Promoting one of the most retarded rightwing memes only happens if you're engaging in inexcusable bad faith or have had your brain baked by hyperpartisan politics or lack a commitment to truth-seeking. Here's what Hitler did once he was in power: He busted up unions, privatized or divested from certain industries (e.g., big commercial banks, utilities, heavy manufacturing, mining, shipbuilding, some public works, steel, mass transport, railway subsidiary companies, ship lines, a lot of state-owned property), didn't remove private property protections, dismantled social welfare programs, outlawed all (actual) socialist parties and organizations, and rounded up and executed people on the left (before he did the same to Jews). Hitler's involvement in the economy was consistent with the principles of fascism: The means of production were not seized, but the party maintained a more direct role in some regulatory aspects. Hitler argued that both social-economic hierarchies and inequalities were good for the country. How socialist of him! Combining the terms “national” and “socialism” was briefly popular across Europe in the 20s, but these movements tended to be interested in creating “social solidarity” based not on class, but on race or ethnicity or nationality. “Socialism” in this context bears no relationship to the term in its present one. I'll add: “But the German Nazis had 'socialist' in their name” is the same level of genius argument as “North Korea and East Germany were democracies because they had 'democrat' in their names.”

I read banned books