John Deeth 🐢

Okay, I'll explain horseshoe theory for the peanut gallery. The idea was first written down by French philosopher Jean-Pierre Faye in the 60s or 70s, and is based on his studies of totalitarian regimes like Nazi Germany and Soviet communism. The theory posits that rather than existing on a straight, two-dimensional, linear spectrum from left to right, the political spectrum is actually bent like a horseshoe where the two extreme ends closely resemble one another. The textbook example is the rise of Hitler. During the final years of the Weimar Republic, the Communist Party (KPD) focused its political attacks on the moderate, center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). The KPD labeled the socialists "social fascists" and said that moderate democracy was merely a disguised form of capitalism that stood in the way of a communist revolution. This namecalling fragmented and paralyzed the left, allowing the rise of the Nazi Party, as the KPD refused to directly attack Adolf Hitler. Rather, the KPD believed that a Nazi government would quickly collapse and pave the way for their communist uprising. Like leftists today, they even had a slogan for it: "After Hitler, our turn." The KPD thus focused all of its attention on criticizing the establishment status-quo and destabilizing democratic institutions, even partnering with the Nazis, like in the 1932 Berlin transport strike. Outside of their tactics, however, the KPD also shared with the Nazis many substantive agreements. They both had a fierce, fundamental hatred of liberal democracy, parliamentary compromise, and pluralism. They were hell-bent on completely dismantling and replacing the democratic center, which led them to employ similar totalitarian tactics as Nazis such as political violence and short-term cooperation with the far right, especially when the Nazis were focused on attacking the SPD. In this way, the opposing ideological extremes worked together to destroy the political middle and established democracy of the Weimar Republic, fragmenting the left and blocking compromise, thus allowing Hitler to rise to power almost unopposed as the weakened and divided left fell one by one. Sound familiar? It should.