Word on Twitter is that Washington Post opinion columnist Elizabeth Bruenig is a notorious blocker, but she hasn’t blocked us … yet. She is also a big fan of socialism, though, and even appeared on Laura Ingraham’s show this week to make her case.
https://twitter.com/ebruenig/status/1029890372506464256
If you want to know once and for all what socialism is, just hang on one more day.
What's socialism?
— Joe Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) August 17, 2018
https://twitter.com/ebruenig/status/1030603462868983811
Until then, Bruenig can tell you what wasn’t socialism. The Nazis, for one, so just take that anti-socialist talking point right off the table.
https://twitter.com/ebruenig/status/1030276430075252736
Maybe we’ll find out more in Sunday’s column, but here are some dissenting threads to read while sitting in suspense:
The Third Reich's political economy was one of pervasive state control. https://t.co/zrdVNYJD4I
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) August 17, 2018
On health care, for example, Hitler believed in national health care; being Hitler, he saw it as a lever for state control and, ultimately, his goals of racial purity & eugenics.
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) August 17, 2018
Now, it's important to recall that the Nazi platform was much more socialistic than the Nazi regime once it had absolute power. Social welfare and worker power were the sales pitch, not so much the policy. The Nazis crushed unions, for example.
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) August 17, 2018
Of course, the Communists crushed unions, too. The use of pleasant-sounding socialist economic fantasies to sell what turns out to be stark tyranny is an enduring theme.
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) August 17, 2018
The Atlantic in 1932, on the mishmosh of statism, racism, right-wing nuttery, and primitive economics in early Nazism: https://t.co/lGNfMyzeWj
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) August 17, 2018
My favorite part of that article is where the Atlantic writer knocks Hitler for being too much like Gandhi: pic.twitter.com/DAyex0G9Jo
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) August 17, 2018
Anyway, the role of socialism, as such, in Hitlerism varied over time and was – like much of Nazism – intellectually incoherent & paranoid. But the incontestable truth is that the Nazis believed in an all-powerful national government on whose favor citizens depended.
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) August 17, 2018
Thus, the conservative argument is not that socialism is Nazism. It's that the road to things like Nazism or Communism can be signposted with fantasies of Left or Right, but it can only be driven in the vehicle of big government.
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) August 17, 2018
Thank you, Mr. McLaughlin. Anyone else?
https://twitter.com/RobProvince/status/1030948496105504768
https://twitter.com/RobProvince/status/1030948552640475138
https://twitter.com/RobProvince/status/1030949548083109888
https://twitter.com/RobProvince/status/1030950343646109697
https://twitter.com/RobProvince/status/1030952326713028608
We blocked each other back before muting made everything amazing, but there has never been a socialism she could not explain away as Not the Real Thing.
— (((≠))) (@ThomasHCrown) August 18, 2018
https://twitter.com/RobProvince/status/1030962058844692480
Just ask her what the functional differences were.
There are none. Fascism and socialism are kissing cousins. The only main difference is the focus on nationalist identity. But that’s not a functional difference. https://t.co/wXXkO1wYpd
— RBe (@RBPundit) August 18, 2018
Fundamentally, they’re the same. Socialism focuses more on government ownership of property, while fascism focuses more on government control of property that is nominally privately owned. But in fact, control IS effective ownership. https://t.co/CaaChyXo3U
— Ken Gardner (@KenGardner11) August 18, 2018
Nazi is, literally, The National Socialist German Workers’ Party. These people can’t be that daft.
— DRB ?? (@D_R_Ball) August 18, 2018
It's not puzzling when it's in their name. It's also how they conducted domestic policy, such as it was. Maybe you might want to think before posting inane things? https://t.co/JAR0jqqQOj
— Goo T. Gwaba (@GooGwaba) August 17, 2018
She explained that already … Nazis were known to misrepresent things.
Just as the 'anti-fascists' are known to misrepresent things today.? https://t.co/GsBlbqUiOh
— Children Of The Dust (@Me2S3M) August 18, 2018
No, they were totally die-hard capitalists and the state was tiny and didn't interfere in anything and you go enjoy your weekend because honestly nothing I say or suggest you read is going to penetrate through this bubble. https://t.co/h1ZQ4JIDEL
— Nathan, son of Robert (@NathanWurtzel) August 17, 2018
You’ll be sorry when you miss the big socialist wave that the Democrats are riding right now.
Related:
Poll: Democrats hold a more favorable view of socialism than capitalism https://t.co/tJfyloK91i
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) August 16, 2018