What is Nazism?

[Hexen]

What is Nazism? My guess that it's a perversion of Marxism which for example they replace capitalism as the main root of the problem with "Jews" (i.e. "The Jews control the means of production!") or something like that?

[hatzel]

http://chickenfootcomb.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/WTF-grave.jpg

[Rafiq]

Nazism is a reaction to class warfare and Internationalism in Germany. Much like Fascism in mussolini's Italy, it has absolutely nothing to do with Marxism. They 'claim' to behold a form of Socialism that allows private property, which, in my opinion, was just a propaganda tactic, seeing how popular socialism was in germany during the time.

[Die Rote Fahne]

What is Nazism? My guess that it's a perversion of Marxism which for example they replace capitalism as the main root of the problem with "Jews" (i.e. "The Jews control the means of production!") or something like that?

Nazism has absolutely NOTHING to do with Marxism. It isn't even a perversion.

Nazism, also known as "National Socialism", was the ideology and practice of Nazi Germany and the Nazi Party of Germany.

It is a form of fascism. It's focuses were:
- Extreme nationalism of Germanic peoples and the state of Germany
- Placing blame for the economic, social and political state of Germany -- specifically on Jews, leftists, and other minorities,
- Regaining the "glory" of Germany via imperialism and militarism
- Racial supremacy
- Conservatism
- Complete dominance of the party over society and the people at large -- via authoritarian and totalitarian policies; the enabling act, violent oppression, laws restricting freedoms of everyone and even more laws restricting freedoms of Jews and other "undesirables".
- Capitalistic central planning focusing on the protection of private property, and using profits to benefit the state when necessary. Closely entwined with/supported by the bourgeoisie who were essentially a part of the Nazi bureaucracy.
- Anti-communism/Marxism

They used methods and propaganda, to gain support, which expressed them as representative of the working class. Using buzz words like "socialism", "worker's party", and expressing (but not following) anti-capitalism.

As was said, it was a reaction to Marxism, working class internationalism, and the ongoing struggle of the working class.

For further information, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionary
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism

[Nolan]

Nazism is short for national socialism. It is a form of fascism adapted to Germany and mixed with an extremely anti-semitic and racial purist worldview.

The nazis adopted the word socialism out of political convenience, as they sought to build a mass movement for their policies from the working class. Some, like Strasser, took the word more seriously albeit in a social democratic sense, while Hitler himself eventually regretted the use of the word altogether.

Rather than 'national socialism' a more scientific name might be German fascism or even Aryan fascism.

[Nolan]

Some confuse nazi or Italian fascist worldviews with conservatism - they were not conservatives by any stretch even though their social politics overlapped with conservatism a lot.

They seek to take society back to ancient Sparta more than they want to defend the status quo against further progressive changes. This is why many nazis dabbled in paganism - it was "germanic" or "aryan." Traditional bourgeois institutions are too weak for them.

[gorillafuck]

What is Nazism? My guess that it's a perversion of MarxismNo. Hitler was more opposed to karl marx than anybody.

Nazism is a German nationalist form of fascist capitalism that emphasizes racial supremacy of aryans and hatred of Jews.

[PhoenixAsh]

to add to the above posts....Nazism and Fascism are arguing for class conformity instead of class struggle. Basically stating that all classes should accept their position and work together for the benefit of the state.

[Die Rote Fahne]

to add to the above posts....Nazism and Fascism are arguing for class conformity instead of class struggle. Basically stating that all classes should accept their position and work together for the benefit of the state.

Also known as corporatism.

[RadioRaheem84]

Anyone thinking that Nazism was a perversion of Marxism hasn't read Mein Kampf where Hitler clearly states that he is anti-Marxian socialism. Then Hitler goes on in some deranged manner to describe "true" socialism as some pre-Enlightenment communal order like the old Viking Tribes or something. It was largely horse shit what he was saying and the furthest from socialism in the Marxist sense.

[L.A.P.]

the furthest from socialism in the Marxist sense.

Or any other sense for that matter.

[RadioRaheem84]

Yes, his take on socialism was just weird. Utterly, weird. I cannot stand how he just bad he butchered socialism. The only way I can explain it is that he purposefully tried to sway workers away from Marxian Socialism to a strange heavily idealist sense of socialism, eliminating the desire for class struggle.

[Delenda Carthago]

A basic characteristic that is very randomly being mentioned about fascism and it gives answers to idiots who compare USSR with fascist states, is that in fascism the only one who produces politics is the State.On the contrary, at least up until Stalin, in the USSR the working class produced politics for itself.

[RadioRaheem84]

Also known as corporatism.

What is this word? I keep hearing it from people who misquote Mussolini when he said that fascism is corporate power and state power combined. I always thought corporate to him was different than actual business corporations.

The word is also something right Libertarians use when describing the current economy we have today. It's a cop out word for them to conveniently defend capitalism and be against "corporatism".

[ar734]

What is Nazism? My guess that it's a perversion of Marxism which for example they replace capitalism as the main root of the problem with "Jews" (i.e. "The Jews control the means of production!") or something like that?

Marx described German or "True" Socialism in the Communist Manifesto in 1848:

"While this “True” Socialism thus served the government as a weapon for fighting the German bourgeoisie, it, at the same time, directly represented a reactionary interest, the interest of German Philistines. In Germany, the petty-bourgeois class, a relic of the sixteenth century, and since then constantly cropping up again under the various forms, is the real social basis of the existing state of things...

To preserve this class is to preserve the existing state of things in Germany. The industrial and political supremacy of the bourgeoisie threatens it with certain destruction — on the one hand, from the concentration of capital; on the other, from the rise of a revolutionary proletariat. “True” Socialism appeared to kill these two birds with one stone. It spread like an epidemic...

And on its part German Socialism recognised, more and more, its own calling as the bombastic representative of the petty-bourgeois Philistine...

It proclaimed the German nation to be the model nation, and the German petty Philistine to be the typical man. To every villainous meanness of this model man, it gave a hidden, higher, Socialistic interpretation, the exact contrary of its real character. It went to the extreme length of directly opposing the “brutally destructive” tendency of Communism, and of proclaiming its supreme and impartial contempt of all class struggles. With very few exceptions, all the so-called Socialist and Communist publications that now (1847) circulate in Germany belong to the domain of this foul and enervating literature."

The emphasis is mine. I think this is an extraordinarily accurate description of Hitler and the German "nation", "race" and "man," of 1935. It also describes the current state of politics in the U.S.: America is the greatest nation in history, the protector of mankind against communism, the protector of the small businessman, etc.

[Red Commissar]

What is this word? I keep hearing it from people who misquote Mussolini when he said that fascism is corporate power and state power combined. I always thought corporate to him was different than actual business corporations.

The word is also something right Libertarians use when describing the current economy we have today. It's a cop out word for them to conveniently defend capitalism and be against "corporatism".

Yeah, you are right when you view that word with some confusion. Corporatism doesn't refer to "corporations" as we know it but rather a purported "organic" arrangement of employers/bourgeoisie/capitalists, labor, and the state in the economy. Recall that the word is derived from the latin root of "corpus"- body- and you'll see how they might view the economy as a system of parts in harmony with everyone acknowledging their place and others' place. Class collaboration in some ways. That's how they pitched it at least.

[RadioRaheem84]

Exactly. Mussolini's Fascism was very much a class collaborationist ideology where classes would know their place in society for the sake of national glory.

I really think that this is just an extreme version of what even liberal democracies were pumping out at the advent of the Great Depression and workers were gaining consciousness.

If you watch British War Propaganda you will see the "harmony of interests" talk in most of the films.

[28350]

Corporatism is usually defined in two ways:
1. The merger of the state and businesses, whereby the capitalist class exercises economic and political power in the same breath (without the usual pretenses of democracy or whatever)
2. The call for all classes to collaborate as one body (corpus = body). Class collaborationism, "shared sacrifice," national syndicalism, etc.

EDIT:
Also see Social Corporatism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_corporatism)

[Reznov]

Just make it sound as bad as you can to help make us Communists look better.

[MarxSchmarx]

What is Nazism? My guess that it's a perversion of Marxism which for example they replace capitalism as the main root of the problem with "Jews" (i.e. "The Jews control the means of production!") or something like that?

This is ridiculous. The very least you can do is delinate precisely why you would come to such an absurd conclusion.

If your claim is merely that the capitalist class tries to direct working class anger against the alienation of their labor towards scape goats in order to divide the working class, then I think Nazism goes quite a bit deeper than that.

In particular, it managed to exploit the economic fears of the petite bourgeosie and the professional classes much more than the proletariat, and appealed to their middle class prejudices at the same time to advance this ideology. As such any attempts to see it as a working class movement like Marxism is borderline classist by shifting the supposed appeal of Nazism from the capitalists and the lower and middle classes onto the working class.

[Die Rote Fahne]

What is this word? I keep hearing it from people who misquote Mussolini when he said that fascism is corporate power and state power combined. I always thought corporate to him was different than actual business corporations.

The word is also something right Libertarians use when describing the current economy we have today. It's a cop out word for them to conveniently defend capitalism and be against "corporatism".

Wikipedia it. Ive heard it used to refer to coporations becoming the government, but i call that state capitalism for the most part, also crony capitalism.

In my context, it refers to the idea that class conformity/unity is the answer to class struggle and societal and economic issues.

[ComradeOm]

Yeah, you are right when you view that word with some confusion. Corporatism doesn't refer to "corporations" as we know it but rather a purported "organic" arrangement of employers/bourgeoisie/capitalists, labor, and the state in the economy. Recall that the word is derived from the latin root of "corpus"- body- and you'll see how they might view the economy as a system of parts in harmony with everyone acknowledging their place and others' place. Class collaboration in some ways. That's how they pitched it at least.Pretty much this. Its also worth noting that the term is not exclusively fascist - its original use was in describing the highly unequal, yet supposedly harmonious before God, feudal order. The most famous of these corporate bodies would probably be the formal Estates of ancien regime France. Defence of corporate interests (ie, the privileged position of the aristocracy) was a basic staple of 19th C reactionarism and was thus ultimately transmitted to the emerging fascist movements