Bombs rock Norweigan capital

[VMI77]

I do hope those here, and there must be some here, who might equate "National Socialist" with "Socialism" will take the time to Google it a bit.

Elmo

Well, lets look at the party platform from 1920, shall we?
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/25points.html

Could you argue that socialists today wouldn't support points 11-17, 20, 21, or 25? (of the actual text, not the guys summery on top)

Though there was elements of extreme nationalism (as understood in the Western European sense of Nationalism) in the National Socialist German Workers Party (left wing buzzwords enlarged for you), you're going to have a very hard time convincing me socialism wasn't a part of the Nazi party platform.

That kind of leads to a whole different discussion, regarding where Nazis truly fell on the political spectrum. I would argue a part of why Nazis are identified as "right wing" is partially due to an oversimplification of trying to place them in opposition of their main opponents, the "left wing" communists.

If you want to use the pedantic, wrongheaded left to right spectrum, I arrange my personal spectrum with absolute freedom on the right, and absolute tyranny on the left, so it end up looking something like this with regard to all the isms:

Communists, Socialists, European Labor party and socialists, US Democrats, US Republicans, libertarians, anarchists.

Though I much prefer a 2 axis political diagram, like this:



For the TL;DR crowd:
National Socialism, while not a true socialist movement, contained enough elements of socialism in their platform and goals to justify the "socialist" part of the NSDAP name.

I'm trying to use the terms "collectivist" and "collectivism" more often than "liberal" or "left" because that is really the key distinction across the political spectrum: the extent to which people are viewed as individuals or as part of a group. The difference between Nazis and Communists to a large degree just comes down to which particular groups are favored or disfavored --both ideologies subordinate the individual to some supposed collective. Both Nazis and Communists are collectivists.

[74novaman]

Exactly. Though I prefer the term statist. Nazis and communists weren't about ensuring the well being and safety of a group of people or individuals, they were only concerned with putting the bootheel of the state on the face of the people, individually and collectively.

[philip964]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33571929" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Liberals will be liberals.

The mass murderer has been accepted to college.