Not Left Wing nor Right Wing

If the extreme Left Wing of politics is Communism, and the extreme Right Wing is Fascism…

Then the line between is nothing but the spectrum of socialism. Right-wing socialism, Left-wing socialism, middle-of-the-road socialism. Socialism.

Yet most of the political-economic systems in human history don’t fall anywhere on the line. Classical Liberalism most certainly does not. That is why the point of view of this blog is neither of the Left nor of the Right.

Bolshevik Communism and Fascism/Nazism were flavors of socialism competing for control of European industrialized societies in the first few decades of the 20th century. The Bolshevik version paid more attention to Marx while the Fascists paid more attention to other socialist thinkers. Bolshevism was internationalist and Proletarian while Fascism/Nazism was nationalist and not class specific. But both were communitarian, state supremacist, rationalist (so they claimed), scientific (so they claimed) systems based on core socialist principles.

They even were allies, or mutual admirers, early on. But like brothers competing for the hand of the same maiden, they became bitter enemies, blaming each other for all their difficulties and failures. The Bolsheviks continued to blame Fascists and Nazis for their failures decades after Fascism and Nazism ceased to exist outside of caves and South American enclaves.

Stalin is the one who declared Nazism to be the polar opposite of Bolshevik Communism. American Progressives who took their marching orders from Moscow repeated the Party line. And repeat it to this day.

Any time you hear a Conservative or Classical Liberal referred to as a Nazi, a bell should go off in your head: Stalinism! The speaker/writer is repeating Stalinist propaganda! After eighty years! Probably without knowing it. Progressives aren’t particularly interested in history.

If you haven’t already, read Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg. Goldberg means “liberal” in its modern sense of Progressivism, and not in the same sense as Classical Liberal or “liberal” as used by Mises and other champions of individual liberty.