Yeah the problem here is the left and the right don't speak the same language.
It's kind of like the way the 2 sides in the abortion debate try to frame each other by having a complete lack of understanding of the other side.
You see when someone who identifies themselves as "Left" or "Progressive" or "liberal" (in the modern US usage of the term) they see the things which define that categorization as very different from someone who is "Right" or "Conservative"
The "Leftist" views his beliefs stemming from a commitment to social justice, equality, and tolerance for if not outright celebration of diversity.
The "Rightist" views his beliefs as stemming from a commitment to freedom, personal responsibility, and respect for if not outright preservation of a particular set of cultural traditions
So now lets examine how they each see the other.
To a "Leftist" a "Rightist" is someone who has no heart because he lacks sympathy for the less fortunate, no soul because he considers economic issues more important than social ones, and no brain because he is stuck trying to recreate some mythical golden age from the past which was never as golden as he thinks and only built on the exploitation of the underclass.
To a "Rightist" a "Leftist" is an airy dreamer who lacks connection with reality because he considers collective rights more important than individual ones, seeks to reject social conventions that their civilization was built on, and relies on the state as the center of all action or thought.
Now of course these are only generalizations and will not hold up in all cases and they also suffer from a false dichotomy in that there is not merely 2 categories of political thought. However, there are the clear trends of Conservatism and Progressivism and these views are going to be very well represented in those groups.
Now in this we can see how a Conservative can make the claim that Hitler, and more specifically his Nazi Party is a Leftist. For the Nazi Party the Collective was by far more important than the individual and The State ruled all. Any way you look at it there are similarities between Nazism and the modern "Left". What is more is that those similarities are in the areas that the "Right" considers to be the biggest failings of the "Left".
The one area where the modern "Right" would agree with the Nazi's is their focus on tradition and recreation of ta glorious past that never really existed and look at that, it is one of the areas that the modern "Left" considers one of the biggest failings of the "Right".
This difference in viewpoints is highlighted in the article in mentioning Hayek. While he is certainly not a voice of the modern "Right" the argument from the right that Nazism is like Socialism because both are collectivist state focused political theories resonates strongly with those on the right.
What will make it most evident is in the myriad of 2 dimensional political tests out there. Inevitably you have Hitler and Stalin in one quadrant sharing one axis with socialists and Conservatives sharing the other with them and when you see that it is easy to see how BOTH the "Left" and "Right" can legitimately claim the other side is like the Nazi Party because they do share traits in common with Nazism.
In the end the political comparison of the Nazi's and the modern left is legitimately valid to Conservatives and not Progressives because they each use a different definition of what "Left" means. For Conservatives it is primarily and Economic definition and for Progressives it is primarily a Social one.
Credits & Style Info
Talk Politics. A place to discuss politics without egomaniacal mods
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 15/5/10 02:55 (UTC)It's kind of like the way the 2 sides in the abortion debate try to frame each other by having a complete lack of understanding of the other side.
You see when someone who identifies themselves as "Left" or "Progressive" or "liberal" (in the modern US usage of the term) they see the things which define that categorization as very different from someone who is "Right" or "Conservative"
The "Leftist" views his beliefs stemming from a commitment to social justice, equality, and tolerance for if not outright celebration of diversity.
The "Rightist" views his beliefs as stemming from a commitment to freedom, personal responsibility, and respect for if not outright preservation of a particular set of cultural traditions
So now lets examine how they each see the other.
To a "Leftist" a "Rightist" is someone who has no heart because he lacks sympathy for the less fortunate, no soul because he considers economic issues more important than social ones, and no brain because he is stuck trying to recreate some mythical golden age from the past which was never as golden as he thinks and only built on the exploitation of the underclass.
To a "Rightist" a "Leftist" is an airy dreamer who lacks connection with reality because he considers collective rights more important than individual ones, seeks to reject social conventions that their civilization was built on, and relies on the state as the center of all action or thought.
Now of course these are only generalizations and will not hold up in all cases and they also suffer from a false dichotomy in that there is not merely 2 categories of political thought. However, there are the clear trends of Conservatism and Progressivism and these views are going to be very well represented in those groups.
Now in this we can see how a Conservative can make the claim that Hitler, and more specifically his Nazi Party is a Leftist. For the Nazi Party the Collective was by far more important than the individual and The State ruled all. Any way you look at it there are similarities between Nazism and the modern "Left". What is more is that those similarities are in the areas that the "Right" considers to be the biggest failings of the "Left".
The one area where the modern "Right" would agree with the Nazi's is their focus on tradition and recreation of ta glorious past that never really existed and look at that, it is one of the areas that the modern "Left" considers one of the biggest failings of the "Right".
This difference in viewpoints is highlighted in the article in mentioning Hayek. While he is certainly not a voice of the modern "Right" the argument from the right that Nazism is like Socialism because both are collectivist state focused political theories resonates strongly with those on the right.
What will make it most evident is in the myriad of 2 dimensional political tests out there. Inevitably you have Hitler and Stalin in one quadrant sharing one axis with socialists and Conservatives sharing the other with them and when you see that it is easy to see how BOTH the "Left" and "Right" can legitimately claim the other side is like the Nazi Party because they do share traits in common with Nazism.
In the end the political comparison of the Nazi's and the modern left is legitimately valid to Conservatives and not Progressives because they each use a different definition of what "Left" means. For Conservatives it is primarily and Economic definition and for Progressives it is primarily a Social one.