# What exactly is your current definition of the word "Nazi"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 27, 2019, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-your-current-definition-of-the-word-nazi/831614 "2019-03-27T15:37:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2019, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-your-current-definition-of-the-word-nazi/831614/41 "2019-03-30T14:21:38Z")
Yeah, a lot of the folks at the “Unite the Right” rally were genuine, literal Nazis, even by my fairly restrictive definition. And any who ally themselves with them are, therefore, allied with Nazis. But Mussolini, Franco, and Hideki Tojo weren’t Nazis, either, but were allied with them. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2019, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-your-current-definition-of-the-word-nazi/831614/42 "2019-03-30T15:35:35Z")
> [@Bear\_Nenno](#): > > And kept describing the Nazis as “socialists” which is ridiculous. That’s like saying North Korea is a democracy simply because it has “Democratic” in its name. Much about the Republican party is ridiculous, yes. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_librarian/32/402_2.png) [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2019, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-your-current-definition-of-the-word-nazi/831614/43 "2019-03-30T23:44:16Z")
> [@Bear\_Nenno](#): > > I see. > Would you not say that Nazis were fascists? Or do you simply just call them Nazis and leave it at that? I think there are great similarities between the two. However it is nice to have exact terms to describe the differences. If people start using the terms for other stuff nothing gets any clearer. The terms originally described millions of people, the group is big enough for their own classification. Today’s white supremacists can get they own names, lumping them together with historical movements doesn’t add information to the discussion. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2019, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-your-current-definition-of-the-word-nazi/831614/44 "2019-03-31T01:53:44Z")
Members of the National Socialist Party before and during WWII. Even violent white supremacists aren’t Nazis. They’re violent white supremacists. I feel humanism – something only liberals these days have any use for – includes a respect for nuance of definition, or should. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2019, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-your-current-definition-of-the-word-nazi/831614/45 "2019-03-31T03:29:20Z")
Groups 2 and 4 are the same people. Alt-right is just the euphemistic name they came up with to make themselves seem like a legitimate cause. You’ve made it easy by separating out the “alt-lite,” which I will restrict to those who do not support those things but were lured in by the new marketing. I will use it for any of them. They have the sufficient beliefs for the term. Allowing them to make distinctions between whether they actually adore Hitler or not is handing the narrative over to them. Saving the term for people who no longer exist is silly. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2019, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-your-current-definition-of-the-word-nazi/831614/46 "2019-03-31T03:35:05Z")
I think I’ve decided to vote for Option 2, since it doesn’t use their euphemism and play into the hands of the idea that the “alt right” is persecuted. Though I do notice your push polling. “Legitimate Nazis” and lots of accommodating definitions of the groups you describe, rather than neutral ones. You clearly want us to vote option 1. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2019, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-your-current-definition-of-the-word-nazi/831614/47 "2019-03-31T03:49:25Z")
In my experience, when people use “fascist,” they are more focused on the authoritarianism and punishment of dissent than they are on the nationalism or racism aspects. The opposite is true of the term “Nazi.” There’s a reason why I call Trump a fascist, not a Nazi. ---
**Author:** ![Dickerman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8baadc/32.png) [@Dickerman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dickerman)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2019, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-your-current-definition-of-the-word-nazi/831614/48 "2019-03-31T04:24:28Z")
National Socialists ---
**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:** [March 31, 2019, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-your-current-definition-of-the-word-nazi/831614/49 "2019-03-31T04:33:01Z")
1, but a bit of 2 as well. I think people are starting to sling the word “Nazi” at anyone they disagree with nowadays, and that’s not a good thing. It kind of turns “Nazi” into a cliche. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2019, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-your-current-definition-of-the-word-nazi/831614/50 "2019-03-31T05:36:39Z")
Nazi Germany was a murderously racist state that attempted genocide. It was also a totalitarian one-party dictatorship, with a huge cult of personality regarding the “Führer”, and no meaningful political participation or civil liberties even for the “Aryans”. Without in any way justifying white supremacy, not all white supremacists are intent on literal genocide of the “_Untermenschen_”; as bad as Jim Crow or even antebellum American slavery were, they did not involve setting up extermination camps for the African-American population. The slave states of antebellum America also show that white supremacy can be compatible with some form of [_Herrenvolk_ democracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herrenvolk_democracy), in which members of the favored race enjoy some real degree of political freedom and civil rights. This is not to say that holding millions of people in bondage won’t erode the civil liberties of even the “master race”; in the antebellum South, it got so that even a white man had to watch what he said on the issue of slavery, lest he be tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail. But it still wasn’t Nazi Germany. Before the rise of the explicitly anti-slavery Republican Party, the white male citizens of the antebellum slave states had a real choice between the Democratic Party and the Whig Party; the “Solid South” did not yet exist at that point. (For example, [William Henry Harrison](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1840_United_States_presidential_election) and [Zachary Taylor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1848_United_States_presidential_election), two successful Whig candidates for President, both took states in both the North and South.) White men could freely debate various issues of the day in a way that even “Aryans” could not under the Nazi regime. And during the post-Civil War “Solid South” there could be real competition _between white men_ within the Democratic Party–see, for example [George Wallace’s infamous comments](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Wallace#Failed_run_for_governor) after he lost the (Democratic Party primary) election for Governor of Alabama. _White_ people in 1950s Alabama could actually meaningfully participate in elections for governor. The NSDAP in Nazi Germany definitely did not have contested primary elections. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that only members of the NSDAP between 1920 and 1945 count as Nazis; if people [call themselves Nazis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Nazi_Party), I’m going to take their word for it. But I would reserve the term “Nazi” (in a serious way, not in some humorous context like “Grammar Nazi” or “Soup Nazi”) for people who genuinely advocate the sort of centralized, hierarchical, totalitarian system established by Hitler. (Or, again, if they _call themselves_ “Nazis”–or “National Socialists”–then I’ll take them at their word, even if they also claim their views are different from those of Adolf Hitler and company on this or that issue.) ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2019, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-your-current-definition-of-the-word-nazi/831614/51 "2019-03-31T08:51:11Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Groups 2 and 4 are the same people. Alt-right is just the euphemistic name they came up with to make themselves seem like a legitimate cause. You’ve made it easy by separating out the “alt-lite,” which I will restrict to those who do not support those things but were lured in by the new marketing. > > I will use it for any of them. They have the sufficient beliefs for the term. Allowing them to make distinctions between whether they actually adore Hitler or not is handing the narrative over to them. > > Saving the term for people who no longer exist is silly. I separate alt-right from white supremacists simply because there are a lot of minorities in the alt-right who normally wouldn’t join white supremacists causes but like where it leads. “Gamergate” supporters are what people would consider alt-right and there’s a lot of Asians and Hispanics vocal in that group based on what I see on message boards and in online gaming. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-your-current-definition-of-the-word-nazi/831614.md?page=2)