this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2026
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Do you actually think nazis were on the left? Because that's what horseshoe theory you are defending is all about. The centrist social democrats are the ones that facilitated the nazis rise to power because they didn't want to side with the communists and socialists.
"Do you actually think nazis were on the left?"
if i thought that, i wouldn't have said that they came after the left.
everyone thinks i'm anti-left because of the weird american interpretation that animal farm = 'communism bad,' and not that collective efforts can be derailed by failures of communication or education.
the failure of progressive efforts is that most progressive groups can be turned on each other because they can't communicate or separate patterns from substrate.
'divide and conquer' is really successful, whether in animal farm or in basically every historical example of oppression.
again the 'first they came for' poem i alluded to with "Why the 'national socialists' came for the communists and socialists first."
what this means is that the name 'national socialist' was obviously completely removed from the concept.
again, like the pigs in animal farm becoming removed from the concept of animals by the end of the book. why the book is an apt reference to actual systems, although more specifically around the unfortunate failures of early russian efforts.
again, the oversimplified american interpretation of 'communism bad' mostly comes from a thorough lack of reading comprehension, and memetic/socialized reification of that misinterpretation.
so again, stating that i was not calling the nazis progressives when suggesting that their name was being misused through blatant oppression of socialists.
Read. Another. Book.
Why? The hamfisted, black and white children's book fits perfectly with what i already believe about politics, this isn't concerning in the slightest.
are you even human? did you comprehend any of the words being said?
By your western shitlibs standards? No I'm not human
The Nazis we’re economically left of the US in many ways, for what it’s worth.
No, they were not.
What?
Nazis spent a lot of money on military because they wanted to do imperialism to grow their economy. They ran deficits to fund war industries (kind of like the US) and were betting on winning to pay them off (US oil wars?)
There was certainly centralized planning, but the US isn't exactly a free market. The government subsidizes industries in the states too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Nazi_Germany
Sounds pretty familiar, and I haven't even mentioned the use of prison labour.
The big public works projects were already planned by the time they took power and were beneficial for the war effort anyways. The states were embarking on similar projects at the time as well, so I wouldn't say they were further left even if we do credit them with continuing.
Nazis banned trade unions. Nazi Germany sought to eliminate foreign completion. They supported privatization. Banks were privatized under them. Utilities, manufacturing, railways, public services etc all had at least some privatization.
Companies traded contributions for favor (sound familiar?)
What am I missing that makes them more economically left wing?
They had paid vacation time enshrined in law. Free or highly subsidized vacation programs that allowed workers to go on real vacations. There were massive infrastructure jobs programs which led to almost zero unemployment. Nationalized health insurance.
Lmao! They had low unemployment because trying to conquer Europe takes a lot of work. Notably, in spite of the low unemployment, the working conditions were shit and the workers could not organize due to violent suppression.
You might as well argue that slavery is progressive since it means low unemployment.
I've never heard of the paid vacation time enshrined in law, especially as work contacts were overseen by labour trustees appointed by the DAF (German Labour Front). I don't know everything, of course.
They did have the Strength Through Joy program where they provided incentives like vacations, and Beauty of Labour which was supposed to make work places better, but
https://germanhistorydocs.org/en/nazi-germany-1933-1945/german-labor-front-poster-beauty-of-labor-1934
These were programs designed to get buy-in despite the deterioration of workers rights, including hours of work and pay after the Nazis came to power.
The infrastructure program was the Reich Labour Service. It was a mandatory program, and workers lived in camps working long hours with low pay.
Unemployment was illegal, not abolished through the creation of good jobs. In 1938 Aktion Arbeitsscheu Reich arrested the "work shy" and send them to camps.
Germany had nationalized health insurance since 1883.
Hitler was inspired by the US mostly successful genocide of native peoples.