Conservatives have a Nazi problem
04:16:58 PM Sep/04/2025
Today's blog post will about be something I realized today on the mainstream political right. Now I think it isn't a secret that Christian conservatives are intellectually dishonest and often enable dangerous political rhetoric in the public sphere. However, among many, many other issues, they face a major problem with their ideology: the Nazis and other fascists. What is interesting is: Christian conservatives often dislike the actions and warcrimes committed by the Nazis, particularly towards the Jewish people in the Holocaust(though with others such as LGBTQ+ people, communists, and Romani people they tend to turn a blind eye interestingly). After all, to them the Jewish people are their siblings and, at least with Orthodox Jewish people, they have a lot in common, sharing similar religious and political beliefs. However, they run into an internal conflict when critics such as myself accuse them of being watered down fascists or Nazis.
And indeed, political conservatives have historically sided with far right nationalist movements such as Nazism. In the Weimar Republic, Hitler rose to the top of the political totem pole because of the concessions the conservatives made to him and the Nazi party. They were more worried about wanting to stop communism and trying to get on Hitler's good side out of fear instead of doing what was right and opposing him at all costs. However, now that fascism has left its mark on the world in the 20th century, not only with the Nazis, but with Franco's Spain, Mussolini's Italy, the fascist kingdom of Romania, etc., conservatives have tried to distance themselves from blatent fascists. And frankly, it's hard to blame them, it's not good for optics to be allied with the fascist. The fascist has slaughtered millions, has performed unspeakable acts of torture and war crimes, and has villified himself to most of the world. Who would want to side with him?
Therefore, the conservative has but 3 options. These are:
- To essentially denounce the rest of the world and join with the fascists, harming his reputation.
- To completely abandon the conservative movement and move to the left, thereby completely cutting ties with the fascists but effectively ceasing to be a conservative; the more favorable outcome in my opinion.
- The current strategy the mainstream right has been using, that is, shifting the blame to the left. In other words, insinuating that in fact, the Nazis were left wing. It's even in the name!
To focus on the last point, this claim is not only wrong but very dangerous to everyone. It upholds an illusion that in fact the communists are the villains, that in fact THEY are the evil ones who slaughtered innocent people. Just because a state claims to be of a certain quality does not make it so. As an example, North Korea claims to be the "Democratic People's Republic of Korea", despite being the furthest it could be from a democracy. Similarly the Nazis despite being "National Socialists" were not true socialists, they only used that name to appease trade unions that sided with them (who were often later betrayed once the Nazis took power). The Nazis upheld traditional social hierarchy such as the patriarchy. Men over women, Aryan over Jew, parents over children. They were fiercely anti communist and anarchist and sent people who subscribed to these beliefs to concentration camps. They did the same to LGBTQ+ people, and destroyed literature that promoted sexual education (if this sounds familiar it should). These are all socially right wing tendencies, however, the Nazis were also economically right wing, even if not in the laissez faire sense. The Nazis may not have believed in "free market capitalism", however, big business flourished under Nazism. Large German companies such as Volkswagen and Krupp, as well as foreign companies such as Ford Motors, prospered under Hitler's regime. Private property was still allowed under fascism, a trait that is very anti communist. Finally, among the many victims of the Nazis who were sent to death camps, included trade unionists, the very same people the Nazis initially vowed to protect.
The Nazis were not on the left and were solidly on the right, both socially and economically. And whether or not that hurts the feelings of some khaki wearing conservative chud I could care less. And to point to the Soviet Union is frankly a whataboutism that I won't stand for either. The Soviet Union had its own problems (and perhaps some that I will get into at a later date when I inevitably rant about Stalin and Mao apologists) but you cannot point at it to use as a justification that the Nazis or any fascists were left wing like the communists. Well, this is been my rant, hopefully you enjoyed it.
