Name Some Things Fascists and Nazis Had in Common with the Rest of the Left

Chapter 3.2: Fascism and Nazism vs. Orthodox Leftism

Why this book | Title Page | Table of Contents
Preface | Introduction
PART 1
Chapter 1 (1.1) (1.2) | Chapter 2 (2.1) (2.2) (2.3) | Chapter 3 (3.1) (3.2)
PART 2
Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6
PART 3
Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14
PART 4
Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 |
PART 5
Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 | Conclusion
Appendix | Works Cited

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3.2
Fascism/Nazism vs. Orthodox Leftism

• What they hated

• Loci of virtue

  • The collective

  • The nation

  • The state

  • The leader

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Fascism/Nazism vs. Orthodox Leftism

The fight between fascism and socialism was a battle for political supremacy, not a clash of ideological opposites. As we have discussed—and will continue to reinforce throughout this work—fascism, Nazism, and the various flavors of orthodox, “official” leftism were kindred phenomena, sharing the same provenance and core principles.

But atop these similarities was a frosting of differences in style and practice. These have resulted in confusion, making it easier for the orthodox left to distance themselves from their fascist cousins. We will examine their similarities and differences using several metrics of comparison.

What they hated

Communists, socialists, syndicalists, fascists, and Nazis all agreed on who their ideological enemies were: classical liberals. 

Nazi politician and theorist Gregor Strasser made it clear in 1926:

We are socialists, we are enemies, mortal enemies of the present capitalistic economic system with its exploitation of the economically weak, with its unjust wages, with its immoral evaluation of individuals according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and achievement, and we are determined under all circumstances to abolish this system!¹

Recognizing that they shared a common enemy, Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels lamented the street fights between Nazis and communists:

It would be better for us to end our existence under Bolshevism than to endure slavery under capitalism…I think it is terrible that we and the Communists are bashing in each other’s heads.²

In “the Doctrine of Fascism,” Mussolini and Fascist philosopher Giovanni Gentile established their enmity to classical liberalism in no uncertain terms:

Fascism is definitely and absolutely opposed to the doctrines of liberalism, both in the political and the economic sphere.

They describe classical liberalism as a spent force, and fascism as the wave of the future: