One of the most tragic lies promulgated in the postwar period is that World War II was marked by a clash of completely oppositional ideologies: namely socialism and fascism.
The Nazi Party, better known to their original supporters as the National Socialist German Worker’s Party, is typically referred to as a “far-right” movement by academics — completely disregarding the fact that Nazi rule was associated with massive public works programs, confiscation of private property, and a robust welfare state.
The difference between the Nazis and the Communists wasn’t economics. The Soviet Union embraced an internationalist ideology, while the fascists in Germany and Mussolini’s Italy promoted a nationalist worldview. The Nazi welfare state was just as generous as anything that came before it, but was reserved for a so-called “master race”.
Tweets like this only continue to spread this misinformation on Nazism and its relationship to socialism. Adolf Hitler himself had a highly negative opinion of capitalism, feeling that the practice of unfettered free trade resulted in excessive culture mixing.
Of course, this is usually left out of the high school curriculum, so mindless Twitter drones don’t usually feel the need to fact check statements that reinforce their pre-existing beliefs.
~ Facts Not Memes
