They reprinted "Mein Kampf" (book by Adolf Hitler) lately in Germany. 50k books sold in matter of days...
This means that it is perfectly innocent to buy the book in this form. None of your friends will think anything weird of you when they see it on your bookshelf, that will just think how intellectual you are …
There certainly are Neonazis in Germany and there are people adoring Hitler in Germany, too. And those people suck and shouldn’t have those opinions. But I don’t think sales of that book have anything to do with that. And modern dangerous fascist ideologues aren’t necessarily super into Hitler …
I'm wondering what sort of annotations to an inane, hateful, book of ramblings can spur intellectual stimulation. Is it worth even checking it out? Is it analyzing Hitler's thought process or what? I just can't imagine it'd be very interesting.
Another thing: those in the Nazi ranks who actually wanted socialism were purged. It's called Night of the Long Knives and it's a pivot moment in the history of Nazi Germany.
It may be confusing because of the whole National Socialism thing. It could be argued that actually that was purely to strike a chord with the type of dissatisified folks who would die for the movement, such as the lower classes that made up the SA.
I'd say number of things links links him to the socialist side, -only he was a national socialist.
If, however, you want to argue in that direction, links to socialism and the party's name containing the word socialism is different from actually being a socialist and implementing socialism.
Its generally accepted that Nazism is a form of fascism. It's ludicrous to say that fascism is socialism and that Hitler was a socialist.
There might be arguments that stem from the the genealogy of fascism through national syndicalism. I guess that's like saying my grandfather was x, therefore I am definitely x.
This is why I feel it isn't too far off to say they were socialists.
Of course, in historic political theory you seem to run circles around me though :-]
Socialism at it's core can be distilled down to how labor relates to its means of production. That's it. If workers themselves own and manage the facilities and materials necessary for employment, that is socialism.
Individual liberty and free markets are not contradicted by the tenets of socialism. It can and has been argued that individual liberties can be strengthened through such a system. Market economies are what much of socialist thought revolves around. Again, socialism is defined by how labor relates to the means of production and that is it.
Neither of the two are required for a functioning capitalist economy. Freedom of speech, religion, movement and association aren't guarantees and is down right outlawed in much of the world that's implemented a capitalist system. You'd be hard pressed to find a single truly "free market" in practice at any point in time.
Yours seems like a judgment stemming from an ideology rather than one coming from a historic perspective. You aren't doing yourself any favors intellectually if you want to continue claiming Nazism is a socialist ideology. It is hard to have a historic discussion with someone whose arguments are based on a feeling rather than documented history and accepted definitions.
If we were to argue by textbook definitions, and only by the definitions created by those in question, then we could have some weird discussions. I mean, capitalists often don't decribe themself as evil either.
For example, North Korea is officially named "Democratic People's Republic of Korea". I dunno what sort of harsh totalitarian regime is democratic and the people's!
Another example: the UK Labour party states it is a democratic socialist party. I don't think the premiership of Blair/Brown can be described as anything like that. I'm sure this is the case for many Labour parties across Europe (except for the UK, as of recent, that is...)
"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—" "Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— "
Anyone holding what could be close to a socialist thought was killed.
Reminder not to let your ideology cloud your judgment.
It might help to read a history book in an effort to be knowledgable about the past and not just to confirm you worldview, especially if you're making mistakes like this about history.
An explanation of why it's interesting to you specifically would've been nice. That's all I was asking for with my post.
There's a number of things about that which could pique at least some curiosity. Psychology, sociology, economics, politics, etc.
The curiosities are no less because Hitler was stark mad, which I agree with, and because the regime was abhorrent, which I also agree with.
I'm not discussing Hitler and what we can learn from him, however. I'm talking about the book, for which my point stands. It's very poorly written, full of hatred, and appeared of little intellectual use to me from the passages I've read. It's total garbage.
Maybe you and all my downvoters can actually answer my question, which still stands and is reasonable: what kind of discussion do the annotations present? I'm only curious.
For example, in the English translation I tried to read once upon a time the translator mentions that the first half of the book was written while Hitler was imprisoned in a fortress. To some extend I guess that would justify his anger. That, and the fact that his was a fucking psychopath.
I think the book is badly written because the guy was so full of anger. If you take it at face value the book is a road-map of all the monstrosities that happened once the Nazi party took the power. Every atrocity that took place, from the Holocaust to invading half of Europe and especially the severity of their attacks against Russia is more or less mentioned in the book.
For me the $64.000 question is why leaders of the era weren't alarmed from the writings. Haven't they read the book? They didn't take it at face value? The book was written 15 years before the war erupted. They'd surely have time to prevent it. And then nothing happened.
I thought the reason the book was not taken seriously was because nobody could believe this was his real plan.
If you're American, do you read the campaign biographies of all the major presidential candidates?
However, when it comes to extremists, I think you're wrong. You see, this is a war of attrition they are playing, bringing forth the same arguments, discussing the same hateful ideas, only packaged differently, over and over again. And you see, the moderates, the liberals, the ones combating such ideas, get tired and move on, or are silenced through harassment. There is no useful dialog one can have with a far right supporter. And you think debates are healthy, yet they wouldn't give you that privilege if they were in power. The irony being that the liberties we liberals believe in are being used against us.
I don't deny that there are people on the "left" going against free speech. As somebody born under communism, I have a similar level of disdain for extremists of all colors.
That said, you know that old saying "Your right to swing your arms ends just where the other man's nose begins"? Well, I think this also applies to freedom of speech. No freedom should be absolute, not when it goes in conflict with other human rights that are just as important, like the right for fair treatment and for being innocent until proven guilty. This is why the constitution of many countries, including my own, grants the freedom of speech only for as long as it's not hate speech targeted at groups based on race, ethnicity, nationality or religion. And I happen to agree with that.
Maybe the response will be something along the lines of "The Right is so big and covers so many people you can't blame all of them." But you could say the same about the Left. Covers many, many ideologies and sub-ideologies.
> And you think debates are healthy, yet they wouldn't give you that privilege if they were in power.
So we deny them the privilege of debate, because we're afraid that if they get into power, they'll deny us the privilege of debate?
Are we going to say that the settlement of the west by the US was a genocide of American Indians? If so, doesn't that mean the whole ideological basis of America is genocidal and should be banned?
What if some religious ideologues got control of the government and used hate speech laws to band criticism of religion? Or defined abortion as a genocide against the unborn?
I'm not willing to risk allowing anyone to define what is rightthink and wrongthink for my country.
> "Who defines hate speech? Who defines genocide?"
Genocide is the intentional action to systematically eliminate an ethnic, national, racial or religious group. I don't think the definition is subjective in any way.
> "Are we going to say that the settlement of the west by the US was a genocide of American Indians?"
I don't know much of US's history, but there are scholars that believe the decline in population of American Indians was genocidal.
> "If so, doesn't that mean the whole ideological basis of America is genocidal and should be banned?"
What is this "ideological basis of America" that you're referring to? Is it the US constitution? Does the US constitution invite to racism and genocide of American Indians? Are you seriously going to argue that genocide is a matter of interpretation in the Nazi propaganda?
> "Or defined abortion as a genocide against the unborn?"
Abortion isn't genocide by definition.
> "I'm not willing to risk allowing anyone to define what is rightthink and wrongthink for my country."
Really? Because that's the whole point of having a government and by having a government you've already lost that battle. And if you're an anarchist, your energy isn't spent where it should be.
And if somebody else executes their similar ability to reason through and judge ideas, and condemns ideas you think aren't worth condemning, and perhaps even suppresses that speech to the extent of their capacity, and you disagree with them, of course you are perfectly capable of disagreeing with them, resisting them, condemning them in turn, coming into conflict with people whose exercise of power has consequences you disagree with. That's what being a human being is.
> So we deny them the privilege of debate, because we're afraid that if they get into power, they'll deny us the privilege of debate?
Well, yes. Why is that invalid reasoning? If you analyze the content and aims of fascist ideology, what other judgment could you come to? There are people out there who are very outspoken about what they would do to people like you and me if they were in power and we crossed them.
My Little Pony is a known vector of Brony Memetic Disorder. Shouldn't we stop diseases of the mind as well as those of the body?
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinheads_Against_Racial_Preju...