratic ideas, left unchecked, would lead to communism?
Both the authoritarian, brutal outcome of trying to harshly enforce an ideology?
I don’t agree with either one of those statements.
Conservative ideas left unchecked would lead to anarchy, not fascism. If you want to get technical, the American left is closer to fascism, favoring economic nationalism and corporate/state cooperation.
Well, I suppose if you surmise the idea that conservatives favor less govt, eventually you’d wind up with no laws or govt (i.e. anarchy). And the same in the other direction for the left. But these are just hopelessly unrealistic thought experiments. The vast majority, almost all I’d say, of average left or right leaning Americans do not view it this way. Neither side has a quasi-secret hope for pure individual rule of law (frontier justice) nor guaranteed absolute safety & stability thru oppressive totalitarian govt control of everything (communism). The truth lies in the details.
This whole thread started from the inclusion of the word ‘socialist’ in the anagram ‘Nazi’. But all it really comes down to is this: At one point in fairly recent US history the Nazis were the bad guys, and then almost immediately after them the bad guys were the communists. So it’s just immature political shorthand to equate both as your political enemy interchangeably without realizing any irony, not to mention downright factual inaccuracy!
My brother & I are both Republicans, not foaming-at-the-mouth ones, but we still like to jokingly refer to the TV news channels CNN as the *Communist News Network *and Fox News Channel (FNC) as the Fascist News Channel. Even these joke monikers aren’t entirely accurate, but based on the idea that over-the-top, hard-core righties would call CNN that and diehard liberals would call Fox that… 
Still, I get mad when statists try to establish that one form of statism is left while the other is right. IT almost seems as if they need to diffuse the responsibility. But the cold hard facts are that too little government has killed only a tiny fraction of the people that too much government has.
In the US, the primary argument between right and left is over whether we should have a more powerful central government or a less powerful one. The Nazis and Communists had a pretty clear view on this question and it was the same view.
Besides, “right and left” tend to be relative to each other, not absolute definitions. The Communist Party had what was called right-wing and left-wing elements, so did the Nazi Party. If we’re being really fair, both the American left and the American right are limited government ideologies. There is virtually no support for totalitarian government in the US like there is in many, if not most, other countries. Nazism and Communism occupy a completely different planet. Even our Nazi and Communist parties are pro-democracy.
And the Nazi party still has some views which are left wing:
http://www.nsm88.org/25points/25pointsengl.html
We demand that the State shall make it its primary duty to provide a livelihood for its citizens. If it should prove impossible to feed the entire population, foreign nationals (non-citizens) will be deported.
We demand equality of rights for the American people in its dealings with other nations, and the revocation of the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the World Bank, the North American Free Trade Agreement, the World Trade Organization, and the International Monetary Fund.
The abolition of incomes unearned by work The breaking of interest slavery.
In view of the enormous personal sacrifices of life and property demanded of a nation by any war, personal enrichment from war must be regarded as a crime against the nation. We therefore demand the ruthless confiscation of all war profits.
We demand the nationalization of all businesses which have been formed into corporations (trusts).
The passing of a law instituting profit-sharing in large industrial enterprises;
The creation of a livable wage;
We demand the treasonable system of health care be completely revolutionized.
We demand an end to the status quo in which people die or rot away from lack of proper treatment due to the failure of their medical coverage, Health Maintenance Organization, or insurance policy.
The secondary land reform will be to ensure the environmental integrity of the nation is preserved;
By setting aside land for national wildlife refuges;
By cleaning the urban, agricultural, and hydrographical (water) areas of the nation;
By creating legislation regulating the amount of pollution, carbon dioxide, greenhouse gases , and toxins released into the atmosphere;
And for the continued research and development of clean burning fuels and energy sources.
Basically, they are just a bunch of racist socialists.
IT actually makes sense though for Nazis to be socialist. If you assume a common bond between people of the same race, collectivism naturally follows.
That’s why the term National Socialism can be considered accurate, in the sense that it was socialism for the strict & ultimate benefit, not of the individual, but of the Nation. It helped increase the average German’s quality of living after the failure of the post-WWI Weimar Republic, so people went along with it. But the ultimate goal of any & all of its so-called social programs was the health, well-being & prosperity of the greater German Reich. Compare that to post-WWII Britain, which became heavily socialized including the creation of a welfare state, but with the direct intent to benefit British citizens, not the British Empire (which was broke, in rebellion, and on the verge of collapse anyway).
We Americans are definitely a bit spoiled and therefore sometimes naive in regards to radical politics, because we haven’t had true national turmoil & hardship since The Great Depression. And the response to that, FDR’s New Deal, while certainly radical for its time here in the US, hardly compares to Nazi Germany, Bolshevik Russia, or even Cold War Eastern (and Western) Europe. Unless you’re a real political junkie Americans don’t really divide up recent past history into times when a Republican was President vs when a Democrat was.
National welfare states may be for the individual without regard for race, but they are still national. No country is willing to be even 1% as generous towards foreigners as towards their own citizens. So while it’s a more enlightened sort of national socialism, it’s still national socialism. It’s just slightly more high-minded and less racist. True socialism would mean that the welfare of people in Ethiopia is just as high a priority as the welfare of people at home.