Here is my definition of Nazism/Fascism:
Nazism is a delusion where (a part of) the establishment is made to believe that they are the minority and that all their problems are caused by some other group of people, which they deem as the new establishment. Bonus point if that group of people are actually very weak, small and vulnerable.
This delusion causes the establishment to expect to solve their problems by repressing this group, and to repress it even more when their problems are not solved, leading to a feedback loop.
Example: Hitler came to power by putting forward the conspiracy theory the Jews are solely responsible for all of Germany’s issues [1] and that repressing them would solve them. And so when repressions didn’t do lead to any improvement (by the way, jews were less than 1% of the population[2] of Germany) all he could do in order not to expose himself as a fraud was to repress them even more.
Now I am seeing the same thing with the so called attack on “wokeism” America, in particular with the attack of the trans community - Elon and co are getting deeper and deeper in their version of the same delusion/conspiracy theory according to which, one of the smallest and most vulnerable communities is actually in charge of everything e.g. they are able to “cancel” anyone that they don’t like, which is perceived as dangerous (when in reality cancelling someone is just expressing their opinion).
The definition of Nazism clearly shows the contrast between Nazism is from socialism/communism and shows why Hitler can never be deemed a socialism (even if Nazism stands for “nationalsocialism”) — socialism is all about helping repressed groups and empowering them, while Nazism, on the contrary, is all about repressing such groups to the fullest. It is no coincidence that in both instances which I mentioned in the prev post, the group that is deemed as evil has to do with the political left.
I, personally, don’t understand how this delusion is justified… i.e. all nazis and capitalists are so fucking scared of socialists? They deem them weak, unworthy, stupid, crazy etc. but at the same time they dedicate spare no resource in trying to destroy them in every way possible. How can a group that is so weak do so much damage? But somehow it is justified… at the cost of losing any king of rationality. Indeed, Nazism can be seen as a complete triumph of the desire for personal gains over rationality.
How to spot nazis
Right now, there are a lot of crypto nazi — people who insist they aren’t nazi, just because they don’t like the label, but actually are nazi (and would like to make you one as well). Here are some ways to spot them. Quotes are from a conversation I had on Masto some time ago:
- Nazis present themselves as people who “think differently” or “have an alternative opinion” without actually listing their opinion and revealing different from whom and alternative to what it is (contrast this with lefties and most other normal people, who just reveal what they think without preamble.
“Do you want to have a productive conversation with people you may disagree with? Do you want to understand why they think what they think?”
- No arguments. If they present a rational argument they would have to defend it and they cannot do that, so instead they repeat some cliches and make vague claims with unfinished sentences.
“For one thing, I think you’ll never get “free healthcare”, because there is no such thing. It’s a deceptive marketing phrase meant to garner support for various other proposals, none of them “free”. Usually, such proposals involve heavily or exclusively government-provided healthcare.”
(the person who said that never actually said why (if) they think free healthcare is bad or what alternative would they recommend.)
- Appealing to (negative) emotions. Nazism sneaks in as a solution to a problem, so it’s key for nazis for someone to be unhappy. If they want to get you on their level they would seek what makes you unhappy, if they cannot do that, they are clueless, watch this:
Them: Do you look at how the government does its jobs, generally, and say “yes, these folks generally do a good job”? Are you generally satisfied with how the government performs?
. Me: OK, yes I like how my government does its job.
Them: Really? What country do you live in?
(keeps trying to push me to say something bad)
Me: OK, let’s suppose I didn’t, what argument would you make?
Them: That varies. I’d ask you what policies you disagreed with, and why. But that’s irrelevant; you think that everything your government is doing is good, and you want them to do lots more of it. Must feel wonderful.
Conclusion
Nazism and other philosophies that are based on discrimination can be tempting, because they free you from responsibility of caring for a certain group of people (by asserting that they are to blame for being poor, black, women, uneducated etc.), but accepting it is a moral dead-end that only leads to stress, hatred, violence and death — sooner or later you would either find yourself on the other end or you will find people from the other end challenging your position. There is no sane moral philosophy, but that which is based on solidarity.