Glenn Kessler gives Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene four Pinocchios for saying the Nazi Party was a national socialist party

Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler went for the low-hanging fruit as usual — the same guy who now remarks on how “suddenly” the Wuhan lab-leak hypothesis has become viable, and who didn’t, as far as we know, fact-check President Biden’s claim that in 15 years every hospital bed in the nation will be occupied by an Alzheimer’s patient — decided to fact-check Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a back-bencher in the Republican Party who gets more media attention than any other for her outrageous statements.

Greene said at a rally this week, “You know, Nazis were the National Socialist Party. Just like the Democrats are now a national socialist party.” They’re not quite the same, but Kessler wants his readers to know that Adolf Hitler “adamantly rejected socialist ideas, dismantled or banned left-leaning parties and disapproved of trade unions.”

New #FactChecker –> Greene’s ahistorical claim that the Nazis were socialists https://t.co/SXQDgXYTBb

— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) May 29, 2021

That statement earned Greene four Pinocchios, which seems a lot with an outfit concerned with context.

Here we go again, Washington Post trying to rewrite history. https://t.co/xPtnengP3b

— David (@davidthomas38) May 29, 2021

That the National Socialists were socialists is even questioned is a clear sign that we live in the #DimAge https://t.co/sDhTD2pz5x

— Libertarian Party of Connecticut (@LibertarianCT) May 29, 2021

NAZI = Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers' Party). Surely your grandfather would have taught you that.

— John W (@txradioguy) May 29, 2021

I mean….the SS raided my great grandparents because they thought they were communists and mandated their children sent to state schools for the required national-socialism education….but sure, argue the tread pattern on the boot wasn’t quite right. Oh, and where’s my money?

— FerallyNoice (@FerallyLucid) May 29, 2021

“ahistorical”

Nazi is short for the National Socialist German Workers’ Party

Hitler’s 25 Point Program for the Nazi party is filled with socialist ideas. Being a fascist or a racist is not exclusive from being a socialist.https://t.co/3lF5yKvY9k… pic.twitter.com/ptGtQn6paN

— Abby ⚖️ (@abbywakef) May 29, 2021

The Nazis owned and controlled the entire economy along with property. That’s absolutely socialist.

— Johnny Tubs (@johnny_tubs) May 29, 2021

Fact check they were very economically socialist which is why they were called socialist. They were also nationalistic racists which is why they called themselves 'national socialists'.

— Astral Factchecker (@PlasmaBender420) May 29, 2021

They were socialists. They nationalized industries, established national work campaigns, fixed prices and directed production. There are many flavors of socialism, nazis were just one of them.

Your fact checkers suck.

— Derek (BTC) (@OuchThatsSharp) May 29, 2021

They were absolutely socialists.

— JD Sharp (@imjdsharp) May 29, 2021

Platform of the Nazi Party (1920): “We demand the nationalization of all enterprises.”

— 🏴‍☠️The Man in the Box🗽 (@johne4377) May 29, 2021

Nazi economic policies were textbook socialist.

Private ownership permitted under extremely strict rules dictating that smaller companies be sold to large corps who were regulated in conformance with national, political priorities governing wages, products and prices.

— Ron Sonic, Vanilla Gorilla at Large (@RonSonic) May 29, 2021

Literally just pull up about any Hitler speech and he will rail about how capitalism sucks and that the German people need socialism, just not the Marxist version.

— Meijiro (@Meijiro26) May 29, 2021

Socialism sucks regardless of semantics. But you know that.

— LOVE TRUMP'S HAT 2 (@braddybrad45) May 29, 2021

Indeed The National Socialists were not Socialists.

Just listen to this socialist propagandist who has knowingly published lies

✌🏾

— preacher casy 🇨🇺 (@Preacher_KC) May 29, 2021

The Nazi's were not socialists even though it's in their name in the same way you are not actually a nonpartisan fact checker.

— PolitiFact Bias (@PolitiFactBias) May 29, 2021

The National Socialists were simply smarter economically than the socialists of the USSR

— WHEC-725 Jarvis (@Jouhmur) May 29, 2021

Ya think this guy might disagree if he didn’t kill himself in a bunker? pic.twitter.com/aIRFTMGi6T

— MacktheKnife (@KnifeMackthe) May 29, 2021

This is false propaganda. Hitler and Mussolini were both socialists. Stalin and Mao were also socialists. In the former, traditional power center like landowners, businesses, military and church controls the government. In the later, the proletariat controls the government.

— Mike Frez (@frez_mike) May 29, 2021

You are completely wrong here. The Nazis used a blended approach of fascism and socialism. See Il Duce's definition of fascism, and remember the Nazis planned for cradle to grave care, education, etc.

— Douglas Turner (@mkedgt2) May 29, 2021

pic.twitter.com/PD5zP4mZgn

— libertylineman (@libertylineman) May 29, 2021

With all the misinformation out there this is the most important fact check according to Herr Kessler. https://t.co/6oD0t90mH7

— ericontrarian (@eriContrarian) May 29, 2021

You're going to make us remind everyone your family fortune came from the Nazis, aren't you?

— Attila the Honeybun (@AttilaSaysMeow) May 29, 2021

What's interesting to note here, and left out… is yes, Nazi's purged socialists from the party… And, yes, used "Socialism" name to gain support… However… That's how it always goes. Socialism is ALWAYS used as the 1st step to something more sinister. https://t.co/I7HyZ0j1A3

— To The Republic App (@TotherepublicA) May 29, 2021

On the universal political scale, inalienable individual liberty anchors one end & authoritarianism (literally) weighs down the other. Everything else is simply some ° of either.

Socialists/Nazis are UNARGUABLE authoritarians/haters of the inalienable individual liberty of all. https://t.co/smQtRV3yyH

— Saml Patrck Jffrson (@SPJffrson) May 29, 2021

The socialist left and Nazis do have a lot of similar beliefs. They are both anti-Semitic, support big government programs for schools and healthcare, and support abortion and censorship. Want people to carry papers. Sounds like the shoe fits.

— Kay (@KayKS1308) May 29, 2021

So Antifa aren't "anti-fascist" just because they have it in their name? Whoa. So much of the last few years makes a lot more sense, thank you Glenn.

— _ibsolm_ (@laurenibsolm) May 29, 2021

Of course a guy like Kessler would be worried about defending the reputation of socialism & attacking its critics. That is, when he’s not busy clucking at black senators for how privileged their families were in the Jim Crow South.

— Stars and Stripes (@StarznStrypz) May 29, 2021

Glenn, thanks for defending the good name of Germany's National Socialist Workers Party against @mtgreenee!

— Stop wearing masks 🚁🤸‍♂️ (@stockula) May 29, 2021

We noticed Kessler went into details on the Nazi platform but didn’t fact-check Greene’s claim that the Democrats are now a national socialist party. What about that 2018 poll that showed Democrats had a more favorable view of socialism than capitalism? Or that Biden’s Unity Task Force liberally copied-and-pasted from democratic socialist Bernie Sanders’ platform?

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