current hate movements reminding me of the NAZIs.

PrintSmith wrote: Of course, it makes for a grand, if highly flawed, attack on conservatives by the progressives if they are but able to convince you of the lie by telling it over and over and over.

You guys already have that down to a science... We can't come close.

HEARTLESS wrote: AV, see the link I posted above.

Yeah.....

I've seen these attempts to equate Nazism with Socialism.

And I find them utterly intellectually dishonest.

For one thing, you have to first conflate liberal democracy with socialism and it just doesn't fly. Countries like Finland and Sweden are far, far, closer to socialism than even the most leftist American democrats. Would you call them Nazi regimes? Get freaking real. Or better yet, why not visit one and ask the people there if they think they are living under a Facist regime?

There are other glaring, wrong, misleading problems with theories like this, but I don't have time to educate you on them all. I could point you in that direction, but in my experience I would be wasting my time. If you actually find arguments like the ones provided on that link compelling, frankly, I don't have much hope that you would consider another viewpoint.

Satchmo wrote: Facism and Nazi-ism (sp) are both conservative movements. That may be why some of the liberals here fear it.

Oh please. Both fascism and communism are liberal in their nature. You do remember what the acronym from which Nazi was generated stood for, don't you? National Socialist German Workers Party. National Socialists. The USSR - Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Any form of government that seeks to have full control over the population and the economy can in no way be described as a conservative government - it is a liberal creation at its core.

LadyJazzer wrote:

PrintSmith wrote: Of course, it makes for a grand, if highly flawed, attack on conservatives by the progressives if they are but able to convince you of the lie by telling it over and over and over.

You guys already have that down to a science... We can't come close.

Which is why Goebbles took his lessons from the knee of Wilson and his cronies.........

Seriously friends, did this original post REALLY deserve any comment at all? What a stretch!

This is how the modern Left, Progressives, and those unwilling to call themselves Socialists think.

PrintSmith wrote: Oh please. Both fascism and communism are liberal in their nature. You do remember what the acronym from which Nazi was generated stood for, don't you? National Socialist German Workers Party. National Socialists. The USSR - Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Any form of government that seeks to have full control over the population and the economy can in no way be described as a conservative government - it is a liberal creation at its core.

Oh please, yourself.

You are conflating economic systems with political systems and putting icing on the cake by confusing liberal/conservative scales with authoritarian/libertarianism scales.

And as you very well know, there can be and have been authoritarian governments that espoused extremely communistic economic systems (like the USSR) and authoritarian governments that were extremely capitalistic shading into oligarchic. (Facist European governments and any number of Central and South American dictatorships)

Garden variety American liberal thought is authoritarian in some regards and quite libertarian in others - as is garden variety American conservative thought. They tend to disagree on which items they are authoritarian about, that's all.

However, I think for the most part the kind of potentially dangerous types of authoritarian thought are more prevalant on the right. The right doesn't want anyone to force them to pay for social entitlement programs, but they are very willing, even eager, to participate in oppresive social control through things like drug laws, "law and order" mandates, contraceptive and abortion laws, forced military conscription, and the like.

Great reply, AV. I'll let your reply be mine, if you will be so kind.

You flat line thinkers (not so much a brain dead reference), those that cling to the old communists on the left and facists on the right, need to update your thought process. There is more freedom (both personal and collective) versus less freedom (this includes communism, facism, totalitarinism and all other less freedom methods).

HEARTLESS wrote: You flat line thinkers (not so much a brain dead reference), those that cling to the old communists on the left and facists on the right, need to update your thought process. There is more freedom (both personal and collective) versus less freedom (this includes communism, facism, totalitarinism and all other less freedom methods).

From what I've seen of your intellectual depth, I think I'd take being thought of as a "flat line" thinker by you as quite a compliment.