The right doesn't need to smear antifa. Antifa does it all on their own.
I would not pontificate about history books if I were you.
Yes, the Nazis killed about 6 million Jews. But they also killed hundreds of thousands of Romas, various Slavs, Communists, partisans or just civilians in the wrong place. Also tens of thousands of homosexuals. Not to mention that the victims of the actual war also number in the millions.
At the same time, there is no scholarly consensus about the number of victims of Communism. Presently, the 100 million that you are throwing around is the high estimate. In short, you seem to be cherry-picking your numbers to trivialise Nazi atrocities.
How to smear Antifa: rub it against the nearest flat surface
don't forget to clean up afterwards
I can accept that there needs to be nuanced discussion, not ad hominems about history books read. Also I believe we need to take the time frame into consideration; Nazis created their butcher's bill in a much shorter time and it is their ruthless efficiency that made them such iconic monsters.
And while we talk about nuance please also consider that we should be talking about Stalinism or Maoism in comparison to Nazism. Communism was defined by Marx and Engels but implemented by Lenin and Stalin, allowing the - still abhorrent! - crimes of the latter to be detached from the concept. Nazism was both defined and implemented by Hitler; this makes the crimes inherent in the concept. (I should note that I consider Stalin and Pol Pot personally bigger monsters than Hitler and I'm not sure about Mao.)
Last edited by Flarelaine; 2017-08-25 at 10:23 AM.
Nazis have claimed to be Marxist to get elected. Once in power, they allowed the economy to run as before, other than ousting Jews. There was tighter state direction of the economy during the war, but then so was there in Britain - and the means of production, the core mantra of Marx, were never nationalised.
Both sides are in my personal opinion, equally bad in their own way, and complete idiots.
You know Marxist himself was a literal german corporate elite and was basically a freeloader on the backs of his Aristocratic friends. Just like Engal who leeched off of the British Aristocracy.
It's Ironic the Industrial Revolution that proved Marx and Engal just a pair of deluded pampered fools as the rise of the Middle Class destroyed any idea of Proletariat and Bourgeois until Communist parties started targeting the Middle Class.
- - - Updated - - -
Liberals don't wave around Anarcho-Communist flags, Because Liberals implies Liberty, which implies Law and Rights.
Oh no, does that by any chance mean we might be facing fake news?
The Great Depression has brought increased state ownership in all capitalist countries. Hitler was on record saying that once they win the war "private initiative of German business will experience its greatest moment". Hitler also believed that individuals within a nation battled with each other for survival, and that such ruthless competition was good for the health of the nation, because it promoted "superior individuals" to higher positions in society. I don't know, that sounds closer to neoliberalism than to socialism to me.
Tooze, Adam The Wages of Destruction: The Making and the Breaking of the Nazi Economy. 2006, New York: Viking.
Turner, Henry A. German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler. 1985, Oxford University Press.