00:00:00
was Nazism left-wing or right-wing well
00:00:02
believe it or not this question gets
00:00:04
asked around a lot and there are several
00:00:05
creators that provided answers well the
00:00:07
thing is that today's answer will be
00:00:10
grounded on history and political
00:00:12
science but before we do that let's talk
00:00:14
about the question
00:00:15
[Music]
00:00:17
proper this question is a form of
00:00:20
ahistorical syllogism you'll see several
00:00:22
people giving you answers today in the
00:00:25
comments down below the're saying people
00:00:26
will not watch this video and they will
00:00:28
type either obviously was right wi or of
00:00:30
course it was leftwing in my opinion
00:00:32
there are two major problems here one
00:00:35
they Ed the American Left Right
00:00:37
dichotomy or political spectrum and they
00:00:39
forcefully apply it to historical
00:00:41
European political regimes and
00:00:43
ideologies hence the first problem with
00:00:45
the question proper is geographic or
00:00:48
spatial in nature two they use 21st
00:00:51
century political Spectra and jux oppos
00:00:53
them over 20th century politics thus the
00:00:57
second problem is temporal the in
00:00:59
congruence between modern and 20th
00:01:01
Century political definitions within the
00:01:03
right left dichotomy is a complex
00:01:05
phenomenon rooted in evolving
00:01:07
socioeconomic shifting of global
00:01:09
Dynamics thus this discrepancy
00:01:11
necessitates of a nuanced analysis of
00:01:14
the factors that contribute to this
00:01:16
Divergence Within These Dynamics the
00:01:18
correct and coherent answer is going to
00:01:20
be fractal as there is no clean
00:01:22
definition overlap history is a
00:01:25
multi-dimensional phenomenon expecting
00:01:27
therefore 21st century American
00:01:28
political ideas to overlap neatly and
00:01:31
perfectly with 20th century European
00:01:32
political factions in order to come out
00:01:34
with an answer is a flawed analytical
00:01:37
method so the people who are
00:01:39
categorically stating it was left-wing
00:01:41
it was right-wing and not answering to
00:01:43
present a comprehensive analysis of
00:01:45
policies ideologies historical actions
00:01:48
military interventions economic
00:01:49
religious and social positions pushed by
00:01:51
said regimes they are just insulting the
00:01:54
other side they're free to do it of
00:01:55
course but just so we're clear about
00:01:57
what those answers are make no mistake
00:01:59
Nazi is a slur and so people want to use
00:02:02
it to identify and describe their
00:02:03
political opponents that is why I would
00:02:06
argue it works as a conduit to the
00:02:08
detriment of your political opposition
00:02:10
when it comes to mass and public opinion
00:02:13
in this framework Fascism and Hitler
00:02:15
currently have negative bance they are
00:02:17
derogatory and with that established the
00:02:19
following cely represents the train of
00:02:21
thought leading to this usage Nazi bad
00:02:24
we all agree with that okay you Nazi you
00:02:26
bad it's a simple process really clearly
00:02:28
doesn't require any de empirical
00:02:30
analysis grounded on historical
00:02:32
political science which is one of the
00:02:33
reasons why the media uses the word
00:02:35
constantly yeah who would have thought
00:02:37
the media is full of you see once
00:02:39
you take that leap your historical
00:02:41
Vision will be irreversibly tainted the
00:02:44
question is flawed to begin with because
00:02:46
its basis namely the expectations and
00:02:48
the prism of evaluation are not in
00:02:51
alignment and on top of that this has
00:02:53
rendered the traditional unidimensional
00:02:55
political Spectrum increasingly
00:02:57
inadequate for capturing the complexity
00:02:59
of of 20th century political parties and
00:03:02
all of this reflects the ongoing
00:03:04
evolution of political taxonomy
00:03:06
so what do we do now well to answer this
00:03:09
correctly first we need to ensure
00:03:11
objectivity to our analysis focus on
00:03:13
attitudes towards private property
00:03:15
individual freedom and wealth
00:03:16
redistribution patterns if needed even
00:03:19
implementing a mathematical apparatus
00:03:21
also we should explore and take into
00:03:23
consideration the political allegiances
00:03:24
that occurred historically and the sort
00:03:26
of opposition to the regime in question
00:03:29
the Nazis so let's do that Welcome to
00:03:32
our comprehensive qualitative
00:03:35
analysis some people will use
00:03:37
nomenclature as a gacha moment to place
00:03:40
the Nazis within the political Spectrum
00:03:42
in other words Nazism stands for
00:03:44
national socialism so they were
00:03:46
socialists hence leftwing now
00:03:48
nomenclature alone cannot be used as the
00:03:51
basis for classification it's too
00:03:53
shallow and unscientific as a parameter
00:03:55
this is regardless of whether you think
00:03:57
they were left-wing or right-wing let me
00:03:59
prove it you if the name of Any Given
00:04:01
party is the basis of the argument of
00:04:03
where they stand within the Left Right
00:04:05
dichotomy then is the Communist Party in
00:04:08
China Republican in the American sense I
00:04:11
mean it's the People's Republic of China
00:04:14
similarly is the Democratic People's
00:04:16
Republic of Korea AKA North Korea really
00:04:19
Democratic yeah didn't think so and if
00:04:21
you really want to break your brain I
00:04:22
made a video not too long ago talking
00:04:24
about ancient democracies such as for
00:04:26
example Greek democracy which was a form
00:04:28
of pure democracy and then I compared it
00:04:30
to Modern democracies and to see what
00:04:32
they differed and what areas they had in
00:04:34
common well in the comment section of
00:04:35
that video as it happens my American
00:04:37
viewers began a flame War whereby you
00:04:40
had people saying no America is a
00:04:42
democracy and other people saying no
00:04:43
America is a constitutional republic
00:04:46
right well do you know what Italy
00:04:48
is well after the referendum of the
00:04:50
second of June 1946 Italy abolished
00:04:52
monarchy and became officially wait for
00:04:56
it repu democratica that Ates as a
00:05:00
Democratic Republic yeah welcome to
00:05:04
Europe you think that's confusing well
00:05:05
in the United States simple liberalism
00:05:08
often means social liberalism and a
00:05:10
liberal is a left Winger but in Europe
00:05:12
simple liberalism often means Classical
00:05:15
liberalism which can be a center right
00:05:17
position particularly for those
00:05:18
right-wing populist movements that
00:05:20
Embrace economic policies which in
00:05:22
America will be associated with the left
00:05:24
while at the same time promoting
00:05:26
cultural and social conservativism and
00:05:28
on that note since we talking about what
00:05:30
a party named itself do you want to know
00:05:32
what Hitler said when it comes to left
00:05:34
or right where Hitler denied that Nazism
00:05:36
was either left wi or right-wing instead
00:05:39
he officially portrayed naism as a open
00:05:41
quotes syncretic movement yeah um let's
00:05:46
ditch the whole name argument shall
00:05:49
we so what do I propose as an
00:05:52
alternative well personally I think that
00:05:54
the best way to define Nazism is a
00:05:56
totalitarian dictatorship that's going
00:05:59
to be our basic core definition to
00:06:01
identify what we are talking about
00:06:03
instead of using the American Left Right
00:06:04
Spectrum then after having established
00:06:07
firmly what naism is we can then look at
00:06:09
the policies one by one and decide from
00:06:12
an American contemporary perspective
00:06:13
which of these lean right and which lean
00:06:16
left based on their salience all right
00:06:18
that sounds good on paper but let's try
00:06:20
if it works what defines totalitarianism
00:06:22
centralized Authority strength in the
00:06:24
military militarism with resources
00:06:27
directed to domestic population
00:06:29
Authority arianism and dictatorial Rule
00:06:31
repression of freedom of speech and
00:06:33
freedom of the press systematic
00:06:35
elimination of political opposition by
00:06:37
violence expansionistic foreign policies
00:06:39
and Conquest through military might
00:06:41
already note that all three historical
00:06:44
totalitarian regimes of the 20th century
00:06:46
fit very neatly within this box German
00:06:49
naism Italian Fascism and Soviet
00:06:52
communism in other words when we examine
00:06:54
the Practical manifestations of these
00:06:56
20th century regimes striking similarity
00:06:59
emerge for instance the lack of
00:07:01
individualism and individual Freedom
00:07:03
Benito musolini himself publicly stated
00:07:05
that fascism is anti-individualistic and
00:07:08
accepts the individual only in as far as
00:07:10
the interest coincide with those of the
00:07:13
state well yeah but then again communism
00:07:15
Fascism and Nazism might be considered
00:07:17
quite different when it comes to their
00:07:18
core ideology so Metatron are you really
00:07:20
sure that they would fit each and every
00:07:22
single one of these okay let me prove it
00:07:24
to you number one centralized Authority
00:07:26
absolutely all three strength in the
00:07:28
military do I even need to comment that
00:07:29
militarism with resources directed to
00:07:32
domestic population well in the case of
00:07:33
the Nazi of course that meant the Jews
00:07:35
and it meant Gypsies and every single
00:07:38
person that opposed the Nazi regime but
00:07:40
when it comes to Stalin well he murdered
00:07:42
more of his own people than he did of
00:07:45
his foreign enemies just putting it out
00:07:47
there authoritarianism and dictatorial
00:07:49
Rule repression of freedom of speech but
00:07:51
what about the freedom of speech part
00:07:52
and I we show well let me let me prove
00:07:54
it to you let's do a little thought
00:07:55
exercise you are in 1940s Germany you
00:07:57
disagree with Adolf hit 's opinion so
00:08:00
you go to Berlin and in front of the
00:08:03
whatever government building that they
00:08:04
have there you say Hitler was an idiot
00:08:06
yeah you think you're going to survive
00:08:08
that and into the concentration camps
00:08:10
you go but what about Italian fascism
00:08:12
well you go to Rome and you state right
00:08:14
in the main plaza Bonito musolini was an
00:08:16
absolute and there you go dead in
00:08:19
the prison well you probably die before
00:08:21
you even reach the prison but if you do
00:08:22
reach the prison you'll die in there and
00:08:24
once again let's teleport you to uh
00:08:26
Soviet Russia you are in front of the
00:08:28
Kremlin and you say Stalin who is a
00:08:31
monster good Lu immediate no freedom of
00:08:33
speech in fact freedom of speech is the
00:08:35
first thing that goes when it comes to
00:08:36
totalitarianism I might make a dedicated
00:08:38
video to that if you appreciate my
00:08:40
content so far and wish to help ensure
00:08:42
my ability to continue to tell it how it
00:08:44
is regardless of any possible backlash
00:08:46
please support this channel on patreon
00:08:48
any support helps me and my team of
00:08:49
academics keep the channel strong and
00:08:51
gives us the means to fight back against
00:08:53
the political rewriting of History stand
00:08:56
with us form the W defend the truth
00:09:02
so what this tells us is that these are
00:09:04
not necessarily unique features of the
00:09:07
right or the left but they manifest as
00:09:09
common ground on the extremes of said
00:09:11
Spectrum it's the horse shoe effect
00:09:14
extreme stouch even if ideologically
00:09:16
when compared with Communism fascism is
00:09:18
indeed right-wing you have authoritarian
00:09:20
control both Hitler and Stalin
00:09:22
established it it was absolute
00:09:23
centralized power propaganda and
00:09:25
information control I mean the Nazis
00:09:27
were quite famous for burning books and
00:09:28
a lot of those books were in fact
00:09:29
communist books and socialist books by
00:09:31
the way Terror and repression and yes
00:09:33
Mass executions were common on all of
00:09:35
these
00:09:36
[Music]
00:09:41
regimes now in Europe conventionally
00:09:44
Nazism is generally considered to be a
00:09:46
far-right ideology also due to their
00:09:48
allegiances with the fascists in Italy
00:09:51
and their countering of staling and
00:09:52
communism which is of course a left-wing
00:09:55
extreme ideology 22nd of June 1941 and
00:09:57
the invasion of the Soviet Union should
00:09:59
stand as a clear definition of that
00:10:01
besides under Hitler the newspapers of
00:10:03
the Social Democratic parties are banned
00:10:05
functionaries are arrested and whatnot
00:10:07
but once you start to look at this from
00:10:09
the American political perspective then
00:10:11
the situation becomes muddy if you will
00:10:13
necessitating a more nuanced item by
00:10:16
item approach you see the Nazis for
00:10:17
example had nationalized Healthcare
00:10:19
government was deeply involved in every
00:10:21
aspect of Industry so we're talking
00:10:23
about big government the Nazis were not
00:10:25
in favor of free market capitalists and
00:10:28
yes I'll defend this one in the the next
00:10:29
section and all of this sounds left of
00:10:31
center to an American so it is mixed on
00:10:35
the following section I'm going to
00:10:37
present the characteristics of the
00:10:38
regime and then you decide where it
00:10:40
leans the most towards this way we can
00:10:42
promote critical thinking now Nazism was
00:10:45
characterized by extreme nationalism
00:10:47
state-funded welfare programs if there
00:10:50
were any form of identity politics
00:10:52
similar to contemporary political
00:10:54
discourse of course the Nazis would have
00:10:56
been against it but so would have been
00:10:57
the Communists they had control of
00:11:00
Industries support for a strong military
00:11:02
and as we said repression of freedom of
00:11:04
speech all right now let's jump into the
00:11:06
economic
00:11:08
policies a central idea of communist
00:11:11
ideology was opposition to private
00:11:13
ownership of the means of production
00:11:15
which blended with economic intervention
00:11:16
within the private and public sectors
00:11:18
now to that Nazism was different up to a
00:11:21
certain extent let me clarify their
00:11:23
overall economic approach favored big
00:11:25
business and opposed labor unions which
00:11:28
of course doesn't make it sound
00:11:29
socialist by any means but we also have
00:11:31
to remember a very important factor to
00:11:33
this in Hitler's speeches from 1920s he
00:11:36
clearly established his idea of what
00:11:38
national socialism was going to be and
00:11:40
mind you it was only for Germans and as
00:11:43
he outlined his party program he stated
00:11:45
open quote that nationalization appears
00:11:48
to me to be wrong close quote so at
00:11:50
least in the 1930s he was sort of in
00:11:53
favor of the idea of maintaining private
00:11:55
property but was he well I do have an
00:11:57
opinion on that but let me quote a a
00:11:59
sociologist and Economist of the period
00:12:02
check this out Fredick Pollock says open
00:12:05
quote I agreed that the legal
00:12:06
institution of private ownership was
00:12:08
maintained and that many attributes
00:12:10
characteristic for national socialism
00:12:12
begin to manifest themselves albeit
00:12:14
still vaguely in non- totalitarian
00:12:16
countries but does this mean that the
00:12:18
function of private ownership did not
00:12:19
change I believe it reaches far more
00:12:22
deeply and should be described as the
00:12:24
destruction of all the essential traits
00:12:27
of private ownership and I would like to
00:12:29
underline that this specific Economist
00:12:31
saying that the private ownership
00:12:33
actually wasn't the thing is left-wing
00:12:36
he was a left-wing Economist moreover in
00:12:38
1934 Hitler clearly established the fact
00:12:41
that to him wealth was for the national
00:12:44
social State not for the individual and
00:12:47
yes the individual could enjoy some of
00:12:50
that wealth but it's thanks to the state
00:12:52
and in 1942 when he was in power he
00:12:55
stated open quotes the land was National
00:12:59
property and in the end it's only given
00:13:01
to the individual as a loan does that
00:13:04
sound like private property to you there
00:13:06
is more to it in 1937 Hitler had already
00:13:08
established the fact that he would
00:13:10
demand private Industries to produce
00:13:12
something that the state defined as
00:13:14
being necessary and they had two options
00:13:17
they either do it which is great or they
00:13:18
don't in which case the the state will
00:13:21
take control of that specific industry
00:13:23
sector it's not big government that's
00:13:25
massive government all right but if
00:13:27
that's the case if this is what Hitler
00:13:29
believed and by the way this is
00:13:30
confirmed by SS letters even all the way
00:13:32
up to 1944 that that was exactly his
00:13:35
position and we can see in the way he
00:13:37
acted but if that was the case then why
00:13:38
did he not say private property is
00:13:40
abolished I mean the Soviets did it why
00:13:42
did he say no no no private properties
00:13:43
is still the thing well he said that
00:13:45
because it doesn't matter what you say
00:13:47
it doesn't matter that legally there was
00:13:49
still a definition for private property
00:13:51
as long as what he gets is what he gets
00:13:54
and besides of course he understood that
00:13:56
in a moment of War you can't fight fight
00:13:59
outside and also fight inside with the
00:14:02
private sector so he made the statement
00:14:04
private property stays but then they
00:14:05
control all of it including demand
00:14:07
production means of production prices
00:14:09
everything the government tells you what
00:14:11
to produce who to buy from and what
00:14:13
prices you sell in other words at least
00:14:15
from an economic standpoint in the
00:14:17
discussion of private property this was
00:14:20
socialism disguised as capitalism now of
00:14:22
course when you compare it to the Soviet
00:14:24
Union that had a complete centrally
00:14:27
planned economy this doesn't sound as
00:14:29
extreme but then again the Soviets had a
00:14:32
main goal which was to increase the
00:14:33
military power of the state sounds
00:14:36
familiar all right now I would like to
00:14:38
dedicate a small section to race because
00:14:41
of course this was a not only a
00:14:43
connection so race and racism was a
00:14:45
connection to I want to say Nazi
00:14:46
ideology but it was also congenital
00:14:48
element within the system and another
00:14:51
thing that the Nazis did was to put the
00:14:52
blame of many of society's problems
00:14:54
particularly of the Germans to
00:14:56
immigration moreover apart from the
00:14:58
Holocaust there was clearly a sort of
00:15:00
differential treatment under the law
00:15:02
based on your racial affiliation now
00:15:05
this is of course real it happened and
00:15:07
we can see some of these themes
00:15:09
particularly the ultra nationalistic
00:15:11
ones in modern-day farri ideologies with
00:15:14
that being said let's also remember that
00:15:16
if you think that racism denotes
00:15:18
right-wing position then you would
00:15:20
classify KL Marx as a right-winger and
00:15:23
the reason I say that is because if you
00:15:25
actually read the article he published
00:15:27
in 1844 called on the Jew question you
00:15:30
would absolutely consider to be racist
00:15:32
and also Marx didn't really like
00:15:33
Mexicans that's another thing that he
00:15:35
did and Frederick angles said quite a
00:15:37
lot of horrible things about black
00:15:39
people
00:15:41
too now i' would like to talk about an
00:15:43
argument that is the one that shocks me
00:15:45
the most and it's the claim that Hitler
00:15:46
was a Christian now of course I'm going
00:15:48
to debunk this I'm going to do it by you
00:15:50
know quoting from Hitler's own words
00:15:52
with his own letters and then we're
00:15:53
going to look at how he changed his
00:15:55
rhetoric before and after he became
00:15:57
Chancellor and then dictator before we
00:15:59
do all of that let me just say this do
00:16:00
you really think that the leader of the
00:16:02
most anti-Semitic regime the world has
00:16:06
ever seen would have worshiped Jesus
00:16:09
of Nazareth now given one of the things
00:16:12
that people say when they underline this
00:16:14
idea well Hitler was a Christian is that
00:16:16
they say that he was well he was
00:16:17
baptized as a Catholic but I'd like to
00:16:19
underline that not all Christian
00:16:20
religions consider baptism or perform
00:16:23
baptism the same way I mean differently
00:16:25
from for example Jehovah's Witnesses and
00:16:26
Mormons the Catholics baptizing when you
00:16:29
are a baby so it's not like Hitler had
00:16:32
any say to it if that alone the of being
00:16:34
baptized within the Catholic church is
00:16:35
enough for you to say where Hitler was a
00:16:37
Christian that you should consider
00:16:38
styling a Christian since he actually
00:16:39
went to Seminary it was Orthodox but
00:16:42
still Hitler's real intent towards the
00:16:44
church was eroding the core doctrines of
00:16:47
the Christian religion until there was
00:16:49
virtually nothing left of its original
00:16:51
function in order to slowly substituted
00:16:53
with a puppet used for social control
00:16:56
which would also have followed with a
00:16:57
confiscation of all the places of
00:16:58
worship something actually quite similar
00:17:00
to what is happening today in China so
00:17:02
that alone doesn't really make me feel
00:17:03
confident about you know Hitler's
00:17:05
Christian beliefs oh and the fact that
00:17:07
he shot quite a lot of Polish priests
00:17:10
dead there is that you see during the
00:17:12
beginning of his political career Hitler
00:17:14
publicly expressed favorable opinions
00:17:16
towards traditional Christian ideas
00:17:18
that's true but later he abandoned them
00:17:19
most historians agree that he was
00:17:21
adversaria towards organized
00:17:23
Christianity oh and he also criticized
00:17:25
atheism so he had a bone to pick with
00:17:26
everyone now if you examine some of his
00:17:29
early talks you'll see that he
00:17:30
considered himself as a German Christian
00:17:32
he said I'm not a Catholic I'm a German
00:17:34
Christian and even a member of positive
00:17:35
Christianity not member but like a
00:17:37
supporter of positive Christianity but
00:17:38
you see positive Christianity is not
00:17:41
even Christianity as they rejected
00:17:42
fundamental core doctrines of
00:17:44
Christianity such as the you know
00:17:46
Divinity of Jesus so yeah not Christians
00:17:48
and when it comes to German Christians
00:17:50
it was a type of protestant church or
00:17:52
group that supported Nazi ideologies
00:17:55
that's why he said that thus in Hitler's
00:17:57
eyes Christianity Hitler detested
00:18:00
Christian ethics he said he was fit for
00:18:03
slaves and in 1937 he publicly said that
00:18:06
the Christian church or Christianity was
00:18:08
ripe for Destruction and that doesn't
00:18:11
sound like a Christian to me so the idea
00:18:13
that Hitler was a Christian is nonsense
00:18:16
and his osten hatred towards
00:18:18
Christianity wouldn't really work or go
00:18:21
very well with say modern day Faith and
00:18:23
flag right-wing Americans with all being
00:18:26
said as you can see there are many
00:18:28
aspect to this yes some of his policies
00:18:30
were in fact right-wing others would
00:18:32
have been left-wing if you were to take
00:18:34
like one of those quizzes online what
00:18:36
you could do is try when your own you
00:18:38
know with your own understanding of
00:18:39
these you could try it an answer like
00:18:41
every time you get a question you could
00:18:42
ask a question what would Hitler respond
00:18:44
to that and try to do it and you'll see
00:18:46
that sometimes you'll go right sometimes
00:18:47
you go left therefore Nazism should not
00:18:49
be judged by whatever words Hitler
00:18:52
crafted and it should not be considered
00:18:54
neither left nor right-wing at least in
00:18:56
the political sense the only thing in
00:18:58
which Hitler believed was accumulating
00:19:01
personal power and we have a name for
00:19:03
that totalitarianism thank you for
00:19:05
watching
