How can conservatives say Hitler was a leftist/socialist?

[buritobr]

How can conservatives say Hitler was a leftist/socialist?
Being stupid.
Like the president and the ministry of foreign affairs of my country.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Nazis became Communist and formed the KGB party. EAST Berlin was part of the Soviet Block. Communism incorporates China that is Right of Center. Communism means Authoritarian govt either right or left

[Strudelcutie4427]

"We are socialists. We are enemies of today's capitalist system."
- The Fuehrer

[urutzizu]

"We are socialists. We are enemies of today's capitalist system."
- The Fuehrer

That quote is actually from Strasser.

[Orthogonian Society Treasurer]

Simple: National Socialist German Workers Party.

They were socialist in the same way I'm libertarian.

"I was just doing irony" - Hitler

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Myopia.

(in all fairness the American left also contribute to the problem with statements like "actually Eisenhower was a socialist because he built roads!")

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Myopia.

(in all fairness the American left also contribute to the problem with statements like "actually Eisenhower was a socialist because he built roads!")

“Noted Democratic Socialist Ronald Reagan, who expanded Medicaid.”

[Karpatsky]

Because 'socialism' has become an utterly meaningless term in the modern context. Probably, many who say this think of socialism vaguely as 'greater government control' - under such a definition, it isn't  unreasonable.

[Leinad]

The argument mostly comes down to either the word "socialist" (in which case ask them about the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) or a heavily cherry-picked one-dimensional political model.


Also:

Simple: National Socialist German Workers Party.

This is the worst historical argument of all time

I found a worse one!:)

Nazis became Communist and formed the KGB party. EAST Berlin was part of the Soviet Block. Communism incorporates China that is Right of Center. Communism means Authoritarian govt either right or left

[nclib]

Government control over the economy isn't always left-wing. Hitler wanted that for his own power, while American liberals want that to empower the poor and general public from greedy corporations.

[Person Man]

Government control over the economy isn't always left-wing. Hitler wanted that for his own power, while American liberals want that to empower the poor and general public from greedy corporations.

Or we see it today where Republicans want more government control of the the economy for their clients.

[Buffywawa]

North Korea is a democracy!

[AtorBoltox]

Mostly bad faith responses to the equally bad faith "Nazis are rightwing because they hate jooz" trope. Hitler and the Nazis are their own thing and trying to make modern comparisons is largely just partisan/ideological smears rather than attempts to understand history. The same happens with Father Coughlin who was to the left of FDR and Huey Long but is nonetheless called "rightwing " because he "hated jooz".

Once again I am begging you to take an introductory political science course. Pay particular attention when Fascism is being covered

[DabbingSanta]

He ran under the "national socialist" party (nazi), but his policies were much more nationalist than socialist. There's plenty of bad left wing leaders too, like Stalin, Castro, and Mao, so I don't understand their need to rewrite history.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Ideology exists by maintaining the illusion of longevity. The longer than can make it appear to have existed in its current form, the more likely it is to curry support and also the easier it is to maintain conformity and suppress dissenting view points.

Therefore, the incentive is to redefine all of history on those metrics that define your ideology to achieve those ends.