[ExI] dolchstosslegende, was: RE: cost of SBSP and thorium

[Charlie Stross]

On 19 Aug 2012, at 21:23, "spike" <spike66 at att.net> wrote:

> 
> Interesting note for Europeans and libertarians everywhere: 
> ...
> The Nazis are down-wing totalitarians; they sure as hell were not for
> *smaller* government or less government.  So by the evolved definitions of
> modern political terms as used in the states, Hitler and his boys were far
> left wing extremists.

That's a naive, unidimensional analysis ("small government" = "right", "big government" = "left").

In fascist ideology, and Nazism in particular, one of the defining characteristics of the creed was that the rights of the individual were subordinate to the state, especially in respect of the disposition of their own body. Fascists were generally enthusiastic about conscription and forced labour, the death penalty, restrictions on abortion and contraception to encourage fecundity, and subordination of the individual to authority. Most of which are currently traits associated with the right in US political usage -- at least, of the religious/authoritarian chunks of the right.

We can argue around this in circles if you want (personally, I think life's too short) -- about the only thing we're likely to reach consensus on is that "fascist" is a rude name to call someone in contemporary discourse. 


-- Charlie